LORD CHANCELLOR HATTON.. WOOD says he wrote, as it is said, several things pertaining to the law, but none of them. are extant; only this, if I may say it is his, and not his name set to it for sale-sake: "A Treatise concerning Statutes or Acts of Parliament, and the Exposition thereof." Lond. 1677, 8vo. 3 66 Speeches spoken during the Time of his Chancellorship." MS. Christopher lord Hatton, his kinsman and successor, published-" The Psalms of David, with Titles and Collects according to the Matter of each Psalm." Printed at Oxford, 1644, 8vo. afterwards enlarged and published several times. Wood says, that they were compiled by Dr. Jer. Taylor, though they go under the name of the lord Hatton. [Whether ever printed before, says Wood, I know not.] 4 [This lord, says Dr. Lort, left his wife and family to starve, and amused himself in the decline of life with a company of players. See Dr. John North's Life. Such a report does not seem to concur with the received belief that this lord was the editor of king David's Psalmody.] • Athenæ, vol.i. p. 254. [Wood speaks of the book as having lord Hatton's arms in the title-page.] [Fuller and Wood give the following account of this lord chancellor, who is more popularly known by his knightly title of sir Christopher Hatton, having never been raised to the peerage. He was born at Holdenby in Northamptonshire, of a family rather ancient than wealthy, yet of no mean estate. He was entered a gentleman commoner of St. Mary's hall in Oxford, but went without a degree to the Inner Temple, where, says Fuller 2, he rather took a bait than made a meal; or, in less quaint phraseology, he studied it more as a gentleman than one who intended to raise himself by that profession 3. He came afterwards to the court at a masque, when queen Elizabeth first took notice of him, loving him well for his handsome dancing, better for his proper person, and best • Worthies of Northamptonshire, p. 285. * See Biographical Mirror, vol. i. p. 138. * During a sickness of Hatton in 1573, from which he was hardly expected to recover, queen Elizabeth went to see him almost every day. See Lodge's Illustr. vol. ii. p. 101. • Gray has humorously celebrated this accomplishment in Hatton, and has forcibly depicted the coutume of his age: Full oft within the spacious walls, When he had fifty winters o'er him, The seal and maces danc'd before him : of all for his great abilities. He became successively one of the queen's gentlemen-pensioners, gentleman of the privy-chamber, captain of the guard, a knight of the garter, vice-chamberlain of the queen's household, one of the privy council, chancellor of Oxford, high steward of the university of Cambridge, and lord chancellor of England. His advancement to this high office seems to have created an invidious jealousy among the men of law; for hereupon it was, says Fuller, that some sullen sergeants at the first refused to plead before him, until partly by his power, but more by his prudence, he had convinced them of their errors and his abilities. Like other characters of eminence, he had to encounter the slanders which distinction is sure to excite. From his zeal for the discipline of the church of England, he was said to be popishly affected. One reported, that he always had been in animo Catholicus; and another, that he was of such credit and favour at Rome, as if he was the greatest papist in His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green, Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. 6 Harvey, in one of his pamphlets against Nash, terms sir Christopher Hatton wise. Pierce's Supererogation, 1593. 7 In 1584, he received a grant of the isle of Purbeck. Lord Burleigh's Diary. * Peter Ribadeneira, in App. ad N. Sanderum de Schism. Anglic. |