Elizabeth Hatton

Elizabeth Hatton
Spouse(s)	Sir William Newport alias Hatton Edward Coke
Issue Frances Coke Elizabeth Coke
Noble family	Cecil
Father	Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
Mother	Dorothy Neville
Born	1578
Died	3 January 1646
Buried	St Andrew, Holborn

Elizabeth Hatton (née Cecil, 1578 – 3 January 1646) was the daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and Dorothy Neville, and the granddaughter of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. She was the wife of Sir William Hatton and Sir Edward Coke.

Dorothy Neville, mother of Elizabeth Cecil

Family

Elizabeth Cecil, born in 1578, was the fourth daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and his wife, Dorothy Neville (1548–1609), the daughter of John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, and his first wife, Dorothy de Vere (d. 7 February 1527), sister and co-heir of John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford.^[1] She was the granddaughter of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, by his first wife, Mary Cheke (died February 1543).

Marriages and issue

In the early 1590s Elizabeth married firstly, Sir William Newport alias Hatton (1560–1597), the son of John Newport (d.1566) of Hunningham, Warwickshire, and his wife, Dorothy Hatton (d.1566x70), the sister of Elizabeth I's Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton.^[2] Newport had taken the surname Hatton when his childless uncle, Sir Christopher Hatton, settled his estates on him as his heir.^[3][4] When Sir Christopher Hatton died in 1591, Robert Greene dedicated his A Maiden's Dream to 'The right worshipful, bountiful, and virtuous lady, the Lady Elizabeth Hatton, wife to the right worshipful Sir William Hatton, Knight'.^[5]

William Hatton had earlier married, in June 1589, Elizabeth Gawdy, the daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Gawdy (died 1605) and Elizabeth Coningsby,^[6][7][8][9] who died soon after the marriage, leaving an only daughter, Frances Hatton (1590–1623), who on 24 February 1605 married Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick. After the marriage, Frances Hatton's grandfather, Sir Francis Gawdy, broke off relations with her.^[10][11]

After the death of William Hatton on 12 March 1597,^[6][12] and after a failed wooing by Sir Francis Bacon,^[13] on 6 November 1598 Elizabeth Hatton married secondly, Sir Edward Coke.^[1] They had two daughters, Frances Coke and Elizabeth Coke (who died unmarried).^[10][12] Frances Coke's forced marriage to John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, the elder brother of King James' favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was a major factor in her parents' marital strife.^{[1][14][15][16]}

Death and burial

Elizabeth Hatton died 3 January 1646, and was buried in the parish church of St Andrew Holborn.^[1]

Notes

1. Aughterson 2004.
2. Nicolas 1847, p. 2.
3. Nicolas 1847, pp. 2, 502.
4. 'Parishes: Hunningham', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 6: Knightlow hundred (1951), pp. 117-120 Retrieved 26 August 2013.
5. Collier 1865, pp. 328-31.
6. Nicolas 1847, pp. 478-9, 502.
7. Brooke 1986, p. 568.
8. Gowdy 1919, pp. 39-41.
9. Ibbetson 2004.
10. Nicolas 1847, p. 502.
11. Kelsey 2004.
12. McKeen 1986, pp. 675-6.
13. Longueville 1909, p. 4.
14. Boyer 2004.
15. Milward 2004.
16. Gibbs 1908, pp. 59-67.

References

• Aughterson, Kate (2004). "Hatton, Elizabeth, Lady Hatton [née Lady Elizabeth Cecil] (1578–1646)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68059. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Boyer, Allen D. (2004). "Coke, Sir Edward (1552–1634)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5826. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Collier, J. Payne (1865). A Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language. I. London: Joseph Lilly. pp. 328–31. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
• Gibbs, Philip (1908). The Romance of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. London: Methuen & Co. pp. 59–67. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
• Gowdy, Mahlon M. (1919). A Family History Comprising the Surnames of . . . Gawdy ... and the Variant Forms. Lewiston, Maine: Journal Press. pp. 39–1. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
• Ibbetson, David (2004). "Gawdy, Sir Francis (d. 1605)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10467. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Kelsey, Sean (2004). "Rich, Robert, second earl of Warwick (1587–1658)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23494. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Longueville, Thomas (1909). The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck; A Scandal of the XVIIth Century. London: Longmans, Green and Co. p. 4. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
• MacCaffrey, Wallace T. (2004). "Hatton, Sir Christopher (c.1540-1591)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12605. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• McKeen, David (1986). A Memory of Honour; The Life of William Brooke, Lord Cobham. 2. Salzburg, Austria: University of Salzburg.
• Milward, Richard (2004). "Cecil, Thomas, first earl of Exeter (1542–1623)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4981. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Nicolas, Harris (1847). Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton. London: Richard Bentley.

External links

• The Thomas Gray Archive, University of Oxford, letter re wedding of Sir William Hatton
• Longueville, Thomas, The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck: A Scandal of the XVIIth Century, (London: Longmans Green, 1909). Available in the public domain at Project Gutenberg .
• BBC News report (6 November 2001) on the exhumation of bodies, including that of Elizabeth Hatton, from St Andrew Guild Church, Holborn.