This is the branch of Hatchers that appears to be descended from Richard
Thatcher to Joseph Thatcher to William Hatcher. Richard came to Pennsylvania
with his eight children from Berkshire, England; he received land from William
Penn in 1681.
His name in various documents appears to be Thatcher,
as the handwriting of the time put a flourish on the capital H.
At this time
there isn't much known about Richard 's son Joseph, but a
good deal has been written about his other two sons, Bartholomew and
Richard.
Through much searching I have
determined that William
Hatcher, a grandson
of this Richard Thatcher, one of the original land-holders who received 1000
acres in Pennsylvania from William Penn in 1681, was truly my ancestor.
He was born into this Quaker family; there have been ten generations
of us
from Richard to myself
.
It appears that the family name changed
from Thatcher to Hatcher
over
time. In the old manuscripts the capital H is often shown with a
flourish
that looks like TH, but without that flourish it looks like an H.
This
was at a time when many did not know how to write their own names.and
depended
on the spelling or interpretation of
others.
The connection between William Hatcher and this Richard Thatcher
has been the subject of intense study by many researchers. Here are
shown a number of facts in an attempt to establish that this William Hatcher
is the grandson of Richard Thatcher. This theory is shared by two
other Hatcher descendant "cousins" (genealogically speaking), and it keeps
looking better and better as more information comes to light and which
is being shown here and elsewhere. My "cousin", Anita Silvey descends
from John and Sarah (Ingledue) Hatcher and "cousin", Evelyn Avery descends
from James and Catherine (Nichols) Hatcher and I descend from George and
Prudence (Woodward) Hatcher, brother of John and James Hatcher. I
am indebted to both of them for information they have graciously shared
with me over a long period of time to make this account as up to date as possible.
Richard, a Quaker, who received from William Penn, in1681 as an
original landholder, 1000 acres of land located in what became Middletown
Twp., Bucks County, Pennsylvania , his land being on "both sides" of the
Nashaminy Creek, upstream just a few miles before it flows into the Delaware
River. The Nashaminy Creek is the division between Middletown Twp.
and Southampton Twp. the latter being on the West Side
It appears that Richard didn't clear any land or build a house on it.
It wasn't until 1726 that William Chadwick built a house and lived there.
The original landholders received town lots as well as their acreage.
Richard had two town lots in Philadelphia one on survey F and one on Survey
H. where it is presumed he lived.
In a deed dated 1728 William Hatcher, a wheelwright, of Middletown,
sells land in Middletown Twp, Bucks Co., PA that he got from Joseph Hatcher.
Joseph Hatcher is believed to be the same person as Joseph Thatcher and
that the family name has changed. This Joseph is believed to be the
son of Richard Thatcher who came to Bucks Co., PA in 1681 as an original
Penn patent owner. In this 1728 deed William Hatcher is selling land,
right out of the heart of the first settlement. It's only 10 acres.
He received it from Joseph Thatcher, and William Hatcher's name is "Thatcher"
in that part of the deed where it mentions getting the land. Tracing
the land back by owners, it is right there ! But this deed wasn't
filed until the 1870s, 150 years later. Perhaps it was filed under
Hatcher as by that time William Thatcher/Hatcher was using Hatcher exclusively.
This document is key to our theory of the Hatcher/Thatcher connection.
Per this 1728 deed the chain of ownership is given as:
Penn Patten to Robert Heaton 818 A
Robert Heaton, Sr to Godfrey Kirk 7 Nov 1716 64 A
Godfrie Kirk to Jeremiah Dugan 10 Feb 1719, 34 A
Jeremiah Dugan to Joseph Thatcher 21 Jul 1724
Joseph Thatcher to William Hatcher 5 Sep 1726
William Hatcher to Rose Croasdale 10 Apr 1728 10 1/2 A
The land is defined as in Middletown, beginning at a corner
marked
white oak in Edward Glover's line, hence East 10 degrees north by
Thomas
Croasdale land 47 perches, to a post, thence South by East by
John
Wildman's land 36 perches, to another post, thence West 10 degrees
South
by aforesaid Edward Glover's land, 47 perches to another post, thence
North
and by West by the said Glover's land 37 perches,
to the first mentioned
white oak. 10 ½ Acres, part of a 34 acre
tract.
The Nashaminy Creek in the area of Richard Thatcher's land is the division
of Middletown twp and Southampton twp. This deed of Joseph's and Bartholomew's
looks like they are selling off the last of Richard's land on the west
side of the creek, and selling it to the neighbor. Assuming this
Joseph is the father of our William Hatcher, and he did live here in 1708
on the west side of Nashaminy Creek, Southampton twp, then this is probably
the birth place of our William Hatcher.
In deed Bk , p 40, 14 Feb 1708,
Bartholome
In 1698, when Bartholomew and Joseph sold
the land that they had inherited
from their father, they sold it to Robert Heaton. Upstream
from Richard,
about 3 farms away is Robert Heaton's place. He died in
1717.
When William Hatcher sold the land in 1727 that he got from Joseph
Thatcher,
the deed mentions that the land used to belong to Robert Heaton.
One could conclude that William
Hatcher's birth place is right in the heart
of the area where Richard Thatcher
settled.
In the book "Early Settlers of Solebury Township, Bucks Co PA" which
was Compiled from Deeds, Wills, and the Records of Friends Meetings by
Eastburn Reeder, 2nd Ed, 1917, p58
William and Ann Vansant were married November 13, 1727 in Burlington,
NJ, which is across the Delaware River from Bucks County. Ann's parents,
Johannes and Leah Vansant, were close neighbors and had property adjoining
that of Joseph Thatcher, so it is more than likely that William and Ann
knew each other from childhood. This fits in with our theory about this
family's origins.