General Notes

b. Ashford, Kent, England

      William, perhaps in Scituate in 1633, but if so, he went home, and in 1635 brought in the Hercules from Sandwich, Kent, his wife Jane, five children and six servants. He was first ruling elder of the Second Church, founded in 1644 for William Witherell, after long agitations following the removval of Lathrop to Barnstable.2

      "Elder William Hatch settled in Kent street 1634. His house lot was the first south of Greenfield lane. He was the firest ruling elder of the second Chruch, 1643. He was an active and useful man in the settlement of the Town. His children probably were born in England."5 (Probably Deane was wrong in claiming William settled in Scituate as early as 1634.)

      "About 1634 William Hatch and his family removed from Wye to Sandwich, co. Kent. The statement that he was at Scituate in the Plymouth colony in 1633 is incorrect, and is due to the assumption that the date after the names of the assistants in the records applied to all the names following. He embarked for America for the first time in Mar. 1634/5, sailing from Sandwich in the ship Hercules with his wife Jane, five children, and six servants. In the same ship sailed his cousin, Lydia (Huckstep) Tilden (7,i,7), with her husband, Nathaniel tilden, and their children. William hatch and his family settled at Scituate, where he built a house on Kent Street and was admitted freeman on 5 Jan. 1635/6. he returned to England, but came back to new England in Apr. 1638, in the ship Castle. It is probable that his brother Thomas with his wife and children and his sister Elizabeth Soan with her son William came with him on this voyage. In 1643 William hatch was chosen the first ruling elder of the Second Church of Scituate, and in august of that year he with his sons Walter and John appears on the list of those in scituate able to bear arms (that is, they were between 16 and 60 years of age). In the same year also he was lieutenanat of the trainband.