Elizabeth I's Lord Chancellor.- Hatton (Sir Christopher, courtier and politician, c. 1540-91) & Cecil (Thomas, first Earl of Exeter, courtier and soldier, eldest son of William Cecil, first Baron Burghley, 1542-1623) Release by Sir Thomas Cecil & Christopher Hatton Privy Councillor and Vice Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth for the rectory, lands and living of Campsall, Yorkshire to Robert Freke, D.s. "Thomas Cecil", manuscript in Latin, on vellum, wax seal with fine impression, a few small holes along folds, 205 x 460mm., 30th April 1579.

⁂ Christopher Hatton was the second son of a squire from Holdenby in Northamptonshire. In 1562, as a student at the Inner Temple he attracted the attention of Elizabeth I and began a career as a courtier. Rising high in the queen's estimation (she gave Hatton the nickname of "lids" or "sheep") he became a privy councillor in 1577, that same year he was made vice-chamberlain of the household and knighted. The above document shows the close relationship Hatton had with the family of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (his nephew Sir William Hatton (c. 1565-97), married the daughter of Thomas Cecil). Hatton was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1587. He died in 1591, associated with much of the high politics of Elizabeth I's reign.

Thomas Cecil held certain lands in Yorkshire from 1577 through his marriage with Dorothy, co-heir of John Nevill, fourth Lord Latimer.