Elizabeth Hatton

Elizabeth Hatton was the fourth daughter of Thomas Cecil (1542-1623), 1st Earl of Exeter, and his wife, Dorothy Neville (1548-1609), the daughter of John Neville (b. 1493, d. 2 March 1543), 3rd Baron Latimer, and his first wife, Dorothy de Vere (d. 7 February 1527), sister and co-heir of John de Vere (1499-1526), 14th Earl of Oxford.

In the early 1590s Elizabeth married Sir William Newport alias Hatton (1560-1597). Sir William Newport, the son of John Newport (d.1566) of Hunningham, Warwickshire, and his wife, Dorothy Hatton (d.1566x70), had taken the surname Hatton when his childless uncle, Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton settled his estates on him as his heir. By an earlier marriage in June 1589 to Elizabeth Gawdy, the daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Gawdy (c.1532-1606), Sir William Newport alias Hatton had an only daughter, Frances Hatton (1590-1623), who on 24 February 1605 married Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick.

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

Elizabeth Hatton died on 3 January 1646 and was buried in the parish church of St. Andrew's in Holborn.