Hatcliffe

In A Dictionary of British Place-Names, A.D. Mills suggests the etymology of Hatcliffe to reflect a personal name and a geographic feature to mean 'the cliff or bank of a man called Hadda'.{{cite book|author=David Mills|title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXucAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|date=20 October 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-960908-6|page=229}}

In the 11th century Domesday Book Hatcliffe's population of 9 smallholders and 9 freemen, in 18 households, was considered a 'medium' sized village.{{OpenDomesday|TA2100|hatcliffe|Hatcliffe}} The lord of the manor in 1066 was Ralph the Staller (or 'Ralp the Constable') and, in 1086, the lord and tenant-in-chief was Alan Rufus.

The manor was long held by the family who bore the Hatcliffe name, including William Hatcliffe who served Henry VI of England and Edward IV of England, as court physician in the 15th century.{{cite book|title=The House of Commons, 1509-1558|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_eIrJpc_T0C&pg=PA318|year=1982|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-0-436-04282-9|page=318}} In the late 1500s, Thomas Hatcliffe, was a member of parliament for Grimsby.{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/hatcliffe-thomas-1550-1610 |title=HATCLIFFE, Thomas (c.1550-1610), of Hatcliffe, near Grimsby, Lincs. |publisher=History of Parliament |accessdate=14 December 2014 }} He was rumoured to be cursed for rebuilding his new manor house in the village from the stones of a demolished church.{{cite book|author=Nick Bunker|title=Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World – A New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R72GjVgLYeUC&pg=PA194|date=1 April 2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-84595-118-4|page=194}} In the 1960s, American academic John Leslie Hotson, then at Yale University, published his theory that Thomas's son, William Hatcliffe, was the 'Mr W.H.' to whom William Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets in 1609.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/24/new-issue-raised-on-shakespeare.html?_r=0 |title=New Issue Raised on Shakespeare |work=The New York Times |date=24 April 1964 |accessdate=14 December 2014 }}{{cite book|author1=Alan Palmer|author2=Veronica Palmer|title=Who's Who in Shakespeare's England: Over 700 Concise Biographies of Shakespeare's Contemporaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BK1Vu6pw84C&pg=PA108|date=1 May 1999|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-22086-0|page=108}}

File:St.Mary's church, Hatcliffe, Lincs. - geograph.org.uk - 171351.jpg

The parish church of St Mary's dates from the 13th century,{{cite book|author1=Nikolaus Pevsner|author2=John Harris|author3=Nicholas Antram|title=Lincolnshire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQqV7kdX1Y0C&pg=PA370|date=January 1989|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-09620-0|pages=370–371}} and contains memorials dedicated to the Hatcliffe family dating to 1525. The former post office in the centre of the village has been converted to a house, and stands by a small stream with stone bridge crossings.

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{{Lincolnshire|state=collapsed}}

{{North East Lincolnshire (district) |state=collapsed}}

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Category:Villages in Lincolnshire

Category:Borough of North East Lincolnshire

Category:Civil parishes in Lincolnshire

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