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; received land from William Penn in 1682.  His name in various documents appears to be Thatcher as the handwriting of the time put a flourish on the capital H  As of this time there isn't much known about Richard 's son Joseph, but a good deal has been written about his other sons, Richard and Bartholomew.    Richard's occupation is given as husbandman.

There is a good record of his grandson, William Hatcher, and his descendants to the present time.  This family moved from Bucks Co., PA to northern Virginia about 1740 and later some of them moved on to Ohio.
Some time before 1700 the name of our ancestor, William Hatcher (b.1704), appears to have been established as Hatcher.

Richard Thatcher and those who came to Philadelphia were Quakers and a part of William Penn's" Holy Experiment".  For the most part they came from the part of England called the Midlands where many were small landholders and were practicing Quakers.  In contrast the southern Hatchers were Anglicans, supporters of the Church of England and were to the "manor born".  They brought their aristocratic ways with them to the New World.

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.  which is being shown here and elsewhere.  My "cousins", 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 time to make this account as up to date as possible.

  He was 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 (map pg. 266)  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.

From:  Minute Book "G", Page 376 at a sesion of the Comm'rs at Philad'a  17 and 18, 3 mo., 1703

                             Prst., Edar'd Shippen, Griff. Jones and Jam's Logan.

The Prop'ry, by L. and Rel., dat. 3 and 4 May, '82, Granted to Rich'd  Thatcher, deceased, One thousand acres, and the said Rich'd in his life time, by his last will, dated 13, 8 mo.,'90, duely Proved, devised to his Sons  Bartholomew Thatcher and Jno. Thatcher, a Certain share of the said 1,000 a's  as well surveyed as unsurveyed, upon w'ch there being formerly 650 a's taken  up and 350 remaining unsurveyed, w'ch fell to their Part, they, the said  Bartholomew and Jos., by their deed Poll, dat. 6, 1 mo.,1700-1, directed to  Edw'd Pennington, Conveyed the s'd 350 a's to Sam'l Beakes, of the County of Bucks,  yeom'n, haveing first Procured a warrant for the Same from the Prop'ry,  dat. 1, 12 mo., 1700-1, directed to Edward Pennington, w'ch warr't being  executed by John Cutler and duely returned into the Office, the said Sam'l  Beakes requests a Confirmation of the Same.  Granted.

Rob. Heaton having purchased 250  acres of R'd Thatcher's Purchase in Bucks, and being re'sd is found to contain 280 acres, of  which 10 is Overp., for which He agrees to Pay £ 3   8sh in Consideration that He was obliged to pay £4 12s for 14 acres before. This is to be Paid at May Fair.

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.

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

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Garret Van Sant (William's wife's grandfather) bought his land on Neshaminy River, near the property of Joseph Growden. This would mean that the Van Sants and Richard/Joseph Thatcher lived in very close proximity to each other.  One more clue for our theory !

Upstream from Richard, about three farms away is Robert Heaton's place.  He died abt. 1717.  In 1698, when Bartholomew and Joseph sold the land that they had and part in Southampton Twp. inherited from their father, they sold it to Robert Heaton.  When William Hatcher sold the land in 1727 that he had got from Joseph Hatcher, the deed mentions that the land used to belong to Robert Heaton.  It appears that William Hatcher is coming right out of the heart of the area where Richard Thatcher settled; one more clue.

Henry Paxton's plat was down stream from Richard Thatcher's, east side of creek, about 2 miles by water.  The back of both properties was abt. 2 miles long, and angled away from the twisting creek towards each other and abt. a mile away by land on that end.  Both properties reached the town of Langhorne, PA.

These deeds always indicate that the sons of Richard are getting the land according to his 1690 will.  The land lay on both sides of the Nashaminy Creek, part in Middletown Twp and part in Southampton Twp.
 

One can see from the document above how the flourished H can be read as Th.  Compare the Th of Hatcher with the Th of Thomas.

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.

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. shows a map of interest:

A map of the division of properties indicates Lot No. 23 as the John Balderston Tract.  This land was originally part of Richard Thatcher's Penn grant of 1000 A. Bartholomew and Joseph sold this 250 acre tract to Samuel Beaks, in a 1700 deed of Bucks Co.  Beaks had this surveyed, and sold it in 1725/6 to William Chadwick.  Chadwick heirs sold this to Balderston in 1766.  Balderston was a 1727 immigrant.  The important point conveyed in this was that Chadwick was the first to build on it.  Richard owned land that was not settled upon, not cleared, had no family living there for the first 35 years.