The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Haket : or Achet. Walter Achet held of Walter Gifford in Buckinghamshire. (Domesd.) There are two parishes of this name in the department of the Pas-de-Calais; and the name appears in 1040 in the list of the household of Thibaut III. Count de Chartres; but nothing is really known of this family, which as Haget, Hachett or Hackett, spread into all parts of England and Ireland. Ralf Haget was Sheriff of Durham 1159-1181: and in the previous century a Haget was seated at Helagh in Yorkshire, whose two sons, Farice and Bertram, are mentioned in 1147. Bertram's four daughters became his heirs; for one of his sons was Abbot of Fountains, and the other, Geoffrey, died s. p. Agnes married Brian Fitz Alan of Bedale, Alice John de Friston; and Lucia Peter Fitz Toret; Gundred died single. See Eyton's Salop. The elder son's descendants continued at Helagh, where Bertram Haget founded an Abbey in 1200. Leland mentions "Geoffrey Haget, owner of Helagh Lordship, and beside a great owner in Ainste." Walter Haket, of Weshull and Eggarton in Shropshire, served as knight of the shire for Worcester in 1313, was Commissioner of Array and Leader of the levies in the counties of Salop and Stafford in 1317, and the following year received a pardon as an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. William Haket, living at the same date, and one of the "Nobiles" of Ireland, was summoned to serve against the Scots.[1]—Ibid. In Worcestershire William Haket held in Claines in the time of Henry I.; and his descendants have left their name to Broughton-Hacket and Cofton-Hacket—the latter held of the Bishop of Worcester. Their heiress, Matilda Haket, married Robert de Leycestre temp. Ed. III.—Nash. Ralph Haket, Buckinghamshire; Robert Haket, Norfolk; Thomas Haket, Kent; Bertram and Nicholas Haket, Oxfordshire; are mentioned in the Rotuli Hundredorum temp. Ed. I. Burke speaks of some Hakets seated at Niton in the Isle of Wight; and others still established in Ireland. The name is, in fact, found in every part of the country.
"At Oundle, where he some time followed the trade of a maltster, of low extraction, was born William Hacket, an impious blasphemer in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He was of so savage a disposition, that he is reported, when at school, to have bitten off and swallowed the nose of his master. He was first an informer against Popish recusants, afterwards a violent partizan for the Geneva discipline, and a pretender to revelations, and immediate communications with God: asserting, that he was commissioned from Heaven to reform the State and the Church, and by extraordinary means to make a new settlement of both. He pretended to be invulnerable, and defied any one that would to kill him. Afterwards giving out, that the Spirit of the Messias rested in him, he had two attendants: Edward Coppinger, a person of good descent, whom he named his prophet of mercy; and Henry Arthington, a Yorkshire gentleman, whom he named his prophet of judgment These, among other impieties, proclaimed from a cart in Cheapside, that Christ was come in Hacket, with his fan in his hand, to purge the godly from the wicked. Being all three apprehended, they were sent to Bridewell, where Coppinger, it is said, starved himself to death: Hacket was tried before the Judges at Westminster, found guilty, and in 1591 executed on a gibbet near the Cross in Cheapside. Arthington on his repentance was pardoned."—Bridge's Northamptonshire.