This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the places called Hatch in Bedfordshire, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire; the place in Hampshire near Basing, is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Heche". The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "haecc", a hatch, the meaning is generally "a gate" (especially one in or leading to a forest). However, the name may also be of topographical origin for a dweller by a gate or hatch, from the same derivation. The surname first appears in records in the late 12th Century (see below), while other early examples of the surname include: Adam del Hach, in the Book of Ely (Norfolk) in 1221; Henry Hache, in the 1230 Pipe Rolls of Suffolk; and Walter ate Hacche, in the "Minister's Account of the Earldom of Cornwall", dated 1297. One Thomas Hatch, aged 17 yrs., was one of the early settlers in James City, Virginia, and was part of the muster of Sir George Yearley, having embarked from England aboard the "Duty" in 1619. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gilbert ad Hacie, which was dated 1185, in the "Knights Templars Records of Essex", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.