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Richard Hatt

Canadian politician (1769-1819)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2024
Entity authorityQ7326321 ↗
Source-derived summary

Richard Hatt (September 10, 1769 – September 26, 1819) was a businessman, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.

He was born in London, England, in 1769 and came to Upper Canada in 1792. He originally started business as a merchant at Niagara but later moved to Ancaster, where he opened a store and built a grist mill. In 1800, he set up a number of enterprises known as the Dundas Mills north of Cootes Paradise; a settlement grew up around these industries. In the same year, he was named justice of the peace. During the War of 1812, he served as a major in the local militia. After the war, he was appointed judge in the court for the Gore District. He also owned the Upper Canada Phoenix, a newspaper. In 1817, he was elected to the 7th Parliament of Upper Canada in a by-election. He died in Dundas in 1819, while still in office.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Hatt” as canadian politician (1769-1819). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1769, 1819, 1792, 1800—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1769-09-10. The account is most persuasive where Richard, Hatt and Canadian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian politician (1769-1819). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7326321. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1769, 1819, 1792 and 1800.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Hatt”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Hatt primary sources, Richard Hatt archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard Hatt”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard Hatt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.