The first recorded member of the Hatch family of bellfounders, named Thomas, received payment for work in the church at Cranbrook, Kent, in 1581 and 1593.

[14][15][Fn 4] Stahlschmidt wrote that, in 1887, there remained complete rings of bells by Joseph Hatch in the churches at Boughton Malherbe, Fordwich, High Halden, Waltham and Wouldham, all in Kent.

[29] The business was disrupted in William Hatch's time by the English Civil War (1642–1651), and he is only known to have cast 25 bells, including rings at Lower Halstow and Minster-in-Sheppey.

[36][Fn 8] Stahlschmidt considered it unlikely that the foundry was among the property bequeathed to Joseph Hatch's widow Jane, which included the main dwelling-house of Roses Farm, in Broomfield, and a smaller house adjacent, so it must have lain elsewhere.

[29][38] Bellfounding did not require dedicated buildings, and bells were sometimes cast in the vicinity of the churches for which they were made,[34] but Stahlschmidt also reported a statement by James T. Hatch, a descendant of the same family, that the Hatch foundry was: on the north side of King's Wood, in Ulcombe (which wood extends also into the parishes of Broomfield, Leeds and Langley), in a field [then called] 'the Welmonground', evidently a corruption of 'the bellman's ground,' and the scoriæ and debris remained upon the site within my time and memory.