He was the third son of William Gatacre, and was an MP of the Parliament of England for Gatton in April 1554.
[1] His background was a strongly Catholic family at Gatacre Hall, Claverley, Shropshire.
In 1568 he was ordained deacon and priest by Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, and became domestic chaplain to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
On 21 June 1572 he was collated to the rectory of St Edmund's, Lombard Street.
He had married Margaret Pigott, of a Hertfordshire family, and left a son Thomas.