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| When he went to New England he was 71. He spent the next twenty two years making and helping the new settlements. His wife died 1642. In the year 1648 at age 88 he married his housekeeper, but that was a disaster and she was convicted of adultery. He sued for divorce but was ordered that they should live together as man and wife. He left New England about 1654 with a grandson, Stephen Sambourne. He died in Hackney, Middlesex, two miles from London in 1660 at the age of 100. His first wife may have been Ann Bates, the mother of all of his children. Second wife, Helen born 1583 and died 1642. Third wife was Mary. The Rev. Stephen Bachiler was a graduate of Oxford. He was a nonconformist. Three days after their arrival at Boston, the Rev. Bachiler organized the fifth church to be established in the New England Colonies and the first at Saugus (Lynn) Mass. Their first meeting to be in Lynn, stood on the northeast corner of what is now Shepard and Summer Street. Some years later he founded the town of Hampton, N.H. He returned to England at the age of ninety three, four times married, and passed on at age one hundred. Like Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, this old grandsire of ours was generations ahead of his time. We did not come over to America on the "Mayflower"; we sailed on the "William and Frances" twelve years later bringing Stephen Bachiler and with him the teaching of religious liberty for the New World. On Stephen Bachiler, the following story is told: There were four children to be baptized that first Sunday (Sabbath). Thomas Newhall, the first white child born in Saugus; Stephen Hussey, Rev. Bachiler's grandson, less than a week old and younger than Thomas and two others. Thomas, the eldest, was presented first but Rev. Stephen Bachiler put him aside and took Stephen Hussey saying, "I will baptize my own grandchild first." Incidentally, this strong-willed, broad-minded Rev. Stephen Bachiler was a progeny of not only the Wing Clan in America but also of the Poet Whittier and the Statesman Daniel Webster. STEPHEN, Lynn, the first min. there, b. a. 1561, came to Boston in the William and Francis, 5 June 1632, from London, preach. at L. next yr. was freem. 6 May 1635, and next yr. was at Ipswich, perhaps at Yarmouth 1637, but in 1638 went to Newbury, in 1639 to Hampton, whence in 1641 he was dism. and some time after may be heard of at Saco. Willis, I. 37. Finally in 1653 or 4 he went home, leav. third w. Mary here, wh. pray. for div. in 1656, bec. he was gone to Eng. and had tak. new w. Her suit may hardly have prosper. for, in his Hist. of Lynn, Lewis copies from York rec. sentence against her, in 1651, for adultery, and that she and her paramour were whip. for it. Prob. he had good reason for leav. her, and in few yrs. after, he d. 1660, at Hackney, near London. Some acco. tho. imperf. we have of four s. and three ds. One had m. in Eng. John Sanborn, wh. was d. bef. the fam. cross. the ocean; ano. call. Theodata, had, in Eng. prob. m. Christopher Hussey, after of Lynn, rem. to Hampton, and she d. 1649; and Deborah m. John Wing, of L. wh. rem. to Sandwich. Names of s. were Henry, Nathaniel, bef. ment. Francis, and Stephen, wh. both were of London. and the last is said to have been liv. 1685, but the dates of b. are all unkn. Descend. are very num. See Winth I. and II. in many places; Prince's Ann. sub. 1632; and Lewis, most copiously, Ed. 2d pp. 78, and 92-97. 197 | ||||||||||||||
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| Excerpts from: Batchelder, Batcheller Genealogy, by F. C. Pierce, 1898 Page 26-27 "Stephen Bachiler, for so he always wrote his name, was born somewhere in England in the year 1561. At the age of twenty he entered St. Johns College, Oxford. He was matriculated November 17, 1587, and admitted as Bachelor of Arts, February 3, 1585-6. The leading profession for college graduates in that day was that of a clergyman, and he determined to study for the ministry, being then a member of the established church. Apparently the time between his graduation in February, 1585-6 and July 17, 1587, was spent in preparation for his life work, for on the day last named the death of Edward Parrett, vicar of Wherwell in Hants, making a vacancy in that living he was presented with the place by William West, Lord Lawarr (or de la Warr, as it was written later) and became vicar of the church of Holy Cross and St. Peter... "Of Stephen Bachiler's life at Wherewell we know nothing. The church records were begun in 1643, or at all events no earlier records now exist. We only know that he remained here until 1605, for, on the ninth day of August, 1605, John Bate, A.M., clergyman, was appointed vicar of Wherewell, a vacancy existing because of "the ejection of Stephen Bachiler," the last vicar. Not much more is known of his life in England, from the loss of his living at Wherewell to the spring of 1632, when he sailed for New England. He was excommunicated from the church, and so no church record exists showing his abiding places. Probably he preached to different congregations, not in a settled way, but when he could avoid the persecution of the church people. Occasionally we get a glimpse of his location. In 1610 he appears to be still a clergyman of the County of Southampton. On the 11th of June, 1621, Adam Winthrop's diary shows that he "had Mr. Bachelour, the preacher," to dine with him, presumably at Groton in Suffolk. This may have been the subject of this sketch. "Some of the parishioners of Barton Stacey, in Hampshire, a few miles east of Wherewell, listened to his sermons at some time before 1632, for we find that Sir Robert Paine petitioned the Council, stating that he was sheriff of Hants in that year, and was also chosen churchwarden of Barton Stacey, and that 'some of the parishioners, petitioner's tenants, having been formerly misled by Stephen Bachelor, a notorious inconformist, had demolished a consecrated chapel at Newton Stacey, neglected the repair of their parish church, maliciously opposed petitioner's intent (to repair the church at his own charge), and executed many things in contempt of the cannons and the bishop.' "Once more we hear from him, on the 23d of June, 1631, when, at the age of seventy years, he obtains leave to visit his sons and daughters in Flushing. He was then resident at South Stoneham, in the county of Southampton, and desires that his wife, Helen, aged 48 years, and his daughter, Ann Sandburn, of age 30 years, widow, resident in the Strand, might accompany him. He was to return within two months. It would be interesting to know which of his sons and daughters then lived at Flushing, as Deborah Wing was apparently residing in London in November, 1629, when her husband, John Wing, made his will, and presumably she was appointed executrix of the will when it was proved, August 4, 1630, as Mr. Waters makes no note that administration was granted to any other person than the executrix named in the will. "Stephen Bachiler was excommunicated among the earliest of the nonconformists. On the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, James I, of the house of Stuart, came to the throne. In January, 1604, the famous Hampton court conference was held, when King James uttered his angry threat against the Puritans, 'I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the kingdom.' The next year the king's threat was carried out against Mr. Bachiler, and no doubt he was thoroughly 'harried' after his excommunication. Winthrop says that Bachiler had suffered much at the hands of the bishops. "As early as 1630 Bachiler had determined to leave England and settle in America. At all events, he made preparation for such removal. Maverick, in his 'Description of New England,' says there was a patent granted to Christo: Batchelor and Company in the year 1632, or thereabouts, for the mouth of the river (Sagadehoeke), and some tract of land adjacent, who came over in the ship name the Plough, and termed themselves the Plough Companie, but soon scattered, some for Virginia, some for England, some to the Massachusetts, never settling on that land......" Pages 28-29 "At the very beginning of 1632, Mr. Bachiler left England for Boston in New England. He sailed on the 9th of March, 1631-2, in the vessel called the 'William and Francis,' from London, with sixty passengers, and after eighty-eight dreary days, landed at Boston. Among his fellow travellers were Gov. Edward Winslow, of Plymouth, Rev. Thomas James, Rev. Thomas Wedde and Thomas Oliver, the famous ruling elder of Boston. On the'Whale,' which arrived May 26, 1632 came Mr. Wilson and Mr. Richard Dummer. Most of the Dummers reside at South Stoneham or Swathing, where the ancient church bears several Dummer memorials, and this was the last residence of Stephen Bachiler in England. (A relationship existed between the Bachilers and the Dummers which cannot yet be traced. MS. letter of Richard Dummer to Nathaniel Bachiler, sen., 14th 4th mo., 1673:'my cossen nathaniell bacheler of Hampton.') "These two ships, the 'William and Francis,' and the 'Whale,' were sent out by the 'Company of husbandmen,' sometimes called the 'Company of London,' or the 'Company of the Plough,' of which company Stephen Bachiler was an active and zealous member, and was chosen their pastor in 1629 or 1630. "The energy and zeal with which he labored to increase the society and assist as many emigrants as possible to come to New England, is well set forth in a letter of John Dye and others to Mr. Crispe, and those members of the Plough Company then in New England, dated London, 8 March, 1631-2, and evidently brought in the 'William and Francis,' or the 'Whale.' Mr. Bachiler adventured 100 pounds in the Company and loaned them 67 pounds, of which amount 9 pounds was repaid by the freight money on his goods.'" Page 30 "He was admitted a freeman May 6, 1635. It seems quite probable that he was the minister who dissented from the order of banishment of Roger Williams, in October, 1635, as his opinions are known to have agreed closely with those of Williams, and no minister of the twelve churches then established possessed his courage in maintaining unpopular opinions. It is to be considered, also, that he had previously been disciplined for departure from the established customs, and within three months was again in trouble from the same cause......." Page 36 "Shortly after his removal to Strawberry Bank, Mr. Bachiler's usual good judgment seems to have deserted him. He was a widower, and obtained for a housekeeper a widow, whom he calls 'an honest neighbour.' He soon married her, and the match turned out in every way unfortunate. She was an adultress, and her husband speedily discovered her character. The marriage must have taken place in 1647 or 1648, when he was eighty-six or eighty-seven years old. His wife, Mary, was evidently much younger than he. In May, 1650, he was fined 10 pounds for not publishing his intention of marriage according to law. In October of the same year, one-half of this fine was remitted. Perhaps because of the following: At a General court houlden at Gorgeana the 15th of Octor., 1650, George Rogers and Mrs. Batcheller prsented upon vehement suspition of incontinency for liveing in one house together and lieing in one rome. They are to be separated before the next court or to pay 40s." "Lewis copies from the York records, dated October 15, 1651, the following: We do present George Rogers and Mary Batcheller, the wife of Mr. Stephen Batcheller, minister, for adultery. It is ordered that Mrs. Batcheller, for her adultery, shall receive forty stripes save one, at the first town meeting held at Kittery, 6 weeks after her delivery , and be branded with the letter A. These appear clearly to be two separate offences. "In October of the same year, the Court passed the following order: That Mr. Batchelor and his wife shall lyve togeather as man and wife, as in tha this Court they have publiquely professed to doe; and if either desert one another, then hereby the Court doth order that the marshal shall apprehend both the said Mr. Batchelor and Mary his wife, and bring them forthwith to Boston..... it is evident that Mr. Bachiler charged his wife with adultery and prayed for a divorce. This was deferred to the next court of assistants. She had been indicted for adultery in Maine. ...now he is ordered to live as a husband with an adultress during the pendency of divorce proceedings for that cause, and a term in jail is threatened for disobedience of the order with the usual privilege of giving bail. "After her separation from her husband Mrs. Mary Bachiler lived on her lot in Kittery, granted her in 1648, adjoining the Piscataqua river, nearly opposite the boundary line between Portsmouth and Newington. What became of her and her children after October, 1656, when they were living in Kittery, is not known, but the name, 'Mary Bachellor's Highway,' is given as the northwest boundary of a lot at Kittery, conveyed by William Hilton, of Exeter, to his son, Richard, May 4, 1684. Page 37-38 "At length, wearied with the unsuccessful conflict and the constant disappointment of his expectations, heartsick with the failure of all his plans for a quiet rest for his old age in that 'band of righteousness.' which, he says, 'our New England is,' he decided to return to England. Harried and persecuted by the vindictiveness of the bishops of England for more than a quarter of a century, he came hither to escape their persecution (and experienced more bitter and persistent than ever he had experienced in England).....His matrimonial difficulties also led him to return to England. "...Of his life in England, after his return, we know nothing; very likely he lived at Hackney where he died, as that was a comfortable residence for retired ministers. The last entry concerning Mr. Bachiler is as follows: the ancient Stephen Bachiler, of Hampton, N.H., died at Hackney, a Village & Parish in Middlesex, 2 miles from London, in 1660, in the 100th year of his age. "Stephen Bachiler/Batchelder's life was stormy and contentious. He must have had rare physical as well as intellectual vigor. From tradition and the characteristics of his descendants, it is probable that he was tall and sinewy, with prominent features, especially the nose; a very dark complexion; black, coarse hair in early days, white in age, mouth large and firm, eyes black as sloes; features long rather than broad; a strong clear voice; rather slow of motion and speech; simple in dress, wearing in Lynn a suit of liste which he brought from England; obstinate and tenacious of his opinions to a marked degree; a powerful preacher, drawing largely from the scripture and impressing his hearers with the uncommon power and sanctity of his sermons; strong in his friendships and his hates. Winthrop classed him among 'honest men' when he arrived in 1632, and Prince, in his Annals of New England, Appendix to 1632, says: ('From governor Winslow and Captain Johnson, we learn that) he (Stephen Bachiler) was an ancient minister in England: had been a man of Fame in his Day; was 71 years of Age when he came over: bro't a number of people with him; and soon became the 1st Feeder of the Flock of Christ at Lynn (and by several Letters I have seen of his own Writing to the R. Mr. Cotton of Boston, I find he was a Gentleman of Learning and Ingenuity, and wrote a fine and curious hand.')." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUPPLIES "Among the articles he brought over were four hogsheds of peas, twelve yards of cloth, two hundred yards of list, a contribution box and oaken furniture, which has lasted until this day." p. 29 | ||||||||||||||
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| Entered St. John's College in 1581 (age 20) and matriculatedobtaining BA. Became vicar of Wherewell in 1588 or so, remaininguntil 1605 when he was ejected for being a nonconformist. In 1610 hea clergyman in Southampton. In 1630ish Sir Robert Paine petitionedCouncil, stating that he was sheriff of Hants in that year, and waschosen churchwarden of Barton Stacey and that "some of thetenants having been misled by Stephen Bachelor, a notoriousnonconformist, had demolished a consecrated chapel..." | ||||||||||||||
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| !Name is also spelled BATCHELDER, BATCHELLER, BATCHILLER or BATCHELOR. BATCH, BACHE - Old English boece, stream, valley [OES]. A noted English divine of Hampshire. Came in the "William and Francis",arrived at Boston, Thursday, June 5, 1632. "An unforgiven puritan". B.A. from Oxford University in 1586. Emigrated from Hampshire, England to Boston in 1632; lived at Lynn, Mass.,where his daughter Theodite lived, for 4 years; removed to Ipswich, MA, 1636; Yarmouth, 1637; Newberry, 1638 [DG]; to Winniscunnet, New Hamshire, 1638, which was named Hampton at his request. In 1641 was dismissed and was heard of at Saco (Willis=37)[DG]. Removed to Casco, ME in 1647; returned to England in 1654, leaving third wife Mary, where he died. Henry of Reading, probably his son, was persecuted in 1660 as a Quaker. Nathaniel of Hampton, eldest son, born about 1611, married Deborah, daughter of John Smith. He had 17 children, 9 by Deborah, one was named Nathaniel. Married 2nd 31 Oct 1676, Mary (Carter) Wyman. Married 3rd, Elizabeth _______. Burial date provided by [RH] ! The name BACHILER is variously spelled in the old records, and not less variously at the present time by descendants; quoted from early settlers of Nantucket in which the name has been variously spelled, i.e., BACHELOR; and from which the following has been extracted: Reverend Stephen BACHELOR was born in England in 1561. he was well educated and had received orders in the established church [Church of England?] but was not in sympathy with its rites and institutions. His unwillingnesss to conform to its requirements had resulted in his being deprived of his ecclesiastical commissions. He spent a few years in Holland, but returned to London. In some records we read that "his eldest daughter had emigrated to America and had settled in the new town of Saugus, now Lynn [MA]." Here came also Stephen BACHELOR on June 5, 1632, and here he established The First Episcopal Church of Lynn, according to his own ideas. Differences occurred from time to time, but finally, when a Council of Ministers was called, it was decided that, "Although the church had not been properly instituted, yet the mutual exercise of their religeous duties had supplied the defect." [sic] On May 6, 1635, he was admitted a freeman and removed first to Ipswich, where he received a grant of fifty acres of land and proposed to locate; but he soon left Ipswich, and, with some friends, John WING and others, went to Mattacheese, on Barnstable Bay, now Yarmouth, with a view to establishing a colony there. This enterprise proved impracticable, and he went next to newbury, and on the July 6, 1638, received a grant of land from the town. On September 6 the General Court gave him permission to settle a town at Hampton, a few miles from Newburyport, in New Hampshire. In 1639 the town of Ipswich offered him sixty acres of upland if he would reside with them; this he declined. On July 5, he sold his house and lands in Newbury, and removing to Hampton, settled the town and established a church, of which he became pastor. In 1640, Hampton granted him 300 acres of land, and he gave them "a bell for their meeting house." In 1647, he was at Portsmouth, where he remained three years. At the age of eighty nine he married and lived with this third wife for only a year. In 1651, he returned to England and there died in his one hundredth year at Hackney, near London. Edwin l. SANBORN, ll.d., in his "History of New Hampshire," page 53, says: "The first churches were formed at Hampton and Exeter. Hampton claims precedence in time .... the first pastor of this firstborn church of the new state, and the father of the town, was Reverend Stephen BATCHELDER, and ancestor on the mother's side of Daniel WEBSTER." Lewis and Newhall's "History of Lynn," Page 141, N.E. reflects: "Susanna BATCHELDER, one of the descendants of Stephen's son Nathaniel, married, July 20th, 1738, Ebenezer WEBSTER [born at Hampton, October 10, 1714], the grandfather of Daniel WEBSTER." The following information is extracted from "Founders of Early American Families, Emigrants from Europe 1607-1657, published by the General Court of The Order of Founders and Patriots of America as a contribution to the bicentennial of the United States of America, Cleveland, Ohio 1975": The Reverand Stephen BATCHELDER [may be spelled BACGEKIR, BATCHELLER, or BACHILER] came on the "William and Francis" 1632, Lynn [MA], Ipswich 1636, Yarmouth 1637, Newbury 1638, Hampton 1639, Strawberry Bank 1647, Hackney, Middlesex, England, died Hackney, 1660. Oxford A.B. Preacher, Freeman......[New Hampshire Historical Society Proceedings 5:172 [BIG]; MNH; NER 46:58 [BIOG], 74:319 n. #1026, 1040, 1137, 3398. "A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England," containing an alphabetical list of the.......by John FARMER, as reprinted by Samuel G. DRAKE, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1979, includes the following: Stephen BATCHELOR, the first minister of Lynn and Hampton [Mass.], was born in England, about 1561, arrived at Boston, with Rev. Thomas WELD, 5 June 1632; was the next year settled at Lynn, and in 1638 or 1639, became Minister of Hampton, but was dismissed in 1641. He is supposed to have returned to England in 1655 or 1956, leaving in America, a wife, Mary, who in 1956, petitioned the general court for a divorce, stating that her husband, Rev. S. Batchelor, upon some pretended ends of his own, had gone to England, and had taken a new wife, and expressing her wish to be at liberty to marry, if she should have a good opportunity, and the lord should incline her heart. She also stated that she had two children, who were diseased. Mr B. must therefore have been between 95 and 100 years when he died. His grandson Nathanial was a respectable inhabitant of Hampton, and living in 1690, and descendants of the minister are said to be numerous in Rockingham County, N.H. In March 1992, Gerald M. BATCHELDER, P.O. Box 138, Stratham, NH 03885, provided the following: "The Reverend Stephen Bachiler-Saint or Sinner?", an examination and appraisal of the available evidence on the subjecty of this Puritanical Colonial, by Philip Mason MARSTON, Professor of History and Chairman of the Department, University of New Hampshire; published privately by the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Hampshire, 1961. This Essay was delivered at the Society's Field Day Luncheon at Exeter, August 19, 1961. The document is presented generally as printed, except the list of references for the research: The first minister of Hampton, New Hampshire and one of its founders has rightly or wrongly been accused by some of his contemporaries, as well as by later writers, of certain lapses in moral behavior over and above the religeous dissensions common to the first part of the seventeenth century in New England. His chief defender was a nineteenth century descendant, Victor C. SANBORN. Specifically, the charges against Stephen BACHILER involve the disruption of churches, an alleged proposal to commit adultery with the wife of a neighbor in Hampton and marrying a fourth wife while still legally married to his third. In all of these charges we have only what has survived of the contemporary journals, histories and records on which to base a decision and it should be noted that seemingly more of these have been lost than have been preserved. The origin of the BACHILER (or BATCHELDER or BACHELLOR) Family in England is a matter of speculation which need not concern us in this paper. The date of the birth of Stephen BACHILER was probably 1560 or 1561 but the first definite record we have of him concerns his matriculation "in the University of Oxford from St. John's College about 1581." His B.A. Degree was granted in 1586 following which he may have served briefly as Chaplain to Lord de la WARR [DELAWARE] before becoming Vicar of Wherwell in Hampshire, "on presentation of" His Lordship, in 1587. All six of his children, by his first wife, were born during the eighteen years he was at Wherewell, three sons and three daughters. Information cited by a decendent, Sandra CLUNIES [BMFH46A] over Prodigy Computer Network, extracted from "N.H. Gen. Record 8:1, Jan 1992," Funded by The SANBORN Family is as follows: Stephen was buried 31 Oct. 1656, Parish of Allhallows Staining, London, Eng. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: BARBARA PACE Refer#: NONE To: RICHARD HOPPER Recvd: YES Subj: Re: BATCHELOR Conf: (6) Genealogy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard, I'm peeking over your shoulder here, I descend from the Rev. Stephen BATCHELDER thru dau THEODATE m. Christopher HUSSEY. In the pages I have from the "Genealogical Dictionary of Maine & New Hampshire; the "good" Rev. m. (1) ----Bate, a relative of Rev John BATE , vicar at Wherwell; (2) at Abbots -Ann 2 Mar 1623/4 Christian Weare, wid.; (3) at Abbots-Ann Helena Mason, wid. age 48 in 1631, d bef 3 May 1647; (4) unhappily the widow, Mary Beadle of Kittery, with whom in 1640 he was ordered to live. The same year he was charged with marrying without bans. I have he died at Hackney near London ca 1660. Children by wife 1: THEODATE b 1588 m. Christopher Hussey NATHANIEL b 1590, merchant of Southampton, Eng.d 1645 m. Hester le Mercer & had 5 children Children by wife 3: BENJAMIN DEBORAH b1592, m. Rev John Wing STEPHEN Jr b 1594, living with father at Wherwell in 1614, having been expelled from Magdelen College as the author of libelous verses (chip off the old block) SAMUEL b 1597, a minister, late of Gorcum, Holland ANN b 1600 m. (1) Sanborn (2) bef 1640 Henry Atkinson of London Child by wife 4: MARY, 21 in 1671, had m. by 26 Mar 1673 William Richards whom the court on his petition after deliberation, appoved his admin. of STEPHEN BATCHELDER'S estate.209 | ||||||||||||||
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