|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ORIGIN: South Stoneham, Hampshire
MIGRATION: 1632 on William and Francis [WJ 1:93]
FIRST RESIDENCE: Lynn
REMOVES: Ipswich (supposedly) 1636, Yarmouth 1637/8, Newbury 1638, Hampton 1639, Portsmouth 1644
RETURN TRIPS: To England permanently by late 1650 or early 1651
OCCUPATION: Minister
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Member of Lynn, Newbury and Hampton churches during his ministry in those places (but see COMMENTS for further discussion).
FREEMAN: 6 May 1635 [MBCR 1:371].
EDUCATION: Matriculated about 1581 at Oxford from St. John's College, and received his B.A. 3 February 1585/6 [Foster 1:53].
OFFICES: On 28 June 1641 at Saco four men were chosen as arbitrators in a dispute between GEORGE CLEEVE and JOHN WINTER, and in case those four men could not agree, Stephen Bachiler was to be "an umpire for the final ending of the said controversies" [Trelawny Papers 269-72, 319].
ESTATE: Many secondary sources state that Bachiler was granted fifty acres at Ipswich in February 1636, but evidence of this has not been found in the town or colony records. On 6 July 1638 Bachiler was granted land at Newbury [Newbury Town Records].
"Steven Bachiler sometimes of Hampton" was granted seven parcels of land at Hampton: nine and a half acres of upland for a houselot; five acres of upland added to the houselot; four acres of swampy ground; eleven acres of meadow; four acres of meadow; two hundred acres of upland, meadow & marsh for a farm; and eight acres of upland in the East Field [NEHGR 46:160-61, citing Hampton town records].
On 20 April 1647 "Steven Bachiler late of Hampton in the County of Norfolk in New England & now of Strabery Bank for ... love and affection towards my four grandchildren John, Stephen & William Samborn & Nathaniell Batchiller all now or lately of Hampton" deeded to grandson John Samborne "all of my dwelling house & land or ground whether arable, meadow & pasture or other ground with their appurtenances together with all the buildings, commons, profits, privileges & immunities whatsoever to the same or any part thereof belonging or in any wise appertaining, the greater part thereof being now or lately in the tenure, possession or occupation of the said John Samborn & other part thereof not yet particularly appointed by the town &c. (excepting out of this grant the land with the appurtenances which I formerly sold to William Howard & Thomas Ward)," said John Samborne to pay œ20 apiece to each of the other three grandchildren [NHPLR 13:221].
BIRTH: About 1561 (aged 70, 23 June 1631 [Waters 520]; aged 71, 5 June 1632 [WJ 1:93]; about 76, late March 1636/7 [WJ 1:313]).
DEATH: Buried 31 October 1656 at All Hallows Staining, London [NHGR 8:14-17].
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1590 [Anne?] _____, who was closely related in some way to Reverend John Bate, Bachiler's successor as vicar of Wherwell [see COMMENTS]; she died sometime between about 1610 and 1624. (Although this first wife's given name is stated to be "Anne" by many authorities, there is no record evidence to support this.)
(2) Abbots Ann, Hampshire, 2 March 1623/4 Christian Weare, widow [GDMNH 81]; she died before 26 March 1627.
(3) Abbots Ann, Hampshire, 26 March 1627 Helena Mason, widow (of Reverend Thomas Mason) [GDMNH 81]; she was aged 48 in 1631, so born about 1583 [Waters 520]; died by 3 May 1647 [WP 5:153].
(4) by 14 February 1648 Mary (_____) Beedle, widow of Robert Beedle [Kittery Hist 95-96]; she soon left her husband, and cohabited with George Rogers at Kittery (see below).
CHILDREN:
With first wife
i NATHANIEL, b. say 1590; m. (1) Hester Mercer or LeMercier [Batchelder Gen 110-15; NEHGR 27:368, 47:510-15]; m. (2) by 1645 Margery _____ (on 9 April 1645 "Margerie Batchellor" the widow of Nathaniel Bacheler of Southampton, Hampshire, was granted administration on his estate [PCC Admon. Act Book 1645, f. 22]); he did not come to New England, but his son Nathaniel did, and resided at Hampton.
ii DEBORAH, b. about 1592 (aged 32, 22 June 1624 [Waters 520]); m. by 1611 John Wing [Waters 519-20]; she and her children came to New England in the late 1630s and resided at Sandwich.
iii STEPHEN, b. about 1594; matriculated at Oxford 18 June 1610 from Magdalen College, aged 16, son of a minister, from Southampton [i.e., Hampshire] [Foster 1:53]; "Stephen Bachiler of Edmund Hall" was ordained deacon at Oxford 19 September 1613 [Bishop's Register, Diocese of Oxford]; with his father, accused in 1614 of circulating slanderous verses [see COMMENTS]; no further record.
iv SAMUEL, b. say 1597; lived at Gorcum in Holland, where he was a minister, and had a wife and children.
v ANN, b. about 1601 (aged 30 in 1631 [Waters 520]); m. (1) by about 1620 _____ Samborne; m. (2) Strood, Kent, 20 January 1631/2 Henry Atkinson.
vi THEODATE, b. say 1610; m. by about 1635 CHRISTOPHER HUSSEY.
ASSOCIATIONS: RICHARD DUMMER of Roxbury and Newbury married first Jane Mason, a daughter of Reverend Thomas Mason, and resided late in his life at North Stoneham, Hampshire; Stephen Bachiler married as his third wife Helena Mason, widow of Reverend Thomas Mason, and resided just before his departure for New England at South Stoneham, Hampshire. These marriages made Bachiler the step-father-in-law of Dummer, and explains their close connection in the activities of the Plough Company.
COMMENTS: Stephen Bachiler led a most interesting life, filled with unusual twists and turns far beyond the norm. In the ensuing paragraphs we take a chronological tour of his nine decades, attempting along the way to resolve certain problems of interpretation.
As noted above, Stephen Bachiler entered college about 1581, and received his B.A. in 1586. On 17 July 1587 he was presented as vicar of Wherwell, Hampshire, and remained at that parish until he was ejected in 1605 [NEHGR 46:60-61, citing Winchester diocesan records]. Bachiler began his long career of contrariety as early as 1593, when he was cited in Star Chamber for having "uttered in a sermon at Newbury very lewd speeches tending seditiously to the derogation of her Majesty's government" [NEHGR 74:319-20]. Upon the accession of James I as King of England, nearly a hundred ministers were deprived of their benefices between the years 1604 and 1609, and among these, as noted above, was Stephen Bachiler [Kenneth Fincham, Prelate as Pastor: The Episcopate of James I (Oxford 1990), p. 326].
Bachiler was living at Wherwell late in 1606 when he was a legatee in the will of Henry Shipton [NEHGR 74:320]. A case in Star Chamber in 1614 still refers to Bachiler as of Wherwell, and adds much other useful information about the family. George Wighley, a minster and Oxford graduate, accused Stephen Bachiler of Wherwell, clerk, Stephen Bachiler, his son, John Bate of Wherwell, clerk, and others of libelling him, by means of verses ridiculing him. In the course of the complaint Wighley quotes John Bate as saying he would keep a copy of the poem "as a monument of his cousin's the said Stephen Bacheler the younger his wit, who is in truth his cousin" [Star Chamber Proc. James I 297/25, 1614].
Another suit, this time in the Court of Requests, although not entered until 1639, bears directly on many points in Stephen Bachiler's life in England, and will be treated here, out of chronological order. In 1639 Henry Atkinson of London, gent., complained that five or six years before John Bate, gent., living in Holland, had borrowed œ4 from "Samuel Bachiler late of Gorcem [i.e., Gorcum] in Holland aforesaid Minister," after which Bate instructed Bachiler to collect the debt from Dorcas Bate, mother of John, and widow of Reverend John Bate, minister, deceased. Bachiler assigned the debt to Atkinson, who had married Bachiler's sister, and Atkinson was unable to collect the debt from Dorcas Bate. John Bate had also borrowed money from "Nathaniell Bachiler of Southampton Merchant (one other of the brothers of your subject's wife)" and this debt had also been assigned to Atkinson to collect from Dorcas Bate. The latter was abetted in avoiding payment of the debt by her son Gabriel Bate, and her son-in-law and daughter Robert and Anne Southwood. Atkinson noted that his wife's father [i.e., Reverend Stephen Bachiler] had obtained the living of Wherwell for John Bate the father, and that the latter had refused to pay to the former twenty marks a year out of the living or benefice, as had been agreed [PRO REQ2/678/64].
On 28 April 1614 Stephen Bachiler was a free suitor of Newton Stacey at the view of frankpledge of the Barton Stacey Manorial Court, and was a free suitor of Barton Stacey at the court of 2 October 1615.
On 19 February 1615[/6?] Edmund Alleyn of Hatfield Peverell, Essex, bequeathed œ5 to "Mr. Bachelour," and Stephen Bachiler was one of the witnesses [Waters 518-19]. On 11 June 1621 Adam Winthrop, father of Governor JOHN WINTHROP, reported that "Mr. Bachelour the preacher dined with us" at Groton, Suffolk [WP 1:235]. Although this might conceivably be the younger Stephen Bachiler, who had been ordained as a deacon late in 1613, the man referred to in these records is more likely the elder Stephen. Since he is well recorded as a resident of Newton Stacey both before and after this time, he must have made occasional visits to East Anglia.
The Hampshire feet of fines show that "Stephen Bachiler, clerk," acquired land in Newton Stacey in 1622 and 1629, and sold it in 1630 and 1631 [Batchelder Gen 76-77]. While at Newton Stacey (a village within the parish of Barton Stacey) Bachiler had managed to incite the parishioners of Barton Stacey to acts that came to the attention of the sheriff, who petitioned for redress to the King in Council; the complaint described Bachiler as "a notorious inconformist" [NEHGR 46:62, citing Domestic Calendar of State Papers, 1635]. In summary, while there are gaps in the English career of Bachiler, it would appear that he lived at Wherwell for most of the years from his induction there in 1587 until 1614, and that he then resided in Newton Stacey from 1614 until 1631, shortly before his departure for New England.
Bachiler apparently lived briefly at South Stoneham, Hampshire, after disposing of his land at Newton Stacey, for that is the residence he gave for himself and wife on 23 June 1631 when he was applying for permission to travel to Flushing in Holland "to visit their sons and daughters" [Waters 520].
At about this same time Stephen Bachiler allied himself with a group of London merchants to form the Plough Company, which had obtained a grant of land in the neighborhood of Saco. The Plough Company managed to send two groups of settlers to New England, in the Plough in 1631 and the William & Francis in 1632, but they were never able to occupy their patent, and the company soon failed. (For a full account of this ill-starred enterprise, see V.C. Sanborn, "Stephen Bachiler and the Plough Company of 1630," The Genealogist, New Series, 19 [1903]:270-84, and the sources cited there.)
Shortly after his arrival in New England in 1632, Stephen Bachiler settled at Saugus (later to be called Lynn), where he immediately began to organize a church. Over the next four years Bachiler and a portion of his congregation were repeatedly at odds with the rest of the congregation and with the colony authorities, and by early 1636 Bachiler had ceased to minister at Lynn [GMN 1:20].
In addition to this ongoing conflict (which became a recurring feature of Bachiler's career in New England), two stories of dubious validity are associated with his stay at Lynn. First, a fictional diary describes at length Bachiler's physical appearance, to the extent of informing us that he had "an unseemly wen on the side of his nose which presses that member in an unshapely way"; this is just part of the imaginative invention of Obadiah Redpath (a pseudonym of James R. Newhall, whose non-fictional writings were not much more reliable) [Lin: or, Notable People and Notable Things in the Early History of Lynn ... (Lynn 1890, earlier editions of which carried the title Lin: or, Jewels of the Third Plantation), p. 65].
Second, this same source, and others, relate the following story: "On the first Sunday at Lynn, four children were baptized. Thomas Newhall, the first white child born in Lynn, was first presented. Mr. Bachiler put him aside, saying `I will baptize my own child first,' meaning Stephen Hussey, his daughter's child, born the same week as Thomas Newhall" [NEHGR 46:158]. There is, in the first place, no contemporary evidence for this event. Then, in the brief list of baptisms apparently performed by Bachiler at Lynn, Newbury, and in his early days at Hampton, the earliest entry is for John Hussey, son of Christopher and Theodate (Bachiler) Hussey, whereas if the above story were true we would expect Stephen Hussey to be at the head of this list. This story would seem to be a typical nineteenth-century creation.
After his departure from Lynn, Bachiler is supposed to have resided in Ipswich, and to have received a grant of land there in 1636 or 1637, but no contemporary evidence for this has been found. Bachiler's next adventure occurred in the winter of 1637/8, for Winthrop tells us in his journal, in an entry made in late March of that year, that "Another plantation was now in hand at Mattakeese [Yarmouth], six miles beyond Sandwich. The undertaker of this was one Mr. Batchellor, late pastor of Sagus, (since called Lynn), being about seventy-six years of age; yet he walked thither on foot in a very hard season. He and his company, being all poor men, finding the difficulty, gave it over, and others undertook it" [WJ 1:313].
Bachiler then resided for about a year at Newbury, where he received a grant of land on 6 July 1638. Bachiler also seems to have been able to organize a church at Newbury (or to keep in existence the church that he had earlier organized at Lynn). In a letter dated 26 February 1643/4 the minister, recounting his various experiences in New England, told how "the Lord shoved me thence [i.e., after his arrival in 1632, and the failure of the Plough Company] by another calling to Sagust, then, from Sagust to Newbury, then from Newbury to Hampton" [WP 4:447]. Later in 1644 Winthrop pointed out that "Mr. Batchellor had been in three places before, and through his means, as was supposed, the churches fell to such divisions, as no peace could be till he was removed" [WJ 2:216-17]. These records indicate that Bachiler headed churches in three towns (Lynn, Newbury and Hampton), or possibly that the church organized in Lynn had a continuous existence as it moved to Newbury and then to Hampton [see GMN 4:20-21 for a more detailed discussion of these possibilities].
In the summer of 1639 Stephen Bachiler and some other families, many of them from Newbury, began the settlement of Hampton, and Bachiler was soon joined there by Reverend Timothy Dalton, who shared the pulpit with him. As had happened throughout his life, controversy soon arose. In 1641 Winthrop reported that Bachiler "being about 80 years of age, and having a lusty comely woman to his wife, did solicit the chastity of his neighbor's wife" [WJ 2:53], and this led to an attack on him by Dalton and a large portion of the Hampton congregation. These charges were apparently not resolved at the time, but in 1643-4, when the town of Exeter invited Bachiler to be their minister, the affair was raised again, and this was sufficient to prevent his removal to that church [GMN 4:21-22].
At about this time Bachiler's ministry at Hampton ceased, and he soon moved to Strawberry Bank [Portsmouth], where he remained until his return to England.
On 9 April 1650 at a Quarterly Court held at Salisbury, "Mr. Steven Bacheller [was] fined for not publishing his marriage according to law." At the same court it was ordered "that Mr. Bacherler and Mary his wife shall live together, as they publicly agreed to do, and if either desert the other, the marshal to take them to Boston to be kept until next quarter Court of Assistants, to consider a divorce.... In case Mary Bacheller live out of this jurisdiction without mutual consent for a time, notice of her absence to be given the magistrates at Boston" [EQC 1:191].
On 15 October 1650 at a court at York "George Rodgers & Mrs. Batcheller [were] presented upon vehement suspicion of incontinency for living in one house together & lying in one room" [MPCR 1:146]. At a court at Piscataqua [i.e., Kittery] on 16 October 1651 the grand jury presented "George Rogers for, & Mary Batcheller the wife of Mr. Steven Bacheller minister for adultery"; George Rogers was to have forty strokes, and Mary Bachiler "for her adultery shall receive 40 strokes save one at the first town meeting held at Kittery six weeks after the delivery & be branded with the letter A" [MPCR 1:164]. This child born late in 1651 or early in 1652 was apparently the Mary Bachiler who later married William Richards, and even though the Dover Court on 26 March 1673 awarded him administration of the estate of Stephen Bachiler [NHPP 40:287], she would not have been his daughter. (See MA Arch 9:28 and NHGR 8:14 for more on Bachiler's fourth wife.)
Stephen Bachiler returned to England after these events, and most secondary sources claim that he made that trip in 1654 when his grandson Stephen Samborne returned to England. On 2 October 1650 "Steven Bachiler" witnessed a deed between Christopher Hussey (grantor) and Steven Sanborn and Samuel Fogg (grantees) [NLR 1:19]; this is the last certain record of Bachiler in New England (unless the "Mr. Batchelder" who was presented at court on 28 June 1652 for being illegally at the house of John Webster is our man [NHPP 40:87-88]).
Although a number of records in New England between 1651 and 1654 mentioned Stephen Bachiler, none of them necessarily implies that Bachiler was still in New England, and a few indicate that he was not in close proximity to the courts in question. In a court held at Hampton on 7 October 1651, Francis Pebodie sued Tho[mas] Bradbury for "issuing an illegal execution, for or in behalf of Mr. Batcheller, against the town of Hampton" [EQC 1:236]. On 14 October 1651 the Massachusetts Bay General Court ordered that "in answer to a petition preferred by several of the inhabitants of Hampton, for relief in respect of unjust molestation from some persons there pretending power for what they do from Mr. Batchelor, it is ordered, that whatsoever goods or lands have been taken away from any of the inhabitants of Hampton, aforesaid, by Edward Calcord or Joh[n] Sanbourne, upon pretence of being authorized by Mr. Batchelor, either with or without execution, shall be returned to them from whom it was taken, & the execution to be called in, & no more to be granted until there appear sufficient power from Mr. Batchelor to recover the same, to the County Courts, either of Salsbury or Hampton" [MBCR 3:253]. Apparently John Sanborn and others were pursuing the interests of Stephen Bachiler in his absence, but without a proper power of attorney. It might be argued that he was in Strawberry Bank [Portsmouth], but unable to come to Hampton, but there is no indication that he was ill or unable to travel at any time in his long life, and the more likely explanation is that he was already in England by October of 1651. At a court held at Hampton on 3 October 1654 "Mr. Batcheller's letter of attorney to Mr. Christopher Hussie [was] approved" [EQC 1:372].
Most secondary sources state that Bachiler died at Hackney in England in 1660, but more recent research has shown that Stephen Bachiler died in London and was buried on 31 October 1656 [NHGR 8:14-17].
Among many remarkable lives lived by early New Englanders, Bachiler's is the most remarkable. From 1593, when he was cited before Star Chamber, until 1654, when he last makes a mark on New England records, this man lived a completely independent and vigorous life, never acceding to any authority when he thought he was correct. Along with Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, Stephen Bachiler was one of the few Puritan ministers active in Elizabethan times to survive to come to New England. As such he was a man out of his times, for Puritanism in Elizabethan times was different from what it became in the following century, and this disjunction may in part account for Bachiler's stormy career in New England [Simon P. Newman, "Nathaniel Ward, 1580-1652: An Elizabethan Puritan in a Jacobean World," EIHC 127:313-26]. But Nathaniel Ward did not have anything like as much trouble, and most of Bachiler's conflicts may be ascribed to his own unique character.
Savage includes among the children of Stephen Bachiler sons Francis and Henry, for whom there is no evidence. These phantom sons derive in part from a misinterpretation of a 1685 letter from Stephen Bachiler to Nathaniel Bachiler [Batchelder Gen 110-11], which refers to "our brother Francis Bachlir." As the two correspondents are grandsons of the Reverend Stephen (sons of his son Nathaniel) and not sons, it follows that Francis Bachiler was also a grandson.
Of the known children of Stephen Bachiler, only Theodate and Deborah came to New England. CHRISTOPHER HUSSEY is supposed to have married Theodate Bachiler in England and to have sailed to New England in 1632 with his father-in-law, but, as will be analyzed in more detail in the treatment of Hussey himself, there is no evidence that he was in New England before 1633, and it may be that his marriage to Theodate did not occur until 1635. Deborah Bachiler married John Wing, and after his death came to New England with her children, in the late 1630s. Ann Bachiler married a Samborne, and eventually her three Samborne sons joined their grandfather at Hampton, although the date of their arrival is not known. Stephen's son Nathaniel did not come to New England, but Nathaniel's son Nathaniel did. The Reverend Stephen's two other sons, Stephen and Samuel, did not come to New England, nor, apparently, did any of their children.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1892 Charles E. Batchelder published a four-part study of Reverend Stephen Bachiler [NEHGR 46:58-64, 157-61, 246-51, 345-50]. For the most part this is a simple chronological presentation of the evidence available at that date. In the third installment, however, the author devotes much space to a spirited but unconvincing defense of Bachiler against the claim made by Winthrop that one of the grounds of the Hampton church's dispute with Bachiler was an attempt "to solicit the chastity of his neighbor's wife."
In 1898 Frederick Clifton Pierce published Batchelder, Batcheller Genealogy. Descendants of Rev. Stephen Bachiler, of England, a Leading Non-conformist, Who Settled the Town of New Hampton, N.H. and Joseph, Henry, Joshua and John Batcheller of Essex Co., Massachusetts (Chicago 1898), cited in this sketch as Batchelder Gen. This volume includes a long sketch of Stephen Bachiler (pp. 75-115 [including the accounts of his children]), which, as is typical with this author, contains much information of dubious validity, very poorly organized. Embedded in the list of the immigrant's children, between the daughter Deborah and the son Stephen, are several accounts of Reverend Stephen Bachiler prepared by other authors, mostly published in various town histories [Batchelder Gen 95-109].
Since the three Samborne brothers of Hampton and all their descendants are also descendants of Reverend Stephen Bachiler, V.C. Sanborn, when he compiled the Sanborn genealogy, included an account of Bachiler's life [Genealogy of the Family of Samborne or Sanborn in England and America. 1194-1898 (n.p. 1899), pp. 59-66]. Like all of his work, Sanborn's writing on Bachiler is careful and accurate.
A curious book published in London in 1661 included a supposed coat of arms for Stephen Bachiler, which included a punning reference to the Plough Company (Sylvanus Morgan, The Sphere of Gentry: Deduced from the Principles of Nature, An Historical and Genealogical Work, of Arms and Blazon ..., pp.102-03). This was certainly not a properly granted coat of arms, but something invented by the author for his own literary purposes.
|
|
|
