Descendants of Matthew WING

May 15, 2009 — Dawna

This is a work in progress. I am not an expert. There are wonderful Wing researchers who are. I add links when ever I can.

FIRST GENERATION

1.  Matthew WING WING(E) [WYNGE] was born about 1549 in (Unknown), England.  He died between Oct 16 1614 and Oct 19 1614 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. He is first mentioned with his wife, when their second son, Thomas, was christened April 21, 1576, in St. Mary’s Church, Banbury, England. Matthew was born in the days of the boy king, Edward IV, prior to the time of Queen Mary, “The Bloody Queen,” who tried to stamp out the Protestant Church established by her father. She had her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, imprisoned at Woodstock, only a few miles from the home of Matthew Wing. Upon the death of Queen Mary, the half-sister became Queen Elizabeth, and restored the Protestant Church of England, and not only persecuted Catholics, but included all other sects who would not join the state church. At that time the Puritans were very strong, and even had a majority in the House of Commons, but they could not pass any religious legislation because of the Queen. Information found here.

1. Luke WING(E) b: EST 1574 in (Unknown), England

2.  Thomas WING(E) [Wynge] c: 21 APR 1576 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

3. Sibill WING(E) c: 26 JAN 1578 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

4. Elizabeth WING(E) c: 20 MAR 1579 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

5. Elizabeth WING(E) c: 08 OCT 1581 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

6. John WING(E) c: 12 JAN 1584 in Banbury, St. Mary’s, Oxfordshire, England

7. Matthew [Matthias] WING(E) c: 27 FEB 1586 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

8. James WING(E) c: 01 FEB 1587 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

9. Sarah WING(E) [Whynge] c: 12 JAN 1589 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

10. Joane [Joana] WING(E) c: 25 DEC 1592 in Banbury, St. Mary, Oxfordshire, England

He was married to Mary about 1573 in England. Mary was born about 1552 in England.  She died before Jul 24 1613 in Banbury, Oxon, England.  Matthew WING WING(E) [WYNGE] and Mary had the following children:

  1. Rev. John WING.

SECOND GENERATION

2.  Rev. John WING was christened on Jan 12 1584 in Banbury, St. Mary’s, Oxfordshire, England.  He died between Nov 2 1629 and Aug 4 1630 in probate (will-proved), St. Mary Aldermary, London, London, ENG. At this time the church was no longer Catholic, and Queen Elizabeth was trying to force all to worship in the Church of England. John Wing entered Oxford School at 14 years of age. The records show: “John Winge of Oxen pleb St. Albans Hall, 15 October, 1599, age 14.” On February 12, 1603, he was invested at Queens College with the degree, Bachelor of Arts. John was then 25 years of age and Deborah was 18 at the time of their marriage.

He was married to Deborah BACHILER (daughter of Rev. Stephen BACHILER). Rev. Stephen BACHILER. trained under the famous minister, Roger Williams (circa 1603-1683), who came to America and founded Rhode Island.  He became Vicar of Wherwell, now Horell, Hants, on January 26, 1587.  On August 9, 1605, he was ejected from living for Puritanism.  He organized the Plough Company of emigrants and landed in New England on June 5, 1632. In 1654 he returned to England and died there in 1660.  He was the ancestor of Whittier, Daniel Webster, and William Pitt Fessenden. This information found here. Rev. Stephen Batchelder, Vicar of Wherwell, who refused to comply with the requirements of the Crown, was deprived of his church at Wherwell in 1603. He became a Presbyterian, and was interested in the Puritan movement, as was John Wing (Ref: “The Batchelder Genealogy,” pp. 82-87). Information found here.

Deborah BACHILER was born about 1592 in Wherwell, Hampshire, England.  She died before 1653 in Yarmouth, (now Barnstable), PC.  Rev. John WING and Deborah BACHILER had the following children:

  1. Debora(h) WING was christened on Oct 12 1609 in Stroud (now Strood), St. Nicholas, Kent, England.  She died before Aug 27 1680.
  2. John ll WING was christened on Sep 1 1611 in Strood, St. Nicholas, Kent, England.  He died about Apr 1699 in Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
  3. Daniel WING.
  4. Joseph WING was born on Nov 5 1618 in Hamburg, Saxony, (now Germany).  He died in almost certainly died young.
  5. Stephen WING.
  6. unnamed daughte WING was born in 1625.
  7. Matthew WING was born after 1627 in The Hague, Netherlands.  He died before 1653 in Stroud, Kent, ENGLAND.

DEBORAH BATCHELOR, as a widow, sailed across the Atlantic aboard the ship “William and Frances” with her father, Rev. STEVEN BATCHELOR, and her four sons, landing at Boston, Massachusetts, on June 5, 1632.  They settled at Sandwich on Cape Cod.  She is believed to be the Goodwife Wing who died in Harwich, Massachusetts in 1692. ~ Info from here.

THIRD GENERATION

Very Cool ~ Historic Wing Sites of Sandwich Massachusetts

5.  Daniel WING was born about 1616 in poss. Sandwich, Kent, England.  He died 10 MAR 1697/98 i in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.

He was married to Hannah SWIFT. Hannah SWIFT (daughter of  Robert Swyft b. 1549 and Bridget Hastings 1553 England)  was born about 1620 in Bermondsey, Surrey, ENG.  She died on Jan 31 1664/65 in Sandwich, PC.  Daniel WING and Hannah SWIFT had the following children:

  1. Hannah WING was born on Jul 28 1643 in Sandwich, PC.
  2. She died between 1704 and 1709 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
  3. Mary WING was born Birth: 13 NOV 1650 in Daniel Wing Homestead, Sandwich, PC.
  4. He died before Sep 29 1701 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
  5. Hepzibah WING was born on Nov 7 1654 in Sandwich, PC.
  6. John WING.
  7. Beulah WING was born on Nov 6 1658 in Sandwich, PC.  She died after Mar 3 1715 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
  8. Deborah WING was born in Nov 1660 in Sandwich, PC.  She died after Aug 21 1711 in Bristol Twp., Bucks, PA.

7.  Stephen WING was born in 1621 in prob. Flushing, Zeeland, Netherlands.  He died on Apr 24 1710 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.

He was married to SARAH BRIGGS on Jan 7 1654/55 in Sandwich, PC. SARAH BRIGGS was born between 1635 and 1641 in Lynn or Sandwich.  She died on Mar 26 1689 in Sandwich, Barnstable, PC.  Stephen WING and SARAH BRIGGS had the following children:

  1. Stephen WING was born on Sep 2 1656 in Sandwich, PC.  He died on Mar 26 1676 in Seekonk, PC.  The King Philip Indian War came in 1675-6. Nathaniel, Stephen’s oldest son is known to have been a soldier. Sandwich furnished five men to fill the ranks of Captain Michael Peirse’s Plymouth Company – Benjamin Nye, John Gibbs, Stephen Wing, Daniel Bessey and Caleb Blake. The Stephen Wing here mentioned was the first born son of Stephen and Sarah (Briggs), at that time twenty years of age. Young Stephen was killed, March 26, 1676, in the massacre of his company by the Indians under Cananchet at Seekonk. And so the Wings of Sandwich were among the very first to sacrifice their lives in the defense of the Colony which had so venomously persecuted them because of their religion.
  2. Sarah WING was born on Feb 5 1658/59 in Sandwich, PC.  She died on Aug 26 1720 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts.
  3. John WING was born on Sep 25 1661 in Sandwich, PC.  He died on Sep 21 1728 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusett.
  4. Abigail WING was born on May 1 1664 in Sandwich, PC.  She died after Dec 2 1700 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.  Dr. Conway P. Wing states that she died unmarried. She is mentioned in her father’s will, Dec. 2, 1700, and is left a legacy of twenty shillings. She was at that time 36 years of age and apparently unmarried. It is generally believed that she remained with her father and kept house for him in the “Old Fort House” after the death of her mother in 1689. No record has been preserved of her death. BEF 02 OCT 1700 Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts
  5. Elisha WING.
  6. Ebenezer WING was born on Jul 11 1671 in Sandwich, PC.  He died on Feb 24 1738 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
  7. Matthew WING was born on Mar 1 1673/74 in Sandwich, PC.  He died between Jan 8 1724 and Jul 21 1724 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts.

He was married to Ose(i)th-Os(h)ea(h) DILLINGHAM about Oct 1646 in Sandwich, PC. Osheah DILLINGHAM was christened on Feb 10 1621/22 in Cotesbach, St. Mary, Leicester, England.  She died on Apr 29 1654 in Sandwich, PC.  Stephen WING and Oshea DILLINGHAM had the following children:

  1. Nathaniel WING was born before Mar 2 1646/47 in Fort House, Sandwich, PC.  He died about Nov 1722 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
  2. Ephraim WING was born on Apr 2 1649 in Sandwich, PC.  He died before Dec 10 1649 in Sandwich, PC.
  3. Mercy WING was born on Nov 13 1650 in Sandwich, PC.  He died in Sandwich, PC.
  4. Deborah WING was born about 1653 in Fort House, Sandwich, PC.

FOURTH GENERATION

15.  John WING was born on Nov 14 1656 in Sandwich, PC.  He died on Aug 1 1717 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

He was married to Martha SPOONER (DAVOL) before Mar 8 1683/84 in Dartmouth, PC. Martha SPOONER (DAVOL) was born about 1658 in Dartmouth, PC.  She died after Nov 29 1730 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts.  John WING and Martha SPOONER (DAVOL) had the following children:

  1. Desire WING.

22.  Elisha WING was born on Feb 2 1668/69 in Sandwich, PC Massachusetts.  He died BET 08 JUN 1752 AND 19 MAY 1757 in in Wareham, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

He was married to Mehitable BUTLER on Mar 12 1689/90 in Sandwich, Barnstable, PC Mass. Mehitable BUTLER was born about 1671 in Sandwich, PC Mass.  She died on Nov 9 1731 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Elisha WING and Mehitable BUTLER had the following children:

  1. Judah WING was born about 1692 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable (now Plymouth), Massachusetts.  He died about 1740.
  2. Sarah WING was born about 1695 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable (now Plymouth), Massachusetts.  She died between Sep 7 1750 and Jun 8 1752 in Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
  3. Jedediah WING.
  4. Elizabeth WING was born on Mar 21 1700 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable (now Plymouth), Massachusetts.  She died about Jun 20 1756 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
  5. Butler WING was born on Sep 17 1702 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable (now Plymouth), Massachusetts.  He died before Mar 9 1769 in Wareham, Plymouth, Massachusett.
  6. Mehitable WING was born on Aug 4 1705 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable (now Plymouth), Massachusetts.  She died  Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachuset in 03 FEB 1767.
  7. Abigail WING died about 1708 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth, Massachusetts.  She was born on Apr 30 1708 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth, Massachusetts.

FIFTH GENERATION

29.  Desire WING died after 1761 in The Oblong, Dutchess, New York.  She was born 03 FEB 1699/0 in Rochester, Barnstable, Massachusetts.

She was married to Phineas CHASE on Jul 1 1719 in Rochester, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Phineas CHASE was born on Feb 3 1693 in Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts.  He died about Jun 1770 in Pawling, Dutchess, New York.  Desire WING and Phineas CHASE had the following children:

  1. Daniel CHASE.

32.  Jedediah WING was born on Jan 29 1697 in Rochester (now Wareham), Barnstable.  He died about 1763 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.

He was married to Elizabeth GIFFORD (daughter of Gershom GIFFORD and Deborah BOWERMAN) on Dec 18 1734 in Agawam (now Wareham). Elizabeth GIFFORD was born about 1715 in Plymouth (Agawam, now Wareham), Plymouth, Massahusetts.  She died after Aug 30 1787 in Easton, Saratoga, New York.  Jedediah WING and Elizabeth GIFFORD had the following children:

  1. Abigail WING was born on Sep 14 1735 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth,.  She died about Mar 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts.
  2. Matthew WING was born on Apr 8 1737 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth,.  He died on Jun 8 1756 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.
  3. Mehitable WING was born on Mar 27 1738 in Rochester (now Wareham), Plymouth,.  She died on Sep 14 1812 in Chatauqua, Chatauqua, New York. m. William Prendergast Children: Matthew, Thomas, Mary, Elizabeth, James, Dr. Jedidiah, Martin, John Jeffery, Susanna, Eleanor, Martha, William, Elisha
  4. Elihu WING was born on Aug 31 1741 in Wareham, Plymouth, Massachusetts.  He died about 1785 in White Plains, Westchester, New York.
  5. Gershom WING was born on Feb 2 1744/45 in Quaker Hill, The Oblong, Dutches NY.  He died in 1825  near Farmersville, Canada West Ontario
  6. Deborah WING was born on Feb 6 1746/47 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  She died about 1782.
  7. Elisha WING was born on Apr 16 1748 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.
  8. Prince WING.
  9. Elizabeth WING was born on Apr 16 1755 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.
  10. Dorcas WING was born on Sep 4 1757 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  She died on Apr 17 1846 in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.

SIXTH GENERATION

37.  Daniel CHASE was born on Jan 9 1720 in in of Tiverton, Newport, RI.  He died in Providence, Saratoga, New York.

He was married to Hannah TALLMAN COOK on Aug 7 1740 in Portsmouth, Newport, RI. Hannah TALLMAN COOK was born on Nov 15 1715 in Tiverton, Bristol (now Newport), Ma.  Daniel CHASE and Hannah TALLMAN COOK had the following children:

  1. Deborah CHASE.

45.  Prince WING was born on Mar 24 1753 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  He died on Mar 21 1843 in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.  Prince and Deborah were both Wing descendants; Prince was descended from the Stephen Wing line and Deborah was descended from the Daniel Wing line. Prince and Deborah are both buried at Greenfield, Saratoga Co., New York.

Prince was employed or working as a Magistrate at Greenfield, Saratoga, NY, USA. He lived in Butternuts, Gilbertsville, Otsego, NY, USA. He was born on 4 March 1753. He was the son of Jedediah Wing and Elizabeth Gifford.

Prince, age 22, married Deborah Chase, age 21, , daughter of Daniel Chase and Hannah Tallman, in August 1775.

Prince Wing removed to Quaker Hill to Greenfield, Saratoga Cty., NY. In 1786.

Prince Wing died on 21 March 1843 in Greenfield, Saratoga, NY, USA,, at the age of 90 years and 17 days.

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Basic Wing History 101

This section is for those of you who have just realized a need to know more about your Wing family roots. This is basic Wing History 101. However, for as much as we have discovered of our history, there is still so much to research and to learn. Please, don’t think that we know it all because we don’t.

Our history, as far back as we can go with any certainty and proof, takes us to the village of Banbury, Oxenshire, England to the home and Tailor Shop of our ancestor, Matthew Wynge. Matthew was born about 1548 presumably in England. Matthew’s wife and the mother of all of his children was Mary. That is one of the things left to discover, Mary’s last name. At this point in time we haven’t a clue.

For our purposes, we need to turn the calendar back to January 12, 1584 where we would find Matthew, Mary and their two sons, Fulke and Thomas and their two year old daughter, Elizabeth, in the chapel of the medieval St. Mary’s Church where they are celebrating the baptism of thier infant son, John. This infant male would be our ancestor, the Reverend John Wing.

At the age of fourteen John Wing entered Oxford University; “John Wynge of Oxon, pleb. St. Alban’s Hall, 15 October, 1599, aged 14.” He accomplished his studies and on February 12, 1603, Queen’s College invested him with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It would be interesting to know what he did between his graduation in 1603 and 1609, but there again, that is something yet to be learned. What we do know is that he married Deborah Bachiler about 1608/09.

Deborah Bachiler Wing was born about 1592 at Wherwell, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Reverend Stephen Bachiler and his wife, Anne Bates (?). Anne’s last name is yet to be proven conclusively. You will learn much about Rev. Stephen Bachiler as you delve deeper into your Wing history written by more accomplished writers than myself. Suffice it to say that the good reverend is just one more reason to be proud of your heritage.

What we are sure of at this time is that Rev. John Wing and his wife, Deborah had four sons and one daughter. We have reason to believe that there were more but, once again, we haven’t the proof to support that theory. The family was well traveled and moved frequently as John Wing’s ministry took him to a variety of exciting places. The family finally wound up at the Hague in Holland where Rev. John Wing became a minister of some importance. He preached to the Winter Queen, Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of King James the First. Rev. Wing also wrote five books of sermons that have recently become available. We have also learned very recently that he communicated with the Ambassador of England to the Hague, Sir Dudley Carleton.

Sometime around 1628 or 1629 the Wing family returned to England and settled in London. We know this because Rev. John Wing wrote his will at his home in the Parish of St. Mary’s Aldermary, London England on November 2, 1629. From his books and the letter that he wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton we have reason to believe that Rev. John Wing had not been in the best of health for a long time. Finally, in late July or early August, Rev. John Wing, our patriarch, succumbed to his illness and died at the approximate age of forty-six. Sadly, we have yet to learn where Rev. John Wing is buried.

Deborah Bachiler Wing was left a widow at the approximate age of thirty-eight, with one daughter, Deborah, who was married and four sons who were not married. Her oldest son, John Wing would turn nineteen about a month after his father’s death, Daniel Wing, the second son, would have been about thirteen by our estimation, Stephen, the third son, was about nine years old, and the baby, Matthew, was about two years of age. (For the most part these ages are approximations. And we are almost certain there were more children but evidently they did not survive to adulthood.)

Deborah must have spent the next two years struggling to get her own affairs in order. Perhaps she buried a child during that period of time, we may never know but we can be assured that her heart and mind were sorely taxed with the job of raising her children, managing her dead husband’s business affairs and planning for the voyage that would take her and her sons to the new world which was referred to as New England.

We don’t know how keen Deborah was to transplant herself and her sons in New England but we do know that her father, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, was determined to go there and that he was also determined that his children and grandchildren would join him. Which is how it happened that in March of 1632, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, his third wife, Helen Mason Bachiler, and Deborah Bachiler Wing, her four sons, John, Daniel, Stephen and Matthew, among many others, boarded the old wine ship, the William & Francis, and spent eighty-eight days floundering across the Atlantic ocean. Our weary, seasick ancestors arrived at Massachusetts Bay Colony on June 5, 1632.

We have a lot to thank Rev. Stephen Bachiler for but most particulary is because it was his determination that caused you to like baseball games, sing the National Anthem and vote Republican or Democrat. We cannot prove it at this time but we have every reason to believe that Rev. John Wing was also instrumental in the whole saga of the Wing migration. Had he lived, there is little doubt that Rev. Wing would have been aboard the William and Francis also.

The Wing family settled first at Lynn (Saugus) and finally made their way to Sandwich, Massachusetts, where our roots are so deeply embedded that the place is almost a shrine for the Wing family. It seems almost as though no matter how far removed we are from that place or how many years have passed since that time, Sandwich, Massachusetts is Home. It is where the Wing boys became men, took wives, buried their mother, and fathered children. Only one Wing son returned to England and that was Matthew, the youngest. John, Daniel and Stephen remained.

If your last name is Wing or you have a known descent from someone by the name of Wing, you are very likely descended from one of those three brothers, John, Daniel or Stephen.

Like I said earlier, this is Basic Wing History 101. There is so much more I could share but then you wouldn’t have the joy of exploring. Check out the links on the main page. Go to the Wing Family Online Library, visit Raymond T. Wing’s extensive Online Database that contains nearly every Wing member you would ever want to know about. Join the Wing Meeting Place at Yahoo.com where we all get together and send pictures, post files and exchange emails and make genealogy a lot of fun. Join the Wing Family of America which is proudly going on 108 years old.

Come to the reunion this summer which will take place at Seaside, Oregon. Or, join us next year, or join us in the following years, the places will be given on this website. We welcome you to the family and we are so happy that you have arrived. We want to share what we have learned with you and we so hope that you will share your history with us. It is important that we collect as much history from family members as possible.

If you are a male and your last name is Wing you might be interested in the Y-DNA program that is sponsered by the Wing Family of America, Inc. There is a link to the website that is hosted by Raymond T. Wing that will tell you all you want to know about it. It is an exciting biological journey that promises to indicate to the Wing family just exactly where in the world we come from. On the little that we have to go on at this point it seems like our earliest ancestors were Vikings.

Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are a large family with cousins in every state of the union. We cover every spectrum of religious belief and every aspect of education from the highest to the lowest. We have a diversity of ideas and we are now different races and creeds but one thing we do share in common is a pride in the Wing name and the Wing history and that makes us family.

Toni Cox Nash

December 4, 2006

updated Sept. 16, 2008

(My mother was a Wing)

Even as I write this article new discoveries about the Wing family are being made…so that this article is already out of date.

He was married to Deborah CHASE (daughter of Daniel CHASE and Hannah TALLMAN COOK) on Aug 29 1774. Deborah CHASE was born in Quaker Hll, New York.  Her married name was Deborah Wing. She was born on 1 May 1754. She was the daughter of Daniel Chase and Hannah Tallman.

Deborah, age 21, married Prince Wing, age 22, , son of Jedediah Wing and Elizabeth Gifford, in August 1775.

Deborah Chase died on 14 July 1833 in Greenfield, Saratoga, NY, USA,, at the age of 79 years, 2 months and 13 days.

HUSBAND AND WIFE, BOTH WERE WING DESCENDANTS

Prince Wing, (Jedediah Wing, Elisha Wing, Stephen Wing, Rev. John Wing, Matthew Wing) born March

4, 1753 at Quaker Hill, Dutchess County, New York. Prince died March 21, 1843 at the age of ninety-one.

Prince Wing is buried at Lawrence Cemetery, a private family burial ground at Greenfield, New York, with

his wife, Deborah Chase. On his tombstone is a carved square and compass, which is an indication that

Prince was a member of the Masonic Order.

Prince Wing married Deborah Chase in August of 1775. Deborah was born in Oblong, Dutchess County,

New York on June 9, 1754. Deborah was the daughter of Daniel Chase and Hannah Tallman Cook. She

died July 14, 1833 at Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York. Deborah is buried at Lawrence Cemetery

in Greenfield, Saratoga Co., New York, with her husband.

The father of Deborah Chase, Daniel Chase, was the son of Phineas Chase and Desire Wing. Desire

Wing was the daughter of John Wing and Martha Spooner. John Wing was the son of Daniel Wing and

Hannah Swift. Therefore, the descendants of Prince Wing and Deborah Chase descend from the lines of

Stephen Wing and Daniel Wing.

Prince Wing purchase land from his brother, Gershom Wing in 1785 at Quaker Hill. It is believed that he

moved away from there in 1786, moving to Saratoga County, New York. Prince is mentioned in deeds as

“yeoman.” Among some old records the following was found;

“At a school meeting held at Saratoga ye 3d of 12th mo. 1789, Prince Wing and Reuben Baker is

appointed to visit the school and report next meeting their satisfaction.”

Prince bought lands in Saratoga Co., New York at Milton and Greenfield. His name is mentioned

frequently in the Friends’ meeting at Butternuts and in Greenfield. Before moving to Greenfield, it is

believed that Prince and his family lived at Butternut, Otsego County, New York.

Prince Wing was a local magistrate at Greenfield, New York and was frequently called upon to conduct

litigations for his neighbors.

The U. S. Census of 1790 report him living with his family at Easton, Albany County, as Greenfield was

known at that time.

Prince Wing and Deborah Chase had the following children:

1. Asa Wing

2. Seneca Wing. Seneca died at Butternuts, Otsego, New York.

3. Hannah Wing. Hannah died at Butternuts, Otsego, New York.

4. Dorcas Wing. Born at Quaker Hill, Dutchess Co., New York. Dorcas married Samuel Benedict.

5. Elihu Wing, born October 21, 1779 at Quaker Hill. Elihu died November 29, 1864 at Greenfield,

Saratoga Co., New York at the age of eighty-five. Elihu married Sarah Manchester. Sarah was born at

Westport, Bristol Co., Massachusetts on June 10, 1797, the daughter of James Manchester and Hannah

Unknown. She died on October 4, 1827 at Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.

6. Elizabeth Wing, born about 1781 at Quaker Hill. Married Levi Tobey on February 27, 1820 at Morris,

Otsego, New York.

7. Rebecca Wing, born November 19, 1781 at Easton, Albany, New York (Greenfield), she died

November 7, 1855 at Richfield Township, Genesee, Michigan at the age of seventy-three. Rebecca

married Thomas Clark, the son of Thomas Clark and Sarah Sprague. Thomas was born at Danby,

Vermont on February 23, 1778, he died July 10, 1864 at Richfield Township, Genesee, Michigan at the

age of eighty-six.

8. William Gifford Wing, born February 2, 1782 at Quaker Hill, he died March 22, 1824 at the age of

forty-two. William was married twice; (1) Abigail Leggett on January 22, 1807 and (2) Rachel Ray on

March 28, 1817.

9. Daniel Wing, born April 5, 1794 at Greenfield, Saratoga, New York, died November 2, 1869 at

Greenfield at the age of seventy-five. Daniel is buried at Scott Cemetery in Greenfield. He married

Clarissa Manchester on February 22, 1814. She was born at Westport, Bristol Co., Massachusetts on

July 18, 1791, the daughter of James Manchester and Hannah Unknown. Clarissa died on May 9, 1870 at

the age of seventy-eight.

10. Deborah Wing, born May 29, 1796 at Greenfield, she died March 15, 1877 at Weston, Franklin, Idaho at the age of eighty. Deborah was married twice; (1) Levi Gifford on August 15, 1789. Levi died on March 4, 1860 at the age of seventy. She married (2) Lewis Peck. Lewis was the son of James Peck and Deborah Manchester.

Prince WING and Deborah CHASE had the following children:

  1. Dorcas WING was born on Sep 19 1776 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  She died on Apr 28 1857.
  2. Asa WING was born on May 19 1778.
  3. Elihu WING died on Nov 29 1864 in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.  He was born WING b: 21 OCT 1779 in Pawling, Dutchess, New York.
  4. Rebecca WING was born on Nov 18 1781 in Easton, Albany, New York.  She died on Nov 7 1855 in Richfield Twp., Genesee, MI.
  5. William Gifford WING was born on Feb 7 1785 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  He died on Mar 22 1824.
  6. Seneca WING was born on Sep 23 1787.  He died about 1810 in Butternuts, Otsego, New York.
  7. Elizabeth WING was born on Oct 12 1789 in Quaker Hill, Dutchess, New York.  She died on Dec 9 1876 in Caledonia, Kent, Mich.
  8. Hannah WING was born on Jan 22 1792.  She died about 1810 in Butternuts, Otsego, New York.
  9. Daniel WING was born on Apr 5 1794 in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.  He died on Nov 2 1869 in Greenfield, Saratoga, New York.
  10. Deborah WING.

SEVENTH GENERATION

48.  Deborah CHASE was born in Quaker Hll, New York.  Her married name was Deborah Wing. She was born on 1 May 1754. She was the daughter of Daniel Chase and Hannah Tallman.

Deborah CHASE and Prince WING had the following children:

  1. Dorcas WING.
  2. Asa WING.
  3. Elihu WING.
  4. Rebecca WING.
  5. William Gifford WING.
  6. Seneca WING.
  7. Elizabeth WING.
  8. Hannah WING.
  9. Daniel WING.
  10. Deborah WING.

58.  Deborah WING was born on May 20 1796 in Greenfield, Saratoga, Ny.  She died on Mar 15 1877 in Weston, Franklin, Id.  She was buried in Weston, Franklin Co, Idaho.

She was married to Levi GIFFORD (son of Noah GIFFORD and Mary BOWERMAN) in 1816 in Ny. Levi GIFFORD was born on Aug 15 1789 in Conway, Franklin, Ma.  He was buried in Mar 1860 in Moroni, Sanpete, Utah.  He died on Mar 4 1860 in Moroni, Sanpete, Utah.

Joseph Smith (the Mormon CHurch Founder) had his BOOK OF MORMON printed by a small shop in Palmyra, NY., in April, 1830. His father and brothers went out that spring to sell the book from farm to farm to farm in New York and upper Pennsylvania. It is documented in Mormon History that within a few weeks the original 6 members of the church had grown into hundreds and within months the following had grown into thousands. (“THE LATTER DAY SAINTS” by Robert Mullen, pages 15 – 17)

Orson and Parley Pratt were converted to Mormonism from the Cambellites religion in Ohio; they became instrumental in moving the Mormon Church headquarters to Kirtland, Ohio. In Ohio, thousands of new members were added to the rolls during 1830 – 1835.

Levi received a copy of the Book of Mormon from a younger brother.  In 1831 Levi went with his brother to Kirtland where he met the Prophet Joseph and he and his brother were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They returned home and moved his family to Ohio to gather with the Saints shortly there after.   Deborah WING and Levi GIFFORD had the following children:

  1. Priscilla GIFFORD.
  2. Benjamin Archibald GIFFORD was born about Apr 10 1821 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  He died on Feb 4 1886 in Richmond, IN.
  3. Ichabod GIFFORD was born on Apr 14 1822 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  He died after 1850.
  4. Daniel GIFFORD was born on Mar 19 1823 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  He died after 1841.
  5. William GIFFORD was born in 1828 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  He died after 1850.
  6. Phebe GIFFORD was born in 1825 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  She died before 1841.
  7. Hannah GIFFORD was born about 1829 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  She died before 1841.
  8. James Moroni GIFFORD was born on May 9 1831 in Kirtland, Lake, Oh.  He died after 1851.
  9. Levi GIFFORD Jr..

EIGHTH GENERATION

59.  Priscilla GIFFORD was born on Mar 3 1818 in Sullivan (now Covington), Tioga, Pennsylvania.  She was buried in Aug 1876 in Weston, Oneida, Id.  She died on Aug 2 1876 in Weston, Oneida, Id. (photo)

Warner HOOPES (son of Jonathan HOOPES and Rebecca WATTS) was born on Oct 29 1817 in Lewisberry, York, Pennsylvania.  He died on Feb 13 1891 in Weston, Oneida, Idaho.  He was buried on Feb 13 1891 in Weston, Oneida, Idaho.  Warner joined the church in 1834 and moved to Kirkland, Ohio. (photo)

Warner Hoopes, son of Jonathan Hoopes and Rebecca Watts Hoopes, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, October 29, 1817. He died at Weston, Idaho February 13, 1891. His ancestors were of the Puritan stock, of the Quaker religion. His grandfather was engaged as a provision hauler in the Revolutionary War. Warner was the third child in a family of twelve children. Not being very strong as a young man, he was taught the shoemaker trade. While he was still a boy, his parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They were with the Mormons in their wanderings, and shared with the Saints the mobbings, drivings, and persecutions incident to the membership in the Church during its infancy.  Priscilla GIFFORD and Warner HOOPES had the following children:

  1. Daniel Lewis HOOPES was born on Oct 9 1849 in Smithville, Clay, Mo.  He died on Apr 20 1925 in Logan, Cache, Ut.  He was buried on Apr 23 1925 in Weston, Oneida, Id.
  2. Seth Alma HOOPES was born on Dec 16 1840 in Brown, Brown, Illinois.  He died on Sep 16 1841.
  3. Hannah Melissa HOOPES.
  4. William Warner HOOPES was born on Mar 7 1852 in Platte City, Platt, Mo.  He died on Aug 11 1858.
  5. Mary Jane HOOPES was born on Jul 25 1854 in St. Joseph, Buchanan, Mo.  She died in Sep 1854.
  6. Rozina Albina HOOPES was born on Apr 8 1858 in Florence, Douglas, Nb.  She died on Aug 2 1862.
  7. Deborah Eliza HOOPES was born on Sep 26 1861 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  She died on Oct 2 1862.
  8. Rebecca Ann HOOPES.
  9. Elizabeth Adelaide HOOPES.

67.  Levi GIFFORD Jr. was born on Mar 14 1837 in Kirlland, Geauga, Oh.  He was born on Mar 14 1837 in Kirtland, Geauga, Ohio.  He died on Sep 23 1893 in St. Anthony, Fremont, Id.  He died on Sep 23 1893 near Marysville, Fremont, Idaho.  He was buried on Sep 25 1893 in Wilford, Madison, Id.  He has reference number 2017382.

Information provided by the Wing Family of America, Inc. http://www.wingfamily.org

He was married to Caroline Jacques NEWTON in 1859 in Farmington, Davis, Utah. Caroline Jacques NEWTON was born on Dec 25 1839 in Leicester, Leicester, England.  She died on Mar 21 1881 in Weston, Oneida, Idaho.  She has reference number 2078169.

Information provided by the Wing Family of America, Inc. http://www.wingfamily.org

NINTH GENERATION

70.  Hannah Melissa HOOPES was born on Apr 30 1845 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Il.  She died on Jan 12 1923 in Logan, Cache, Ut.  She was buried on Jan 15 1923 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.

She was married to William MCCARREY on Jul 24 1864 in Richmond, Cache, Utah. William MCCARREY was born on Feb 12 1832 in Kirk Jerman,Peel, IOM, Eng.  He died on Nov 25 1904 in Richmond, Cache, Utah.

75.  Rebecca Ann HOOPES was born on Jun 16 1842 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Il.  She died on Jun 22 1899 in Weston, Franklin, Id.  She was buried on Jun 25 1899 in Weston, Franklin, Id.

She was married to Matthew FIFIED. Matthew FIFIED was born in 1830 in Vermont.

76.  Elizabeth Adelaide HOOPES was born on Sep 9 1847 in Council Bluffs, Pttwtt, Ia.  She died on Nov 19 1889 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  She was buried on Nov 20 1889 in Mesa, Mrcp, Az. (photo)

She was married to Charles Hopkins ALLEN (photo) (son of Andrew Lee ALLEN and Clarinda KNAPP) on Jun 15 1864 in Richmond, Cache, Ut. Charles Hopkins ALLEN was born on Oct 16 1830 in Burton, Cattaraugus, Ny.  He died on Feb 18 1922 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He was buried on Feb 19 1922 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  Elizabeth Adelaide HOOPES and Charles Hopkins ALLEN had the following children:

  1. Charles Lewis ALLEN was born on May 30 1865 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Feb 8 1944 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.
  2. Warner Hoopes ALLEN was born on Oct 17 1866 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Feb 24 1932 in Prescott, Yavapai, Az.  He was buried on Feb 29 1932 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  3. Andrew Lee ALLEN was born on Dec 13 1868 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Jul 22 1870 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.
  4. John Seymour ALLEN was born on Nov 27 1870 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Jan 22 1966 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He was buried on Jan 24 1966 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  5. Theodore Knapp ALLEN was born on May 20 1872 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Sep 4 1877 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.
  6. Adelaide Cedilla ALLEN.
  7. Clarinda Knapp ALLEN was born on Mar 7 1876 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  She died on Aug 17 1956 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  8. Elijah ALLEN.
  9. Priscilla ALLEN was born on Dec 26 1879 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  She died on Jun 21 1952 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  She was buried on Jun 24 1952 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  10. Deborah ALLEN was born on Sep 13 1881 in Richmond, Cache Co., Ut.  She was christened on Sep 21 1881 in Richmond, Cache Co., Ut.  She died on Feb 8 1973 in Menlo Park, San Mateo Co., Ca.  She was buried on Feb 12 1973 in Mesa, Maricopa Co., Az.
  11. Rebecca Hannah ALLEN was born on Jul 6 1883 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  She died on Apr 7 1971 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  She was buried on Apr 10 1971 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  12. Julia ALLEN was born on May 23 1885 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.  She died on Jan 8 1971 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.  She was buried on Jan 12 1971 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.
  13. James David ALLEN was born on Nov 18 1887 in Mesa, Mrcp, Az.  He died on Apr 15 1940 in Globe, Gila, Az.  He was buried on Apr 18 1940 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  14. Joseph ALLEN was born on Nov 13 1889 in Mesa, Mrcp, Az.  He died on Apr 22 1890 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.
  15. Rebecca Hannah ALLEN.

TENTH GENERATION

85.  Adelaide Cedilla ALLEN was born on Mar 27 1874 in Cove, Cache, Ut.  She was christened on May 7 1874 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  She died on Jan 6 1963 in Mesa, Mrcp., Az.  She was buried on Jan 9 1963 in Mesa, Mrcp., Az.

She was married to Horace Cornelius FULLER (son of Cornelius FULLER and Annie Elizabeth (Anna) LEWIS) on Jan 26 1894 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona. Horace Cornelius FULLER was born on Jan 2 1870 in Harrisburg, Washington, Ut.  He died on Dec 9 1904 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.

87.  Elijah ALLEN was born on Jan 22 1878 in Richmond, Cache, Ut.  He died on Jul 1 1953 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He was buried on Jul 3 1953 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.

He was married to Emma Pearl NIELSON on Oct 9 1901 in Salt Lake City Utah. Emma Pearl NIELSON was born on Apr 1 1880 in Sunset, Apache, Az.  She died on Aug 17 1931 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.  Elijah ALLEN and Emma Pearl NIELSON had the following children:

  1. Elijah Cecil ALLEN.

94.  Rebecca Hannah ALLEN was born on Jul 6 1883 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  She died on Apr 7 1971 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.

She was married to Orson Ashael PHELPS (son of Hyrum Smith PHELPS (photo) and Mary Elizabeth BINGHAM (photo). Orson Ashael PHELPS was born on Jun 24 1882 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He died on Jul 24 1953 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He was buried on Jul 27 1953 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.

Rebecca Hannah ALLEN and Orson Ashael PHELPS had the following children (family photo):

  1. Oma PHELPS was born on Aug 11 1906 in Chandler, Arizona.
  2. LEWIS ASHEL PHELPS.
  3. Genevieve PHELPS was born in 1911 in Arizona.
  4. LEON HYRUM PHELPS.
  5. Elizabeth PHELPS was born in 1917 in Arizona.
  6. Orson Allen Jr PHELPS was born in 1919 in Arizona.

ELEVENTH GENERATION

95.  Elijah Cecil ALLEN was born on Jan 30 1904 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.  He died on Dec 16 1993 in Mesa, Maricopa, Az.

He was married to Marilla SOLOMON on Jun 7 1930 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona. Marilla SOLOMON was born on Jun 10 1903 in Shumway, Navajo, Az.  She died on Jun 2 1988 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.

97.  LEWIS ASHEL PHELPS was born on Feb 13 1909 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.  He died on Jun 27 2001.

He was married to MURIEL BRIMHALL (daughter of GEORGE H BRIMHALL and ROSETTA PALMER) on Mar 25 1937 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona. MURIEL BRIMHALL was born on Aug 16 1917 in Taylor, , , Arizona.  She was born on Aug 16 1917 in Taylor, , , Arizona.  She died on Oct 26 1999.  She died on Oct 26 1999.

99.  LEON HYRUM PHELPS was born on Jun 10 1914 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona.  He died on Oct 6 1990.  He was buried in Woodland Cemetery, Deer Park, Spokane County, Washington.  Leon graduated from Gila Community College in Payeson Arizona.

He was divorced from Frances May KNIGHT (photo). Frances May KNIGHT (daughter of Franklin Joseph KNIGHT (photo) and Buelah Mae PILKINTON (photo)) was born on Dec 17 1918 in Rocky Mount, Montgomery Alabama.  She died on Jul 26 2008 in Salt Lake City Utah.

LEON HYRUM PHELPS and Frances May KNIGHT had the following children:

  1. Living Female MILLER (PHELPS).

He was married to SELMA GEIGER on Dec 15 1944 in Lordsbury, New Mexico. SELMA GEIGER was born on May 17 1911 in Selma, Dallas, Alabama.  She died on Sep 24 1986.  (Transcribed from Georgia Pioneers, Vol 11, No.2, p109 – May 1974)

Docttone Benjamin Geiger – b 14Nov1877; d 19Jul1957; m 24Mar1895 to Mary Ann Knight

Mary Ann Knight – b 15Oct1873; d 12Sep1942

Their Children:

Maggie Martha Lee Geiger – b 16Feb1896; m 29Mar1914 to Wm. A. Tolbert

Mamie Cansada Geiger – b 12Feb1898; d 21Sep1930; m 27Apr1923 to Jacob C. Johnson. She died in Greensboro, NC but is buried in Ashboro, NC.

Henry Bernard Geiger – b 24Aug1901; m 26Dec1926 to Maggie Lee Dixon

Bessie Lillian Geiger – b 13Nov1903; m1 Edward F. McNamara(Div) /m2 25Apr1937 to James Bryant Hearn

Wilford Hebrew Geiger – b 19Jan1905; m 15Nov1929 to Lois Reames

James Adley Geiger – b 19Sep1908; m 10Nov1920 to Mattye Clayton

Selma May Geiger – b 17May1911; m1 LeLand Webb (Div) /m2 15Dec1944 to Leon Phelps

Docttone Benjamin Geiger, Jr – b 11Jun1915; m1 Ruby Adams(Div) /m2 Eunice Roy(Div) /m3 10Mar1940 to Thelma Pritchett

Parents of Docttone Benjamin Geiger were:

John Henry Geiger – b 30Jan1830; d Jan 1913

Sarah Ann Hutto – b Apr 1831; d Aug 1931

Parents of Mary Ann Knight were:

Hiram Cranten Knight – b 5Mar1839; d 18May1918

Sarah Ann Ott – b 5Mar1843; d 26Jun1926

This Bible was in a 1915 fire, where some pages and the backs were burned off. Family Record pages were salvaged and copied by Bessie Lillian (Geiger) Hearn and contributed to the Georgia Pioneers. Mrs. Hearn will correspond with interested parties who provide SASE to 2946 14th Ave, Columbus, GA 31904.  LEON HYRUM PHELPS and SELMA GEIGER had the following children:

  1. PHELPS.
  2. PHELPS.
  3. PHELPS.

Henry (Rudolph) MILLER (MULLER) Jr was born on Jun 20 1900 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.  He died on Nov 3 1997 in Salt Lake City Utah.  He was buried in Wasatch Lawns Cemetery.  Henry worked for Salt Lake Cabinet and Restaurant Supply Company until he was 70 and then retired. After that he kept the financial books for a grocery store called GS Market in Salt Lake City Utah until he was 82. Henry enjoyed working in the Boy Scouts program, conducting music including at Great Saltaire and in the church. He served in the military in Arizona.

He was married to Dorothy DALLAS. Dorothy DALLAS was born on Feb 9 1911 in Salt Lake City Utah.  She died on Feb 26 1990 in Salt Lake City Utah. They were divorced.

He was married to Frances May KNIGHT (daughter of Franklin Joseph KNIGHT and Buelah Mae PILKINTON) on May 25 1944. Frances May KNIGHT was born on Dec 17 1918 in Rocky Mount, Montgomery Alabama.  She died on Jul 26 2008 in Salt Lake City Utah

Henry (Rudolph) MILLER (MULLER) Jr and Frances May KNIGHT had the following children:

+15   i. Living Female MILLER (PHELPS).

+16 ii.  Richard Kent MILLER.

  1. Living Male MILLER.

EIGHTH GENERATION

44.  Living Female MILLER (PHELPS) was born on Sep 2 1941 in Arizona.

She was married to Larry Lee LARSON (photo) (son of Clarence William LARSON  (photo) and Signa Vera PEARSON (photo)) on Sep 2 1961 in Ely Nevada. Larry Lee LARSON was born on Sep 21 1939 in Ottumwa Iowa.  He died on Sep 27 2004 in Ottumwa Iowa.

The grandkids all called Larry “Papa”

Larry died of a heart attack while on vacation in Ottumwa, Iowa.

He died in his sister Lois’s home in the middle of the night.

It was his second, possible third heart attack.

The day before Larry and Lois had gone to the cemetery where their Mom Signa was buried.

Living Female  MILLER (PHELPS) and Larry Lee LARSON had the following children:

  1. Living Male LARSON.
  2. Living Female  LARSON.
  3. Living Male LARSON.
  4. Living Female LARSON.
  5. Living Female LARSON.

Visit this web site for great info on Rev. Stephen Bachiler

http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilertoc.htm

A Red-hot ‘A’ and a Lusting Divine:
Sources For The Scarlet Letter

By Frederick Newberry

The New England Quarterly

1987 — Pages 256-264
(Reprinted with permission)

While there has been no shortage of studies on Hawthorne’s literary borrowings in The Scarlet Letter, little has been found concerning historical sources if the letter A itself and virtually nothing has been uncovered concerning adulterous figures in Puritan history who might have been the prototypes of Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. We do know that by 1838, when an early version of Hester appeared in “Endicott and the Red Cross,” Hawthorne was aware of the 1694 law enacted in Salem that required a woman convicted of adultery to wear a capital A sewn conspicuously on her garments.1 Although the appearance of this law so late in the century might seem anomalous to the 1634 setting of “Endicott and the Red Cross” or to the 1642-49 setting of The Scarlet Letter, we may easily resolve the discrepancy by assuming either that Hawthorne had been influenced instead by the early seventeenth-century case of Goodwife Mendame, sentenced to wear an AD on her sleeve, or that, contrary to his usual practice, he felt the need in this instance to take liberties with the historical record.2 Yet the burning sensation described by the narrator in “The Custom House” when he places the faded badge on his breast and feels “as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron” and Hester’s searing torment when observers fix their eyes on the emblem, cause it to be “branded … afresh into Hester’s soul,” may well be based on an actual incident.3 In three separate sources, Hawthorne could have read about a woman who, at a moment very close to the novel’s setting, had the letter A branded upon her. Perhaps just as curious, this woman was married to a former Puritan minister who had been previously censured for adulterous behavior. Hawthorne was undoubtedly acquainted with the fall of this Puritan divine, the implication being that the adultery of the Reverend Dimmesdale was not entirely the product of Hawthorne’s irreverent imagination after all.4 As the scholarship on Hawthorne’s historical works has consistently revealed, the “Actual and the Imaginary” do indeed meet, and “each imbue[s] itself with the nature of the other”

The case of the woman branded for adultery first appeared in the records of York, in what is now Maine. Dated 15 October 1651, the entry reads:

“We do present George Rogers for, & Mary Batchellor the wife of Mr. Steven Batcheller minister for adultery. It is ordered by ye Court yt George Rogers for his adultery with mis Batcheller shall forthwith have fourty stripes save one upon the bare skine given him: It is ordered yt mis Batcheller for her adultery shall receive 40 stroakes save one at ye First Towne meeting held at Kittery, 6 weekes after her delivery & be branded with the letter A.”

Beside that entry, written in the same hand, is the notation, “Execution Done.”5 It appears that Charles Edward Banks, in his History of York, Maine (1935), recognized the connection between Hawthorne’s novel and this case, for he refers to Mary Batchellor’s branding in a section titled “The Scarlet Letter.”6

Hawthorne did not have to read the original records in order to become acquainted with the punishment of Mary Batchellor. In the first volume of Collections of the Maine Historical Society he could have read an account of the sentence passed on George Rogers and Mary Batchellor.7 We know that Hawthorne had a personal interest in Maine’s history. Not only had he attended Bowdoin College during the years immediately following the excitement over Maine’s admission to statehood, but his father’s family had claims to land there, and his mother’s family still lived in Maine.8 It would not be surprising if, in the course of his research, he came across the reference to Mary Batchellor’s sentence.

Still another report of the sentence appears in the second edition of Alonzo Lewis’s History of Lynn (1844), which also includes a lengthy biographical sketch of Mary’s husband, the Reverend Stephen Batchellor.9 Hawthorne, it is true, had read the first edition of Lewis’s History (1829), which contains most of the sketch on Stephen Batchellor found in the second edition as well as information on his marital troubles with Mary, but the original does not mention Mary’s adultery.10 Nevertheless, Hawthorne may also have consulted the second edition. Having published several volumes of poetry, Alonzo Lewis was both fondly and jokingly known around Boston and Salem as the “Bard of Lynn,” and he was a town character frequently subjected to controversy.11 Hawthorne must have been acquainted with Lewis through local gossip, and he may even have known him by sight, since Lewis habitually walked several miles from his home in Lynn throughout the 1820s and 1830s in oder to attend Episcopal services at St. Peter’s Church in Salem.12 These circumstances, in addition to specific reports by word or print, might have elicited Hawthorne’s interest in the second edition of the History, which was available during the Custom-House period when Hawthorne began rereading historical materials in preparation for writing The Scarlet Letter.

One would prefer a more compelling claim than plausibility for Hawthorne’s knowledge of Mary Batchellor’s case. Indeed, the similarities between Hester Prynne and Mary Batchellor are so outstanding that is is tempting to argue for a direct source. For example, Mary Batchellor’s adultery is the only known case involving a child that can be linked to Hester’s plight. By postponing execution of the sentence until six weeks after Mrs. Batchellor’s delivery, the officials of York obviously considered the health of the unborn child. Hawthorne suggests a similar delay in the novel, for when Hester and Pearl appear in the opening scaffold scene, Pearl is “some three months old” (p.52). Although Hester is not physically punished, the account of Mary Batchellor might have provided factual warrant for postponing Hester’s sentence to stand exposed to public disgrace and ridicule.

The striking feature of Mary Batchellor’s case, however, is the form of punishment. Hawthorne certainly knew that adultery was sometimes a capital offense in Massachusetts Bay. In John Winthrop’s History of New England, for example, he would have read about James Britton and Mary Latham, who were executed for adultery in 1643. Britton appealed to the General Court for his life, “but they would not grant it, though some of the magistrates spake much for it, and questioned the letter, whether adultery was death by God’s law now.”13 Accordingly, in the opening scaffold scene, “the ugliest as well as the most pitiless” of the women spectators says that Hester “has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book” (pp.51-52).

Another disgruntled woman in this scene would like to see Hester suffer the punishment of Mary Batchellor: “The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch . . . . At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead” (p. 51). Although Hawthorne knew that branding was used to punish diverse crimes in early New England, the association of branding with the letter A in Mrs. Batchellor’s punishment is reflected not only in Hester’s sense of the scarlet letter as an “ignominious brand” (p. 86) that is “Flaming” (p.79), which of course also suggests the figurative heat of shame or passion, but also in the narrator’s description of the letter as a brand in “The Custom-House.”

If Hawthorne was aware of Mary Batchellor’s marriage to Stephen Batchellor, it could well have inspired the creation not only of Arthur Dimmesdale but also of Roger Chillingworth. Batchellor himself was no stranger of Hawthorne. In the edition of Winthrop’s History familiar to him, editor James Savage calls special attention to the “unfortunate” Stephen Batchellor, who arrived in Massachusetts Bay on 5 June 1632 at the age of seventy-one.14 Batchellor was the subject of two controversies in the 1630s concerning his unsanctioned methods of establishing separate churches at Lynn, but these squabbles were insignificant compared to the one at Hampton in 1641, which Winthrop describes at some length:

Mr. Stephen Batchellor, the pastor of the church at Hampton, who had suffered much at the hands of the bishops in England, being about 80 years of age, and having a lusty comely woman to his wife, did solicit the chastity of his neighbour’s wife, who acquainted her husband therewith; whereupon he was dealt with, but denied it, as he had told the woman he would do, and complained to the magistrates against the woman and her husband for slandering him. The church likewise dealing with him, he stiffly denied it, but soon after, when the Lord’s supper was to be administered, he did voluntarily confess the attempt, and that he did intend to have defiled her, if she would have consented. The church, being moved with his free confession and tears, silently forgave him, and communicated with him: but after, finding how scandalous it was, they took advice of other elders, and after long debate and much pleading and standing upon the church’s forgiving and being reconciled to him in communicating with him after he had confessed, they proceeded to cast him out. After this he went on in a variable course, sometimes seeming very penitent, soon after again excusing himself, and casting blame upon others . . . . He was off and on for a long time, and when he had seemed most penitent, so as the church were ready to have received him in again, he would fall back again, and as it were repent of his repentance.15

Hawthorne could have found all but the last sentence and clause of this case quoted from Winthrop in the second edition of Lewis’s History.16 In the first edition, however, Hawthorne would have learned only that Batchellor had been “excommunicated” in 1641 for “irregular conduct,” although this edition does mention that Batchellor was ninety at the time of his remarriage in 1650 to Mary (the “lusty comely” wife of 1641 having died).17 Their union drew the attention of Bay authorities when Batchellor was “fined ten pounds, for not publishing his intention of marriage, according to law,” and again, later in 1650, when the General Court ordered the couple to “lyve together as man and wife,” thereby denying both of their petitions for divorce.18 Sometime in 1651, Batchellor returned to England, where he remarried and lived another ten years, his polygamy apparently undetected.19 One cannot determine from either Lewis’s first or second edition whether Batchellor left America before or after Mary’s trial for adultery. Within the narrow time margins involved, however, he probably knew that Mary was pregnant from an extra-marital union. The would-be adulterer had himself become a cuckold, and his response was to flee

Few details in Batchellor’s life invite comparison with Hawthorne’s Dimmesdale. Indeed, Batchellor’s advanced age, his young and wayward wife, and his incorrigibility attracting public censure are more reminiscent of Chillingworth. But Batchellor’s attempt to seduce another man’s wife, links his American experience to Dimmesdale’s. Moreover, Batchellor’s attempted adultery, followed by his repeated confessions and denials, suggests the major dilemma tormenting Dimmesdale throughout The Scarlet Letter. Knowing at the outset that he should confess, yet perhaps fearing that he will be excommunicated (as Batchellor had been for a seemingly lesser offense), Dimmesdale cannot bring himself to reveal his role in Hester’s sin until seven years later in the climactic scaffold scene.20 It is also worth considering that Batchellor’s return to England might have given Hawthorne the idea of having Hester propose to Dimmesdale that they escape to the Old World. Alternately, knowing that Mary Batchellor was left with the difficulty of providing for a family after her husband’s flight, Hawthorne might have seen the need to discover the moral necessity and the future independence of America lying behind Hester’s ultimate decision to remain in New England.

Finally, the year of Batchellor’s attempted seduction probably influenced Hawthorne’s manipulation of the historical time frame of The Scarlet Letter. When that attempt took place in 1641, Richard Bellingham was governor. Bellingham is clearly the governor, “the chief ruler,” in the opening scaffold scene of The Scarlet Letter (p.64). And yet, because that scene takes place in June 1642, Hawthorne should have designated Winthrop, who had become governor in May. 21 Hawthorne, who had a high opinion of Winthrop, may have created this anachronism among the otherwise accurate details of the novel’s historical setting in order to dissociate Winthrop from the Puritan “sages of rigid aspect” who rule in Hester’s case but who are not “capable of sitting in judgment on an erring woman’s heart” (p.64). Hawthorne surely knew from his reading in Winthrop, however, that the historical Bellingham would have been as unqualified to judge Hester as he was to rule in Batchellor’s case. While governor in 1641, not long before he presided over the General Court’s arraignment of Batchellor, Bellingham had won the hand of a woman who had previously pledged herself to his friend. The governor not only circumvented the law by failing to publish the banns but also performed his own marriage ceremony.22 As reported by Winthrop, Bellingham refused to disqualify himself when the General Court convened to take up charges brought against him by the “great inquest.” The Court was “unwilling to command him publicly to go off the bench, and yet not thinking it fit he should sit as a judge, when he was by law to answer as an offender.23 That he subsequently sat on the bench when the Reverend Batchellor’s case came before the Court would no doubt have pleased Hawthorne’s sense of irony and may further have prompted him to allow the unworthy Bellingham to preside over Hester’s public humiliation.

One of the more unique aspects of Hawthorne’s fiction is how it sends us back to the record books in search of individuals and events that, through the force of his art, he has made us experience as historically real. We do know that Hawthorne did not entirely invent the circumstances and dilemmas of his characters, but we cannot always be sure that he knew what we have discovered in the historical record available to him. While he almost certainly drew upon the life of the Reverend Batchellor, the case of his ill-fated wife is more problematic. Even if, however, we were to dismiss the possibility that Hawthorne knew about Mary Batchellor — which I do not think we can or should do — the historical analogy remains tantalizing. Had The Scarlet Letter never been written, many of us would never have been aware that in mid-seventeenth-century New England even Puritan divines were implicated in cases of adultery and that wayward women faced the threat of being physically as well as socially stigmatized by a burning A. One of Hawthorne’s particular gifts is that he not only brings such facts to light but also that from them he spins stories of such psychological and moral power that they have fascinated readers for generations and promise to do so for generations to come.

[Frederick Newberry, author of the forthcoming HAWTHORNE’S DIVIDED LOYALTIES: ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN HIS WORKS. teaches at the Honors College at the University of Oregon.]

The Reverend Stephen Bachiler

– Saint Or Sinner?

An Examination and Appraisal of the Available Evidence

on the Subject of This Puritanical Colonial

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

FOREWORD

The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Hampshire is indebted to its historian, Professor Marston, for the composition of this second essay on the subject of a colonial personage, which was delivered at the Society’s Field Day Luncheon, at Exeter, August 19, 1961.

The favorable reception accorded our publication of Richard Upton’s “Meshech Weare” in 1960 encouraged this continuation of an historical pattern.

Professor Marston’s attraction to any feature of New Hampshire’s history is indigenous. He was born in this state, educated here and has been a member of the University’s Department of History since obtaining his baccalaureate in 1924 and more recently has served as its chairman. He graciously and alertly accepted the challenge of researching the alleged Bachiler peccadilloes against the man’s conceded consequence as a colonialist.

Although he discovered no precise answer to the rhetorical question of his essay’s title, he has competently marshalled the facts and produced an orderly and scholarly record of them. Each of us may reach his own conclusion anent the enigmatic and peripatetic Puritan pastor who was a founder of Hampton, one of New Hampshire’s four original communities.

As one of the myriad descendents of the Reverend Stephen Bachiler and as a token of my appreciation for the honor of high office, it is my pleasure to contribute the cost of this -publication to the Society.

RALPH SANBORN, Governor, Hampton Falls, August, 1961

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 religious 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 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.”1 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 Wherwell, three sons and three daughters.2

The death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 was followed by the accession to the English throne of James VI of Scotland who, as James I of England, called the famous Hampton Court Conference in 1604 at which the new monarch expressed his displeasure with the Puritans. In 1605 many Puritan inclined ministers were removed from their offices among whom was the Reverend Stephen Bachiler, the date of his removal being August of that year.3

From 1605 until 1632, when Bachiler arrived in Boston, the extant records give few clues to where he was or what he was doing. He seems to have moved from Wherwell to the nearby hamlet of Newton Stacy where he continued as a Puritan preacher and to have been the recipient of legacies in 1607 and 1616. In 1610 his son Stephen entered Magdalen College, Oxford.4 His son’s college career was cut short by expulsion and in 1613 both Bachiler and his son Stephen were sued by a nearby clergyman for libel because it was alleged that father and son had written “some scandalous verse” about the clergyman and had been “singing them in divers places.”5 On June 11, 1621 Adam Winthrop wrote in his diary that “Mr. Bachelour the preacher dined with us.”6 There are records of the purchase and sale of property by Bachiler in Newton Stacy between 1622 and 1630.7 In 1631 Stephen Bachiler was in Holland8 where he was associated with two well-known dissenting clergymen, Hugh Peters and John Davenport.9

Prior to going to Holland he became involved with a plan to form a colony in Maine. In 1630 The Council for New England granted the Lygonia or Plough Patent of about sixteen hundred square miles, south of the Sagadahock or Kennebec river and including the site of the present city of Portland, to a group of London merchants.10 The organization is known both as the Company of Husbandmen and as the Plough Company and their proposed colony was to be called Lygonia. Bachiler was chosen as the pastor of the colony and invested some 60 pounds or more in the enterprise which may explain the sale of his properties in 1630 in Newton Stacy.11

The Company of Husbandmen sent out a ship, called the Plough, in 1630 with a small group of colonists who failed to establish the proposed colony and instead landed at Watertown, Massachusetts. John Winthrop wrote in his Journal that most of the passengers on the Plough were Familists,12 a sect that “professed the principle that religion lay in love irrespective of faith, a tenet no doubt harmless when intelligently held, but liable in rude minds to run into licentious extremes.”13

In 1632 the company sent over two more ships in one of which, the William and Francis, Stephen Bachiler, now seventyone years of age, his second wife Helen and probably four of his grandsons, Nathaniel Bachiler, and John, William and Stephen Samborne, were passengers.14 They arrived in Boston on June 5, 1632.15 As the project for establishing the Lygonia Colony had failed, the backers of the company wrote to John Winthrop requesting him to dispose of the goods which had been sent over and use the proceeds to pay off some of the investors including Stephen Bachiler.16 As late as June 3, 1633, Bachiler was in communication with Winthrop regarding the disposal of part of the cargo.17

The Reverend Stephen Bachiler apparently had planned to live in Newtowne, now Cambridge, after his arrival but he was called to become pastor of the church in Saugus, now Lynn, where he began his duties, maybe as early as June 8, 1632, and where his son-in-law Christopher Hussey resided.18 Less than four months later he was in trouble for the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts, on October 3, 1632, ordered that he could not continue publicly as a preacher or teacher in the colony, except to those who had come over with him, because of “his contempt of authority” and until certain alleged scandals were removed. The proscription was removed on March 4, 1633.19 Apparently he had attempted to organize a church without first securing permission from the proper authorities but as to where this was done is not clear from the records.20

For nearly three years Stephen Bachiler continued as the pastor of the Saugus church during which time he became a freeman of the Massachusetts Colony.21 These were not entirely peaceful years however and the dissension in his church finally reached the point where it became involved with the much larger religious issues centering around Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright. In March, 1635, Winthrop noted in his Journal that there was trouble in the Saugus church but that the differences had been debated “and so all were reconciled.”22 This reconciliation was short-lived, lasting only until January, 1636, when Bachiler was called before the magistrates because he and some of his congregation had asked to be dismissed from the Saugus church in order to form a new church presumably in another place. The dismissal was granted but he and his followers, instead of leaving, started a rival church in Saugus. The members of the first church thereupon complained and Bachiler was ordered to desist until the matter had been reviewed. He refused to be bound by the order so a marshal was sent to bring him in, whereupon he agreed to obey and promised to move out of Saugus within three months.23 Samuel Whiting replaced him in the Saugus or Lynn church.24

From Saugus Bachiler possibly went to Ipswich to live but the records at this point are not clear and it is more likely that, along with his son-in-law Christopher Hussey, he moved to Newbury.25 He was now without a position as pastor of a church a situation known to some in England for in a letter to the Reverend John Wilson of the Boston church, the Reverend Robert Stansby, then resident in Norfolk, England but himself without a pastorate because of his Puritan views, commented on the religious problems in New England. Stangby wrote “That many of the ministers are much sleighted with you, insomuch as although you want ministers (as some wright) yet some amongst you worke with ther hands being not called to any place. . . Others laye downe their ministery and become private members, as Mr. Bachelder …. [and] That you are so strict in admission of members to your church, that more than one halfe are out of your church in all your congregations. . .”26

Stephen Bachiler apparently was not content to remain a “private member” and continue to live as such in Newbury for in the winter of 1637-1638 he walked to the site of the present Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, with the idea in mind of establishing a settlement there. As John Winthrop wrote on March 30, 1638, “Another plantation was now in hand at Mattakeese, [Yarmouth] six miles beyond Sandwich. The undertaker of this was one Mr. Batchellor, late pastor at 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.27

Meanwhile the Massachusetts Bay Colony was interpreting its 1629 charter to claim that the northern boundary of the colony was three miles north of the source of the Merrimack river rather than three miles north of the outlet at Newburyport. This claim, which Massachusetts was eventually unable to sustain, would have made the northern boundary an EastWest line three miles above The Weirs in New Hampshire. In 1636 the General Court of the Bay Colony ordered that a house, subsequently known as the Bound House, be built at what was then called Winnacunnet. While the exact location of this building is uncertain, it seems to have been in what is now the town of Seabrook.28 In 1638 Stephen Bachiler and others petitioned to settle at Winnacunnet and on October 14 of that year they began the actual settlement which was given town privileges on May 22, 1639 and the name was changed to Hampton on September 4 of the same year.29

In the spring of 1639 the first settlers of Hampton were joined by others from Norfolk and Suffolk, England including the Reverend Timothy Dalton, who became the teacher of the church of which Bachiler was the pastor. Dalton’s wife Ruth was a relation of Bachiler30 while Dalton was a relation of John Winthrop.31 Soon after the arrival of Dalton the differences between the two clergymen came to an open break and there occurred the incident which has most frequently been used to defame Bachiler’s character. The alleged proposal to commit adultery was noted in his Journal by Winthrop under date of November 12, 1641. He wrote that Bachiler was about eighty years old at the time and was then married to a “lusty comely woman”, that he denied the charges at first and “complained to the magistrates” concerning the slander against him but that he later confessed his guilt and was excommunicated from the church for a period of two years before being received back in again but without being restored to the office of pastor.32 The Reverend William Hubbard of Ipswich, Massachusetts, writing probably before 1682 and possibly having consulted the manuscript of Winthrop’s Journal gives a similar but shorter account and describes Bachiler’s second wife as “grave” rather than “lusty”.33 Edward Johnson of Woburn, Massachusetts wrote about 1650 of Bachiler as follows:

“Through Ocean large Christ brought thee for to feede,
His wandering flock with’s word thou hast oft taught,
Then teach thy selfe with others thou hast need
Thy flowing fame unto low ebbe is brought”34

These contemporary or near contemporary accounts constitute the chief evidence against the accused and unfortunately documentary evidence in Bachiler’s favor is about nonexistent. During the controversy his house was burned and he lost all of his books and papers. In the latter part of 1644 he wrote a long letter to John Winthrop in which he accused the Reverend Timothy Dalton of having “don all and ben the cause of all the dishonour” that had befallen him and Bachiler went on to state that he had not had a fair trial. He implied also that Dalton’s actions were motivated by a desire for revenge.35 In 1650 Stephen Bachiler sued the town of Hampton for wages due him and won the case.36

Most historians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries make no reference to the alleged attempt at adultery. Jeremy Belknap for example in his The History of New-Hampshire, even though he consulted the manuscripts which were later printed, ignores the charges.37 Such was not the case with J. A. Doyle, the nineteenth century English historian, who, depending chiefly on Winthrop’s accounts, condemns Stephen Bachiler along with John Underhill, Hanserd Knollys and Thomas Larkham, the last three being involved in troubles in Dover. Doyle wrote that, “It would be unfair to take such men as [the four mentioned] for representatives of anything but an exceptional and morbid type of Puritanism. Yet the proximity of the four offenders in time and place almost forces one to believe that the disease was far more widely spread than would be supposed from the uniform and indiscriminating eulogies of New England writers.”38 The most thorough defense of Stephen Bachiler is the paper written by Victor C. Sanborn39 and read by his father, Frank B. Sanborn, author of New Hampshire An Epitome of Popular Government in the American Commonwealths series, before the April 19, 1909 meeting of the New Hampshire Historical Society. In the light of the available material we are faced with the question of whether or not Bachiler was guilty of the accusation made against him. His age, for he was about eighty years old, the fact that he won his case for unpaid wages against the town of Hampton and his letter to John Winthrop are in his favor but he did make a confession before the church and that weighs against him, that is if we can believe John Winthrop. Perhaps the best that we can do is give Bachiler the benefit of the doubt and say that the accusation was made but not completely proven and unfortunately not disproven.

By the beginning of the year 1644 Stephen Bachiler had come to the conclusion that he should leave Hampton. He was offered the opportunity to become the pastor of the church in either Exeter, New Hampshire or Casco, Maine and decided upon the Exeter call only to have this position taken from him by the action of the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which on May 29, 1644 forbade the inhabitants of Exeter from organizing a church at that time.40 John Winthrop referred to this action in his Journal and raised again the issue of disruption of churches when he wrote, “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.”41

In at least his eighty-fourth year, when most men of today would have long since been retired if they had managed to live that long, Bachiler, in 1644, sold his farm in Hampton and went to live in the Portsmouth area, possibly on the Kittery side of the Piscataqua although this is not certain.42 With him was his grandson Stephen Samborne and maybe other members of his family. His second wife Helen died before he left Hampton and so Bachiler was faced with the problem of finding someone to do his housework in an age when a housekeeper was regarded with more disapproval than in a later time. In a letter to John Winthrop, dated May 3, 1647, Bachiler wrote that he had found a widow to have “some eye and care towards my family” and that this arrangement had met with the ‘”approbation of the whole planta[tion] of Strabury Banke.” However there were rumors that he was already married to her “or certainly shalbe”, and that there were “cast on her such aspertions without ground or proufe” that he did not see how he could possibly continue to live in the place.43

Seemingly the eighty-seven year old man was unaware of the true nature of his housekeeper for sometime before 1650 he did marry her only to be fined on the same day and by the same court in which he won his case for back wages against the town of Hampton, “for not publishing his marriage according to law.” But that was not all for on that same April 9, 1650 the same court “ordered that Mr. Bachelor 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. Bail to be granted if satisfactory security could be obtained. In case Mary Bacheller live out of this jurisdiction without mutual consent for a time, notice of her absence to be given to the Magistrates at Boston.”44

Failing to obtain a divorce from his third wife Mary, Stephen Bachiler apparently lived apart from her until about 1654 when he returned to England. Meanwhile she seems to have been residing in Kittery and leading a “more than normally venturesome” life.45 The York County Court Records beginning with an entry for October 15, 1650 contain several indictments for adultery or for other offenses.46 In 1656 she applied for a divorce and claimed that her husband had married a fourth time after returning to England, a claim without any substantiation in fact,47 but a claim that at least one usually careful modern writer has accepted.48 Apparently Mary Bachiler went to Boston to continue with her suit for a divorce or maybe was taken there because of other reasons for Henry Wright, a constable, was paid twenty shillings for bringing “Goody Batcheler” in a cart in 1658.49 That she was there for other reasons is suggested by an entry in shorthand in the diary of John Hull but with a marginal note in longhand identifying the person concerned as “Goodwife Batchelor”. The editor’s translation of the shorthand states that “Another woman of that time, about 1658, that took such . . . . to the husband of another woman, did. leave her, and would not …. still go to the meeting-house in the . . . . Magistrate was forced to condemn her to prison. She would strip herself almost to the skin, and get out, if possible. . .”50 Whether or not John Hull was writing about Mary Bachiler there is still enough evidence from the records of her behavior to indicate that she was not a very reliable witness concerning the alleged fourth marriage of Stephen Bachiler. In 1674 she married Thomas Turner51 who “succeed George Rogers in the grass widow Bachiler’s affections.”52

Little is known concerning Stephen Bachiler after he left about 1654 for England. He seems to have spent the few remaining years of his life living near London, undoubtedly with members of his family and to have died in 1660 having reached or nearly reached the age of one hundred years.53 [Later research proved this statement to be incorrect. The Rev. Bachiler was buried on 31 October 1656 in the Allhallows Staining Church cemetery, in London, England. — N.H. Genealogical Record, 8:1, (1991)] Was he a saint or a sinner or more of the first and a bit of the last and therefore essentially human? Of the charges against him we may look upon the disruption of churches as of little consequence in this day of religious liberty. The alleged proposal of adultery in Hampton is certainly not proven even if not completely disproven and as for his third wife’s claim that he married a fourth time that, in the light of Mary Bachiler’s recorded behavior, is absurd. Perhaps the best estimate of him is that by Frank B. Sanborn who wrote that Stephen Bachiler “had the merits and defects of his time and his class.”54

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