F - lS:cf z - i^crti* mtpi^tn ISAt)^Uev^ Class. Book £47 3.LL. REV. STEPHEN BACHILER. BY CHARLES E. BATCHELDER. Eeprinted from the N.-E. Historical and Genealogical Register for January, 1892. REV. STEPHEN BACHILER. TnE word " bachelor " has long been a soro puzzle to etymologists, says Lower, in his work on English Surnames.* That the name " Bachelor," however spelled, is the same as the word " bachelor," meaning an unmarried man or a college graduate, is unquestioned, but many derivations have been given by different authors to account for the meaning of the word, some most fanciful and even grotesque, others with more probability of correct- ness. . Knights bachelors were the most ancient, though the lowest order, of knighthood in England. It is said in a note to Chitty's Blackstone that the most probable deriva- tion of " bachelor " is from has and chevalier, an inferior knight.f The derivation of the word is given in Webster's Dictionary as from the old French " bachiler," meaning " a young man." A common derivation given is from " baccalaureus," having reference to the chaplet of laurel berries with which the new bachelor of arts was crowned. The earliest mention of the name indicates that it was given originally to mark the con- dition of its possessor as an unmarried man or as a young man, when there was an elder person of the same Christian name living in the neighborhood. The English registers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, where we first meet the'name, use the French prefix " le." Thus we find Jordauus le Bacheler,t Gilbert le Bacholer,§ that is, Jordan the bachelor, Gilbert the bachelor. We may be reasonably sure that the names Jordan and Gil- bert were then so common in a particular neighborhood that it was neces- sary to indicate by some addition to the Jordan or Gilbert that there was an elder or married person of the same name in the immediate neighbor- hood. If " Bachelor " meant simply an unmarried man it was not proper or fitting at the death of Jordan le Bacheler in 1297, for he left surviving him a wife, Alice, and a son, John. It is, therefore, probable that the word " Bachelor" was used at tiiat time much like junior, meaning simply "the younger," and though at first given to an unmarried man was not dropped upon marriage, as it was a convenient and not inappropriate designation of the younger, whether single or married. At a later period the " le," being superriuous, was dropped, and in 1433 we find John Bacheler returned iu the commissioners' list of the gentry of Norfolk, Englaud, though John y° Baschealer died at Kelsale in Suffolk, Feb. 1, 1552.11 We do not know where the fiimily originated. There is the usual family tradition, which bears on its face the marks of im|)robability, that three brothers by the name of Bachiler served under William the Conqueror and were rewarded after the battle of Hastings iu 10G6 by a grant of land in Wiltshire. For sign manual they were given a shield upon which were three boar's heads, united by three links, a spear above them couchant. There was no crest, indicating that they were private soldiers. • Lower's Patronymica Brittanica, 20. t Note to puge 404. J Calendarium GcneaioRioum, 1297. <} Rotiili ClaiiSiirHin in Tiirri Loiuloncnsf. ^ Rcgtstcrs of the Parish of Kelsale, Suffolk. Before 1600 we find the family name in the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Wilts, Hampshire, Bucks, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk, all in the south-eastern part of England. Very few are found north of London. The earliest mention of the name is found in Surrey, and very probably Surrey or Sussex was the earliest home of the Bachilers. It is impossible, at present, to trace the relationship, if any existed, be- tween the early Bachiler families in England, or to decide whether the first emigrants of that name to America were kindred. The Ipswich and Salem emigrants were brothers. The names associated in some of the early Eng- lish families indicate that Alexander Bacheler, the emigrant, of Portsmouth, was a relative of the Salem and Ipswich Bachilers, as Mark Bacheller of Brading, in the Isle of Wight, died about 1614, leaving a brother Alexan- der Bacheller, two sons, John Bacheller the elder and John Bacheller the younger, and three daughters.* Mark was a family name among the Salem Bachilers, but neither that name nor Alexander has been found elsewhere in the English families. Such evidence is of course slight, but is worth noting in the absence of more convincing facts. It is probable that other relation- ship existed between some of the Bachiler emigrants, but further and more careful search must be made in England before this interesting question of relationship can be settled. There were seven immigrants of the Bachiler name : 1. Alexander of Poi'tsmouth, N. H. 2. Rev. Stephen of Lynn, Mass., and Hampton, N. H. 3. Hemy of Ipswich, Mass. 4. Joseph of Salem, Mass. (now Wenham). 5. John of Salem, Mass. 6. William of Charlestown, Mass. 7. John of Watertown, Dedham and Reading, Mass. There are living descendants of the Bachiler name from four of these immigrants, namely, Rev. Stephen, Joseph and John of Salem, and John of Reading. It is not proposed in this article to give a sketch of the lives of any of these first settlers, except that of Rev. Stephen Bachiler, and in his case about all that can be done is to rearrange the old material, add some new facts, recently discovered, and correct the numerous and gross errors in regard to his immediate descendants. The treatment accorded to those early citizens of Massachusetts Bay, who fell under " suspicion," at the hands of their more othodox brethren, has been so long frankly acknowledged and the causes so thoroughly ex- plained, that it can no longer be considered derogatory to the Massachusetts Commonwealth to speak plainly concerning the treatment of Williams, Wheelwright and other disturbers of the Puritan State. To do otherwise would be affectation. There was intolerance on the part of the Bay Colony and also on the side of " the suspected." The latter should have withdrawn voluntarily from the settlement previously occupied by the church-state party, and the former had not then learned that the sure way to perpetuate neterodoxy is to persecute and punish its adherents. Naturally the Massa- chusetts historians have chronicled the virtues of the clergymen who upheld the Massachusetts plan, and the opponents of that plan, being neglected, were speedily forgotten. It is said of Samuel Skelton of Salem, Mass., " Little has come down to us concerning him, owing, it is said, to the fact * Will of Mark Bacheller, Probate Registry, Winchester, Hants. that * he differed about clerical associations and other subjects, from most of the principal persons in Massachusetts.' "* We know that Stephen Bachiler contended, with a vigor and earnest- ness unusual for a man of his years, against tlie Puritan doctrine of a religious commonwealth, against that union of church and state to which they clung as to the ark of their safety,t and which has since been univer- sally conceded to be a lamentable error. He lived to see the beginning of the downfall of that " experiment fraught with evil," as the halfway covenant, allowing baptized persons, not church members, upon assenting to the church covenant, to have all the rights of members, except communion, was approved by the Synod called in Massa- chusetts in 16574 We know further that^he most zealously maintained the rights of the New Hampshire settlements in their contest with Massachusetts, which ended in IGll in the control of the weaker province by the stronger. Whatever material advantages were secured by New Hampshire, through this union of the colonics, and they were by no m^ans inconsiderable, were valued little by those ardent friends of New Hampshire, who resisted the aggressions of the Bay colony. The great wrong done New Hampshire by the attempt to pervert the Massachusetts charter so as to include all territory south of an east and west line through the head of the Merrimack, could never be condoned by any advantages arising from the union. Stephen Bachiler staked his fortunes on the continued independence of the New Hampshire settlements, and lost. If the cause he championed had prevailed, he would to-day be remembered with gratitude as one of the stoutest champions of New Hamp- shire, and his life would undoubtedly have been materially different. He had settled Hampton under the authorization of Massachusetts, yet his subsequent acts show that he never supposed either of the Massachusetts claims to Hampton well founded. He knew it was not within their patent, nor vacant land first occupied by I\Iassachusetts.§ Why then did he pro- cure a grant from the General Court of Massachusetts and act under their directions ? It was because he had already felt their displeasure and thought the grant might be in some way a protection to himself and his company in making the settlement. But it is not worth while to discuss these matters at length, as they excited great bitterness once, though now, happily, long settled and entire good feeling prevails between the two states. Stephen Bachiler, for so he always wrote his name, was born somewhere in England in the year 1561. At the age of twenty he entered St. John's College, Oxford. He was matriculated November 17, 1581, and admitted as Bachelor of Arts February 3, 1585-6. The leading profession for col- lege graduates in that day was that of a clergyman, and he determined to study for the ministry, being then a member of the establish»3d cinircli. Apparently the time between his graduation in February, 1585-6, and July, 17, 1587, was spent in preparation for his life work, for on the day last named, the death of Edward Parrett, vicar of Wherwell in Hants, making a vacancy in that living, he was presented with the jilace by William West, Lord Lawarr (or de la Warr as it was written later), and became vicar • Spraptie's American Pulpit, Vol. I. 8. t Story's Com. Settlement of Salem, Mass., 3t. + 1 Sprague's Am. Pulpit, Int. xx. and xxi. 6 Sec reply of Mjiss. to the remonstrance of Exeter at the settlement of Hampton. Wint. N. E„ vol. i.* 290, 303, 304. of the Church of Holy Cross and St. Peter * On the 26th of Jannar: . 1587-8, the new incumbent compounded for the payment of the first frui' of the vicarage. The village of Wherwell stretches along the westerly bank of that " trout- ful stream " the Test, in Hampshire, three and one half miles from Ando- ver. Very great historical interest attaches to this retired town and its ancient monastery. Wherwell Abbey has been the home or the abiding place of three and perhaps four English queens, who were renowned for their extraordinary beauty. The parish of Wherwell hardly had any ex- istence apart from the Abbey down to the year 1543, for until that time* the Superior of the Monastery was Lady of the Manor, and owned the whole village and a large part of the neighborhood. The same church served for the parish and the monastery, with presumably a chapel for parochial services as at Romsey. It had also a chapel with a special en- trance which was appropriated to the " Priory " as a pew. The earliest mention of Wherwell, or Whorewell, as it was then called, is found in the will of King Edred, A.D. 946, 955. He gave the town to the new Mon- astery, subsequently called Hyde Abbey. In the year 986 -^Ifrida founded Wherwell Abbey for Benedictine nuns in penitence for the bloodshed in which she had been concerned. In the chartulary of Wherwell Abbey the story is thus told : " And in the place, which by the inhabitants is called Wherwell, founded the Church of the Holy Cross, beseeching Christ, that He who, wounded on the (ever) memorable Cross, shed His blood for the redemption of the human race, might deign to grant her the pardon (pur- chased) by His death, His wounds, and by the shedding of His blood rich (in graces )."t Wherwell contains five hundred and forty-one inhabitants, and must have been a very retired spot until- the London and South Western Railroad ran a branch line through the town about the year 1883, and built a very sub- stantial and commodious station at Fallerton in the parish of Wherwell. Many of the residences, and especially the old court house near the station, are of early date and look as if they had not changed appreciably in three centuries. The old Parish Church of Holy Cross and St. Peter was pulled down and rebuilt in 1858. The old building was repaired after the Re- formation with the best portions of the Abbey ruins. With the exception of some fragments of mouldings, one monumental effigy, and parts of two monuments, there are absolutely no traces of the old church.J Of Stephen Bachiler's life at Wherwell we know nothing. The Church records were begun in 1634, or at all events no earlier records now exist. We only know that he remained here until 1605, for on the ninth day of August, 1605, John Bate, A.M., clergyman, was appointed Vicar of Wher- well, a vacancy existing because of " the ejection of Stephen Bachiler," the last vicar.§ Not much more is known of his life in England, from the loss of his living at Wherwell to the spring of 1632, when he sailed for New England. He was excommunicated from the church, and so no church record exists showing his abiding places. Probably he preached to dif- ferent congregations, not in a settled way, but when he could avoid the persecution of the church people. Occasionally we get a glimpse of hi» location. In 1610 he appears to be still a "clergyman of the County of * Bishop's Rc{:cistry, Winchester, Eng. Register of Thomas Cooper, 10. t The Story of Wherwell Abbey, 4. j The Story of Wherwell Abbey, 11. § Bishop's Uegistry, WiucheBter, Eiig. Register of Thomas Bilson, 18. Southampton."* On the 11th of June, 1621, Adam Winthrop's diary shows that he " had Mr. Bachelour, the preacher " to dine with him, pre- sumably at Groton in Suffolk. This may have been the subject of this sketch. Some of the parishioners of Barton Stacey in Hampshire, a few miles east of Wherwell, listened to his sermons at some time before 1G32, for we find that Sir Robert Paine petitioned the Council, stating that he was sheriff of Hants iu that year and was also chosen churchwarden of Barton Stucey, and that " some of the parishioners, petitioner's tenants, having been for- merly misled by Stephen Bachelor, a notorious inconformist, had demolished a consecrated chapel at Newton Stacey, neglected the repair of their parish church, maliciously opposed petitioner's intent (to repair the church at his own charge), and executed many things in contempt of the canons and the bishop.f Once more we hear from him on the 23d of June, 1631, when, at the age ef seventy years, he obtains leave to visit his sons and daughters in Flushing. He was then resident at South Stoneham, in the County of Southampton, and desires that his wife Helen, aged forty-eight years, and his daughter, Ann Saudburn, of age thirty years, widow, resident in the Strand, might accompany him. He was to return within two months. J It would be interesting to know which of his sons and daughters then lived at Flushing, as Deborah Wing was apparently residing in London in November, 1629, when her husband, John Wing, made his will and pre- sumably she was appointed executrix of the will when it was proved August 4, 1630, as Mr. Waters makes no note that administration was granted to any other person than the executrix named in the will.§ Stephen Bachiler was excommunicated among the earliest of the non- conformists. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, James I. of the house of Stuart came to the throne. In January, 1604, the famous Hampton Court conference was held, when King James uttered his angry threat against the Puritans, " I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the kingdom." The next year the King's threat was carried out against Mr. Bachiler, and no doubt he was thoroughly "harried" after his excommunication. Wiuthrop says that Bachiler " had suffered much at the hands of the bishops."ir As early as 1630 Bachiler had determined to leave England and settle in America. At all events he made preparation for such removal. Mave- rick, in his Description of New England, says " there was a patent granted to Christo: Batchelo"' and Company** in the year 1632 or thereabouts,tt for the mouth of the River (Sagadahocke) and some tract of land adjacent who came over in the ship named the Plough, and termed themselves the Plough Compauie, but soon scattered, some for Virginia, some for England, some to the Massachusetts never settling on that land."tt "The Plough ship of sixty tons on the 6th day of July, 1631, arrived at • Records of Magdalen Coll. Oxford, Eng., June, 1610, admitting Stephen Bachiler, aged 16 years, son of a clergyman of Hampshire, t Domestic Calendar of State Papers, 1635. I Registek, July, 1891, page 237. f Rkoisteu, JuIv, 1891, page 237. II Winthrop's N, E. ii.« 44. •♦ This must mean Chrispe, Batchclor and Company. John Chrispe or Crispe, as the name was commonly written, and Stephen Bachiler were grantees named in the patent. tt Hulihard says, in 1030. A contemporary MSS. in the possession of the Maine Hist. Society, gives thcexact date as June 26, 10:30. Sic Maine H. I't G. Rec, vol. ii. 66. t; Maverick's Description of New England, Registeu, vol. 39, p. 35. 8 Natascott [Nantasket]. She brought ten passengers from London. They came with a jjatent to Sagadahock : but not liking the place they came hither. Most of them proved familists and vanished away."* It has been said that this grant was afterwards called the province of Lygonia, after Cicely Lygon, the mother of Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; but Maverick says there was a patent granted for this (Casco) Bay some years since by the title of the Province of Ligonia to Collonel Alexander Rigby, which is no doubt true. It is earnestly to be hoped that this Plough patent or a copy will sometime be discovered. At present it is impossible to de- fine the extent of the grant or to prove beyond question what territory was occupied under it. Hubbard says it was south of the Sagadahock River and twenty miles from the sea side, yet all agree that the original grant was forty miles square. Two contemporary writers say it was a patent for Sagadahock.f Two islands in the River Sagadahock, near the south side thereof, about sixty miles from the sea, are included in the grant, but no such islands exist. Great ignorance of our geography was shown in making the early grants, and they frequently overlap earlier grants. Sagadahock was a very elastic word in early days. It was applied to the river formed by the union of the Kennebec and Androscoggin, also to the region about that river, pro- bably on both sides, like the present county of Sagadahock, and in later times to all the land east of the Sagadahock River to the St. Croix.| It seems most probable that the Plough grant began at the mouth of the Sagadahock, ran inland on that river and the Androscoggin forty miles in a straight line, but sixty measured on the river, and forty miles south and a like distance back from the Ocean. This was found to overlap earlier grants, which had been so frequently made of Sagadahock.§ * Winthrop's N. E., i.« 58, Prince 357. The last clause was added long after its date by Winthrop or a later hand. It has served as a basis for a careless Maine writer to charge that Stephen Bachiler was a familist. Fortunately other manifest errors in the same article indicate its untrustworthiness. It is evident that the members of the Plough company whc came over in 1632 were not familists. The fact is that many of the earlier settlers of New England were of bad reputation. Hundreds of ignorant, starving creatures were taken from the streets and sent over by unscrupulous adventurers, and innumerable convicts were set free on condition of emigrating to New England. The later colonists, especially those coming in the great movement between 1630 and 1640, were much superior to the earlier immigrants. Winthrop would have known and mentioned the fact if Bachiler had been tainted with familism. In matters of opinion, that is of belief, Dalton and Bachiler agreed, says Winthrop. Who ever heard that Dalton entertained familistic opinions ? The charge is ridiculous and utterly unsupported. + MS. No. 3418 Brit. Museum and Col. Papers, Pub. Rec. Office, ii. 16. t See grant by Charles II. in 1664 to his brother James, Duke of York, of Sagadahock, 80 called, including all that land except a small tract at Pemaquid. § Granted by Elizabeth in 1578 to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, renewed in 1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh. By the French monarch in 1603 to the Sieur de Monts. Granted about 1607 to the Plymouth Company. Renewed and enlarged in 1620. Under this grant Popham's settlement was made. Grant of 1622 of the Province of Maine to Sir F. Gorges. Curi- ously enough he proposed to devote forty square miles at the mouth of the Sagadahock to a pul)lic plantation to be called the " State County." Grant of Edward Gorges to Thomas Lewis and Capt. Richard Bonylhon, 12 Feb. 1629, four miles long by eight miles inland on the north side of Sagadahock. Grant to the Plough Company 1630. Grant from the ex- piring Council for New England to Sir F. Gorges in 1635 from the Piscataqua to the Saga- dahock. Grant of ten thousand acres to Mason in 1635, lying southeast of Sagadahock. Ryall's grant from Gorges about 1639. Revival of Plough patent in 1643 by Cleeve as deputy for Rigby. Several of these grants were in general terms covering other territory. Vines says in a letter to Winthrop, January 9, 1643, that Cleeve extended his govern- ment " from Sackadchock to Cape Porpus, being aboue 13 leagues in length." Jenncr in a letter to Winthrop, dated 6. 2m. '16, mentions "the tract of land which Mr. Cleeve doth challeng by vcrtue of his Patent, viz. from Sacadehock River to Cape Porpus," and says that Jocelyn, who succeeded Cleeve, claimed " that Mr. Cleeve his terminus a quo should 9 When the territory was actually settled it was found that the bounds could only extend from the west side of Cape Porpoise to the east side of Cape Klizabeth, a distance less tlian twenty miles, as Casco and most of the territory east of the Sagadahock had been previously occupied under other grants. At the very beginning of 1G32 Mr. Rachiler left England for liostoii in New England. lie sailed on the Uth of March, K^Jl-'i, in the vessel calleil the William and Francis, from L()n Winthrop's N. E. I. *29'2 note. Id. I. *60. Mss. Court Records, Rockingham COs, N. H.» passim. t Register, Vol. I. 152. i Mass. Hist. Coll. Fourth Scries, Vol. VII. 585. 16 had succeeded in excomraunicating him. At last, wearied with the contest, BachiltT accepted the inevitable and agreed to remove " for peace's sake," as he wrote Winthrop. In order to justify to Wintlirop their unlawful act in excommunicating IJachiler, Dalton and his adherents told Winthrop that Bachiler had confessed the truth of the charge and claimed that his offer to remove voluntarily was a confession of guilt. That this act was a confession was indignantly denied by the pastor, and so arose the cliarge that he confessed and then retracted his confession. What absurd con- structions were given to words in those days in order to allege that a confession had been made can be seen by examining Wheelwright's letter in connection with the statement of the IMassachusetts General Court in 1644, that Mr. Wheelwright had made " a particular, solemn and serious acknowledgment and confession of his evil carriages and of the Court's justice upon him for them." Winthrop accepted as true the word of Bachiler's enemies, and neglected to give the aged pastor a hearing for his vindication, though urgently demanded. , 6. The Hampton town records of this date are silent in regard to this matter, and the church records have been missing for many years. They can give no testimony either way. 7. No tradition exists in Hampton or, so far as can be learned, has ever existed, giving the name of this woman or her husband, and no written evidence of any kind has ever been produced, except the story as preserved by Winthrop. Who was this woman? Was the complaint made promptly? Was her word worthy of credence? Was she of pure life? Did she per- sist in her declaration? Did she afterwards retract the charge? Did she live in Hampton many years afterwards, and was she during this time on friendly terms with the accused until his removal from town? We cannot test the truth of the charge by answers to these questions, for we have no evidence on these points. 8. During all this time Bachiler was carrying on a correspondence with Gov. Winthrop and members of his family. If he had confessed the crime Dalton would have promptly notified Winthrop of that fact, and Bachiler would soon have found that Winthrop knew it. On the contrary, at the end of the year 1643 we find him writing to the church at Boston that he does not see how he can leave Hampton until he has cleared and vindicated the wrongs he has suffered in the church of which he was still a member. He demands a trial of his allegations against Mr. Dalton and of Dalton's defence. He says that divers elders and brethren have looked slightly into the troubles, but there has never been a judicial trial of them. He affirms that his excommunication was the foulest matter, both for the cause alleged and the real cause (even wrath and revenge). The proceedings of Dalton against him he declares to be monstrous and fearful. Brook says ''the supposition that the charges of immorality against Hugh Peter were true is inconsistent with the intimate relations which he is known to have sustained to many eminent men of unquestionable worth."* Would Winthrop and his family have been friends and correspondents of one whom they knew to be immoral ? 9. It must e remembered that no charge is so easily made, so readily believed without proof, aneace he sought, but a conflict more bitter and persistent than ever he had experienced in Enghind. Persecution here was unhampered by any hiws or hmitations. Appeal was in vain. A few attempts were made to review uuhiwful acts of tlie colonies in England, but the delays were interminable, the process cos^^ly and the results unsatisfac- tory. His matrimonial difficulties also led him to return to England. His petition for divorce seems not to have been granted, and we know of no modification of the order that he should continue to live with his adulterous wife. How could he escape that wicked woman except by placing the ocean between himself and her? Another strong reason for his journey home is found in the changed state of jiolitical affairs there. The kingdom no longer existed. Charles I. and Strafford had been beheaded. Episcopacy as a state religion had' been abolished. Edgehill, Maiston Moor, Naseby and Worcester had been fought. The Commonwealth lia