THE LIVES OF JOHN BATCHELER AND MARY CHAPMAN

AND SOME OF THEIR DESCENDANTS

By Louis Lehmann

(I am indebted to Bruce Hunt for sharing so much of the Batcheler family information which he has carefully researched. My thanks also goes to Eileen Stage for her great research of coastguard records at the National Archives. I am also grateful to Yvonne Thomas for all the information and encouragement she has shared, especially regarding the French family. Anthony James, Teresa Davies, and Al Jensen have all similarly shared information and support.)

When I first looked at the meager information I had gathered about my 7^th gr-grandfather, I knew there must be much more to his life than the fact that he, John Batcheler (I), was listed as a "sojurner of Playden" when he had married Mary Chapman of Rye on 12 April 1724 at the ancient port town of Rye, that picturesque port town on the Sussex coast. I found no information about this John Batcheler in the Playden parish records and those of Rye told me nothing else about Mary Chapman. But I did find the baptism records for their four children, all baptized at Rye: Mary - 1730, Margret - 1734, William - 1738, and John Batcheler (II) - 1724. For John Batcheler (II) , I found a record of his marriage to Sarah Sillis on 5 Feb 1744 ⁽¹⁾ .⁽²⁾

Looking again at the Rye parish registers I noticed that a John Batcheler, seaman, was buried at Rye 3 Nov 1748 and that another John Batchellor, seaman, drowned and was buried at Rye on 18 Nov 1742. Finding no records for anyone else of this name, I was reasonably sure that one of these seamen, John Batcheler (I) , was my 7^th gr-grandfather and the other, his namesake son, John Batcheler (II) , was my 6^th gr-grandfather. A marriage record (10 July 1750) for Henry Allen and Sarah Batchelor (widow) of Rye indicated that she was probably Sarah Sillis, married in 1744 to John Batcheler , who must be John Batcheler II, buried in 1748 since he clearly could not be the one drowned and buried in 1742.

A marriage record (4 Oct 1748) for William Wilmshurst of Icklesham and Mary Batcheler of Rye suggested that she could be the widow of John Batchelor (I) who married Mary Chapman in 1724 and who was drowned and buried in 1742. To confirm that I was looking at the correct Mary Batchelor in this marriage, I examined the IGI which pointed me to baptismal records of this couple's children: William Wilmshurst 31 Aug 1750 at Rye, Mary Wilmshurst 19 Feb 1758 at Icklesham, and James Batchelor Wilmeshurst. 4 Oct 1761 at Icklesham. ( FHL film # 1067213). James' middle name convinced me that his mother was indeed Mary Chapman, who married first, John Batcheler (I) and second, William Wilmshurst.

I began reading about Rye's history to gain some idea of what events might have occurred during the lives of John (I) and Mary's family from 1724 through 1750. Learning that King George I visited Rye in 1725 and that King George II visited in 1736, I imagined how exciting those events might have been for them during their first twelve years of marriage. And when I discovered that 1740 was such a terrible year in Rye that "Extream Cold Season and necessity of the Poor" encouraged the Rye corporation to donate ten pounds to the vicar for distribution among the needy, I wondered if John Batcheler (I) and Mary, with their four children, were among those poor folks.

Certainly 1742 was an unforgettable year for their family. Like the rest of the little Rye community , they must have been shocked by the March 17 murder of Allen Grebell, Mayor James Lamb's brother-in-law, by John Breads, a local butcher. Breads was angry about a past fine for false weight and intended to murder Mayor Lamb. But because Grebell was wearing his brother-in-law's red cloak that night, Breads mistook him for the Mayor and stabbed him in the back. Of course he was arrested and imprisoned for the next three months in Rye's historic Ypres Tower as his trial proceeded, presided over by his intended victim, Mayor James Lamb. He was found guilty and ... "Breads was hanged on June 8 outside the Strandgate on the west side of the town. His body was suspended in a gibbet-cage near the scaffold, and later in the parish church, until old women stole the bones to make a cure for rheumatism.....Bread's gibbet and skull finally went on display in the town hall, where they still provide a ghastly thrill for visitors." ⁽³⁾

There is no way of knowing just how familiar anyone in John Batcheler (I) and Mary's family were with John Breads or his family. Because Allen Grebell and Mayor James Lamb were distinguished pillars of the community, John and Mary surely knew of them but probably did not have a personal relationship with either of them. And no one can say if anyone in the Batcheler family was among those who actually observed the clearly deranged John Breads, soon after the murder, "dancing around the town, drunk and half-naked, shouting 'butchers should kill lambs' ..." or if any of them had witnessed the hanging. John Batcheler (I) and/or Mary very well could have seen the suspension of Breads body near the scaffold, in the church, or in "Gibbet Marsh" where Bread's remains rotted over many years before the gibbet and skull were removed to the town hall where they still reside today. Hopefully they tried to shield their children from those sights but perhaps they did allow them to view the grave of Allan Grebell in the Clare chapel of the Rye church. If so, we can only speculate as to what they may have said to them about the murder.

John Batcheler (I) or Mary Batcheler may have known John Breads' wife, Mary, who died in 1739, leaving him to care for their two sons, John Jr, then age 8, and Richard , then age 6. And it is quite possible that some members of the Bacheler family were acquainted with these two children before, during, or after the trial and execution of their father. Looking at the ages of the children of both families in 1742, we see that John Breads (II) was eight, Richard Breads was nine, Mary Batcheler was 12, and Margret Batcheler was eight. They very well could have been in the same school. Rye was not a large community during the first part of the eighteenth century. (In 1724 the population was estimated to be about 200 families encompassing about 900 individuals. It was not apt to be greatly larger eighteen years later.). It has been described as a small town in 1742 where the lack of anonymity meant that if John Breads showed signs of madness such signs would have been widely discussed among the town-folk. So John Batcheler (I) and Mary and even their children probably knew about any erratic or bizarre behavior by Breads, who had, on an undated prior occasion, met William Fowl just outside the town in "Dead Man's Lane" where "he thought he was then among a Parsel of Devils", and who, on another occasion some years earlier, had been confined for "feigned madness. " ( Perhaps the Batcheler family was familiar with local tales about Dead Man's Lane, the former site of public hangings, leading to King's Field where a great battle was once fought and where many bones have been found.). ^{(4) (5)}

Like most of the people of Rye, John Batcheler (I) and Mary were probably horrified by the murder of Allen Grebell. But could they also have understood at least some of John Breads' rage against authority?. Some of Rye's social classes, including butchers and mariners such as John Batcheler, were effectively blocked from civic participation and membership in polite society. Patterns of political patronage, profit-taking and greed further separated the social classes (a division accentuated in 1735 when people getting parish relief were ordered to wear badges.)

Sensational as the Grebell murder was, an event eight months later was far more personally tragic for the Batcheler family. According to parish records, John Batcheler (I) drowned and was buried on November 18, 1742. His widow, Mary, was left still raising three of their four children: Mary - age 12, Marget - age 8, and William - age 6. Her oldest son John Batcheler (II), 18, probably was helping to raise his younger siblings but he also may have been following his own career as a mariner. Fifteen months after the death of his father, he married Sarah Sillis at Rye on Feb 5, 1744. John Batcheler (II) and Sarah may well have continued to support his mother and his siblings at until his death in 1748, just one month after the marriage of his sister, Mary Batcheler, to "William Wilmshurst of the parish of Icklesham" The Rye parish records note that on : "Nov 3, 1748 - John Batcheler, Seaman, was buried" ^{(6) (7)}

The records do not list the cause of death for John Batcheler (II) in 1748 but there were episodic outbreaks of smallpox in Rye between 1731 and 1762, ⁽⁸⁾ Whatever the cause of John Batcheler (II)'s death, his widow was left raising her three year old daughter, Sarah, ) baptized 21 Oct 1745; . and an infant son, John Batcheler (III), baptized 19 Feb 1747. This situation changed in 1750 when Sarah re-married as shown by this Rye parish record: "Marriage 1750, July 10, Henry Allen, Seaman and Sarah Batcheler, widow, of this parish".⁽⁹⁾

Smugglers in the area were becoming more brazen and more dangerous during those years. In 1745 armed smugglers declared publicly in Rye their support for the Pretender's son. And in the 1747.... "a band of twenty of these desperadoes, well armed and mounted, rode to the 'Red Lion' inn in that town. They imbibed strong liquors until they became boisterous, fired their guns to frighten the inhabitants" ... "On one occasion fourteen men connected with the Rye band were hanged for the brutal murder of some Customs officials. In 1746 the Government sent two regiments of dragoons to that town "to awe the smugglers." So audacious had they become, that no person dared to molest them, and it was their common practice to discharge their pistols to intimidate the authorities by showing the consequences of interference.". " Four years later (1750) the Custom House at Rye was broken into and good were taken. ⁽¹⁰⁾

Such criminal activity might have influenced William and Mary (Batcheler) Wilmshurst so much that they eventually moved to nearby Icklesham. Their first child, William Wilmshurst (II) was baptized at Rye on Aug 31, 1750 but their next two children were baptized at Icklesham; Mary Wilmshurst, 19 Feb 1758; and James Batchelor Wilmshurst, 4 Oct 1761. ⁽¹¹⁾ The parents might be the William and Mary Wilmshurst who lived in nearby Northiam about 1762. There, according to a listing in "Access to Archives" ..... "By his will dated 1762, William Wilmshurst of Northiam, wheelwright bequeathed property to his wife Mary, on her decease to be divided between his brothers Stephen Wilmshurst of Cranbrook (Kt) innkeeper and Thomas Wilmshurst of Maidstone (Kt) staymaker. The will was proved in 1779 and the property, now called the 'Six Bells', including brewhouse, cellars, stables and woodhouses, was sold for �400 in Mar. 1780 to Thomas Smith of Northiam, victualler (AMS5681/58/4-5)" ⁽¹²⁾

Whether or not William and Mary (Batcheler) Wilmshurst moved from Icklesham to Northiam, Mary's sister, Margret Batcheler and her sister-in-law, Sarah (Batcheler) Allen, remained in Rye where Margaret married Henry Jarret (I) on 9 April 1765. They had five children, all baptized at Rye: Henry Jarrett (II) - 9 July 1766, William Batcheler Jarrett - 23 Dec 1768, John Jarrett - 17 April 1771, Stephen Jarrett - 21 Feb 1773, and George Jarrett - 5 Mar 1775.

Henry Jarrett (II) can be remembered as a community patriot as he was one of the sixty-one Rye citizens who signed the 1828 petition to the Brotherhood (a representative assembly composed of the mayors, certain jurats, and barons from the several towns) to protect the liberties of the Cinque Ports, of which Rye was one. ⁽¹³⁾

Henry and Sarah (Batcheler) Allen continued to raise Sarah's two young children; Sarah and John Batcheler (III) along with their son, Henry Allen (II) bapt 17 Oct 1755. Apparently they grew up at Rye and very well may have been among the many people who heard John Wesley speak when he visited Rye on Nov 22, 1773 and expressed his distress with the continuing problem of smuggling.... "Monday, Nov 22nd I set out for Sussex and found abundance of people willing to hear the good word at Rye in Particular; but they will not part with the accursed thing - smuggling. So I fear, with regard to these, our labour will be in vain." ⁽¹⁴⁾

John Batcheler (III) married an apparently pregnant Rebekah Russell on 1 April 1771 at Rye where their five children were born: John Russell Batcheler, bapt 7 July 1771; William Batcheler, bapt 16 Feb 1774; Thomas, bapt 1 Jan 1776; Isaac, bapt 27 Dec 1777, buried 10 Dec 1779; and Sarah, bapt 2 Mar 1785 at Rye, died 1842 on the Isle of Wight. ⁽¹⁵⁾

.