Editing Stephen Bachiler

{{Short description|English clergyman (1561–1656)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Stephen Bachiler
| image              = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date         = {{Birth year|1561}}
| birth_place        = 
| death_date         = {{Death year and age|1656|1561}}
| death_place        = near [[London]], England
| nationality        = [[England|English]]
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Clergyman
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = Establishing settlements in [[New Hampshire]]
| notable_works      = 
| parents            = 
| spouse             = Ann Bates (m. circa 1590–before 1623); Christian Weare (m. 1623–before 1627); Helena Mason (m.1627);
Mary Beedle (m.1648)
| children           = 6
| relatives          = [[Christopher Hussey (died 1686)|Christopher Hussey]] (son in law)
}}
'''Stephen Bachiler''' (About 1561 – 28 October 1656) was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the [[separation of church and state]] in the American Colonies. He was also among the first settlers of [[Hampton, New Hampshire|Hampton]], [[New Hampshire]].<ref>Biographical Sources for [http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilertoc.htm Stephen Bachiler] (Lane Memorial Library, Hampton).</ref>

==Early life==
Bachiler was born about 1560 or 1561; he matriculated at Oxford University 17 November 1581, when it is believed he was 20. Also called age 70 on 23 June 1631 when he made a trip to [[Vlissingen|Flushing, Zeeland]], to visit family. An early graduate of [[Oxford University|Oxford]] (St. John's College, 1586),<ref>Register of the University of Oxford, Vol. II, part II, p. 44 (1887, found in Google Books)</ref> he was [[vicar]] of [[Wherwell]], [[Hampshire]] (1587–1605) when ousted for [[Religious fanaticism|Puritanical]] leanings under [[King James I of England|James I]].<ref>New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 46:60-61 from Winchester diocesan records</ref> Bachiler is said to have married Ann (no evidence of surname), who was possibly (no proof has been found) a sister of Rev. John Bates (who succeeded Bachiler as Vicar at Wherwell), about 1590, with whom he had six children: Nathaniel, Deborah, Stephen, Samuel, Ann, and Theodate, who later married [[Christopher Hussey (died 1686)|Christopher Hussey]] (1599–1686), also one of the earliest settlers of [[New Hampshire]].<ref name="The Great Migration">Anderson, R.C. (2000) ''The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Vol I (1995)''. NEHGS, pp. 61-69.</ref>
[[File:Bachiler coat-of-arms. By Sylvanus Morgan, 1898.jpg|thumb|Bachiler coat-of-arms]]
Bachiler had a second marriage to Christian Weare, widow, in 1623. She died before 1627. His third marriage, in 1627, was to Helena Mason, the widow of Revd. [[Thomas Mason (clergyman)|Thomas Mason]] of [[Odiham]], Hampshire; Mary, the daughter of Helena and Thomas Mason, was married to [[Richard Dummer]], who also became involved in the founding of the Plough Company.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Family of Dummer |last= Dummer|first=Michael |date= June 2005|edition= 7th|chapter=5: Richard and Early Days in New England|page=24}}</ref><ref>Gen. Dict. Maine & NH, p. 81</ref>

==Plough Company and immigration==
In 1630 he was a member of the ''Company of Husbandmen'' in [[London]] and with them, as the Plough Company, obtained a 1,600 mile² (4,000&nbsp;km²) grant of land in Maine from the [[Plymouth Council for New England]]. The colony was called "[[Lygonia]]" after Cecily Lygon, mother of [[New England]] Council president Sir [[Ferdinando Gorges]]. Bachiler was to be its minister and leader. Although the settlers sailed to America in the winter of 1630–1631, the project was abandoned. The [[plough]]{{efn|U.S. spelling, "plow"}} and the image of a sun rising from its base feature on Bachiler's coat-of-arms which were included in a 1661 work on the origins of heraldry by [[Sylvanus Morgan]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hutchinson|first1=Peter|title=Stephen Bachiler's Coat of Arms|url=http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilercoatofarms.htm|publisher=2006 - Hampton Library, New Hampshire|access-date=15 November 2017|quote=The coat of arms is real, even if not granted by the College of Heraldry or any other authority. It was included in a 1661 work on the origins of heraldry by Sylvanus Morgan– a four-volume The Sphere of Gentry; deduced from the principles of nature; an historical and genealogical work of arms and blazon. In heraldic terms, the Bachiler coat of arms is described as Vert, a plow in fess; in base the sun rising, or, meaning that the field (face of the shield) was green in color, with a plow aligned across its center portion and the image of a sun (in gold) rising from its base.}}</ref><ref>The Genealogist, New Series, 19 [1903]:270-284</ref><ref>Wing Genealogy, vol. I, pp. 25-27, Picton Press</ref>

Bachiler was accompanied to America, on the ship ''William & Francis'' (5 June 1632) after an 88-day journey, by his third wife, Helena and his "family".<ref>Winthrop's Journal I:80-81 (1908 found at Google Books)</ref> Exactly who came with Rev. Bachiler is unknown. The families of his children Nathaniel, Deborah, Ann & Theodate are all later found in New England.<ref>Randall, P.E., Publisher. (2000) ''Piscataqua Pioneers'' Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, MI</ref><ref>[[Victor Channing Sanborn|Sanborn, V.C.]] (1899) ''Genealogy of the Family of Samborne or Sanborn in England and America.'' 1194-1898 Rumford Press</ref><ref>Wing Genealogy vol. I, 2006, pp. 16-31 Penobscot Press</ref>

==Lynn and Newbury, Massachusetts==
Bachiler was 70 years old when he reached [[Boston]] in 1632, and gathered his followers to establish the First Church of Lynn (then [[Saugus, Massachusetts|Saugus]]). He incurred the hostility of the Puritan [[theocracy]] in Boston, being believed to have cast the only dissenting vote among ministers against the expulsion of [[Roger Williams]]. Despite his age, he was uncommonly energetic, and throughout some two decades pursued settlement and church endeavors, always engaged in controversy and confrontation with [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Bay Colony]] leaders.

By 1636, Bachiler had moved to [[Newbury, Massachusetts]], with his son-in-law Captain [[Christopher Hussey (died 1686)|Christopher Hussey]]. The men were following their cousin Richard Dummer who had taken up a large farm. Bachiler and Hussey like-wise received similar grants of land.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Coffin|first1=J.|title=A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, from 1635 to 1845|date=1845|publisher=S.G. Drake|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FHZoBM9HefUC/page/n32 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FHZoBM9HefUC|quote=ipswich  newbury Stephen Bachiler.|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rev Stephen Bachiler (Miner Descent)|date=16 May 2010 |url=https://minerdescent.com/2010/05/16/rev-stephen-bachiler/|publisher=16 May 2010|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="hampton_lib_nh_us">{{cite web|last1=Solomon|first1=E.C.S.|title=Our Fascinating Ancestor, Stephen Bachiler|url=http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilerschoen.htm|publisher=hampton Library, New Hampshire 1999|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref name=Owl>{{cite web|title=The Owl, Volumes 60-69|year = 1966|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7W8dAQAAMAAJ&q=Bachiler+chair+hussey&pg=PA4113|publisher=Wing Family of America, Incorporated, 1966|access-date=14 November 2017|page=1339}}</ref>

==Hampton, New Hampshire==
[[File:Title_page_for_The_Scarlet_Letter.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.75]]
In 1638, Bachiler and others, including his son-in-law Christopher Hussey, successfully petitioned to begin a new plantation at Winnacunnet, to which he gave the name [[Hampton, New Hampshire|Hampton]] when the town was incorporated in 1639.<ref name=Owl/> His ministry there became embroiled in controversy when Timothy Dalton was sent to the town as "teaching assistant" by the Boston church after [[Province of New Hampshire|New Hampshire]] was absorbed by Massachusetts in 1641.  Shortly thereafter, Bachiler was excommunicated by the Hampton church on unfounded charges of "scandal", but protested to [[John Winthrop|Governor Winthrop]] and was later reinstated.  In other respects, Bachiler's reputation was such that in 1642, he was asked by Thomas Gorges, deputy governor of the [[Province of Maine]], to act as arbitration "umpire" (deciding judge) in a [[Saco, Maine|Saco Court]] land dispute between George Cleeve and John Winter.

==Maine==
By 1644, Cleeve had become deputy governor of ''Lygonia'', a rival province to that of Gorges' in Maine established from a resurrected Plough Patent, and asked Bachiler to be its minister at Casco.  Bachiler deferred, having already received a call to be minister for the new town of [[Exeter, New Hampshire|Exeter]].  Once again Massachusetts intervened in his affairs when the General Court ordered deferral of any church at Exeter.  Frustrated in his attempts at a new ministry, Bachiler left Hampton and went as [[missionary]] to [[Strawbery Banke]] (now [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]]) probably that same year 1644.  While there, he married in 1648 (his fourth wife) a young widow, Mary Beedle of [[Kittery, Maine]].  In 1651, she was indicted and sentenced for adultery with a neighbor.<ref>Gen. Dict. Maine & NH, p. 81</ref>  There are scholars who believe that she was the model of the character of [[Hester Prynne]] in ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Newberry|first1=Frederick|title=A Red-hot 'A' and a Lusting Divine|url=http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilerscarletletter.htm|publisher=The New England Quarterly}}</ref>

==Emigration to England and death==
[[File:PAHSt1010012.JPG|thumb|right|upright=.75|All Hallows Staining, England]]
Denied a divorce by the Massachusetts Court, Bachiler finally returned to [[England]] about 1653. His children who had stayed in England were well off and able to take care of him. Bachiler died near [[London]], and the burial register of [[All Hallows Staining]] records that he was buried on 31 October 1656 at the [[New Churchyard]].<ref>London Metropolitan Archive, P69/ALH6/A/001/MS17824
</ref>

==Legacy==
The biographical entry in Robert Charles Anderson's look at the early immigrants says of Bachiler: "Among the many remarkable lives lived by early New Englanders, Bachiler's is the most remarkable." The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York holds the (Bachiler-Hussey) ''Joined armchair'', dated 1650–1700. The chair was possibly commissioned prior to Bachiler's voyage back to England and is made from white oak. Bachiler's son-in-law, Captain Christopher Hussey acquired the chair when Bachiler, "gave him (Hussey) all of his estate"; this was owing to the absence of any [[dowry]] accompanying Theodate Hussey, Bachiler's daughter.  The chair subsequently remained in Bachiler's family for generations, being given to the museum in 2010.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=R. C.|title=The Great Migration Begins|date=1995|publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society|isbn=9780880820424|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fD0hAQAAMAAJ&q=estate+to+his+son-in-law+Mr.+Christopher+Hussey+that+as+Hussey+had+no+dowry+with|access-date=16 November 2017|quote=On 8 April 1673, Edward Colcord, aged about fifty-six and William Fifield deposed that "when Mr. Steven Batcheller of Hampton was (embarking) upon his voyage (back)  to England (c.1653) they heard him say to his son-in-law Mr. Christopher Hussey that as Hussey had no dowry with Batcheller's daughter when he married her, and that he had given to said Hussey all his estate" [Essex Ant5:173, citing Old Norfolk County Records].}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Coffin|first1=J.|title=A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, from 1635 to 1845|date=1845|publisher=S.G. Drake|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FHZoBM9HefUC/page/n32 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FHZoBM9HefUC|quote=ipswich  newbury Stephen Bachiler.|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rev Stephen Bachiler (Miner Descent)|date=16 May 2010 |url=https://minerdescent.com/2010/05/16/rev-stephen-bachiler/|publisher=16 May 2010|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="hampton_lib_nh_us" /><ref name="Owl"/><ref>The Great Migration Begins, I:68</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Joined armchair - Essex County, Massachusetts 1650-1700|url=https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/find-a-grave-prod/photos/2016/156/35923706_1465189105.jpg|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Safford|first1=F. G.|title=American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume 1 - Joined armchair (18)|date=2007|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=9781588392336|pages=52, 53, 54|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZG9whuPkQNwC&q=bachiler+chair++metro++1650-1700&pg=PA54|access-date=15 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|editor-last1=Poole |editor-first1=David|title=House and Heritage – Hussey Tower, LINCOLNSHIRE|url=https://houseandheritage.org/2017/11/21/hussey-tower/|work=Heritage Gazette |date= 21 November 2017|access-date=27 November 2017}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of New Hampshire historical markers (101–125)#103|New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 103]]: Shapley Line
*[[List of New Hampshire historical markers (101–125)#119|New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 119]]: Old Landing Road

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/bachilertoc.htm Rev. Stephen Bachiler page on the website of the Lane Memorial Library, New Hampshire]
*[http://www.wingfamily.org Additional family information]
*[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/203454286/stephen-bachiler Rev. Stephen Bachiler at Find a Grave]
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachiler, Stephen}}
[[Category:1561 births]]
[[Category:1656 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Hampton, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:People from Saugus, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:16th-century English clergy]]
[[Category:17th-century English clergy]]
[[Category:17th-century American clergy]]
[[Category:English emigrants]]
[[Category:People from Test Valley]]