Batchelder Family Do Over Part 2

Lane Library, Hampton, NH

Jonathan Batchelder, my 4^th great grandfather, had a hard life.  He was born about 1800, and he died sometime in 1847, shortly after being declared an “insane person”.  He has no gravestone, and his widow was given guardianship over his children.  I don’t have a birth record for Jonathan, nor do I have a death record.  I know his farm in Chichester, New Hampshire was auctioned off due to his early death in 1847 from a newspaper ad for his property sale.  To add to this conundrum, his wife is a mystery, too.  I know her name was Nancy Thompson, but I don’t know her birthdate, birthplace or parents. 

In the compiled Batchelder Genealogy written by Frederick C. Pierce in 1898, Jonathan was attributed to being the son of Elisha Batchelder and Sarah Lane of Pittsfield, New Hampshire.  When I visited the place where Elisha and Sarah are buried in Pittsfield, Jonathan was not buried there.  Nor was he mentioned in Elisha’s 1813 will (Jonathan would have been only 12 years old, and not yet an “insane person”). Some researchers have theorized that he was left out of the will because he was insane, but this could not be true due to the age difference.  He was just not Elisha’s son.

The first step in finding more information about Jonathan Batchelder’s parents was to go to the Lane Public Library website  http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/    This library in Hampton, New Hampshire has a 222 page manuscript from genealogist Carl W. Brage transcribed in 1985 from portions of Charles Hull Batchelder’s notes.   C.H. Batchelder was working on a revision of Pierce's published genealogy book, but Brage's manuscript only had five generations, and didn't include the generation with my 4th great grandfather Jonathan Batchelder.  This 222 page manuscript was divided into five PDF files.  The zipped versions must be downloaded from the website, and then saved on your own device or hard drive.  You can start on page 1 and then look at each page to trace back to find your own Batchelder family members.  However, in my case, I didn’t know where to find Jonathan.  There is an index at the end of the last file (pages 186 – 222). 

This is when I realized that Charles Hull Batchelder used his own mysterious numbering system for each member of the BATCHELDER family.  The immigrant ancestor, Rev. Stephen Batchelder was not included in this system.  His grandson Nathaniel (1630 – 1709/10) was #0, and great grandson Stephen (1675/6 – 1748) was listed as #3, and 2x great grandson Stephen (1701 – 1748/9) was listed as #32, and 3x great grandson Nathaniel (1732 – 1778) was listed as #322.  I realized that this numbering system was based on sons.  Stephen was a third son - 3, the next Stephen was the second son of the third son – 32, and Nathaniel was the second son in the next generation – 322. 

So, I took another look at Elisha Batchelder (my “supposed” 5x great grandfather) in the online scan of Brage’s manuscript, page 154.  “Elisha Batchelder (1351) son of David (135).  Farmer.  As a young man he went from Hampton Falls to Pittsfield and settled on land belonging to his father, which belonged to Josiah (13) as an original proprietor of Chichester, from which Pittsfield had been set off.  Elisha’s father deeded this land to him in Sept. 1803.  Elisha married Sarah Lane of Hampton Falls (no record of the date found), dau. Of Samuel & Hepsibah (Sleeper)… Elisha’s family is correctly given in “Ancestry and Descendants of Deacon David Batchelder” but Pierce splits Nancy into a dual personality, and arbitrarily adds Jonathan (32,213) to the family.  If more proof is needed it is found in a deed from Nathaniel (13,511) to Samuel (13,512), Feb. 12, 1823, by which Nathaniel quit claims one third of 130 acres in Pittsfield, the homestead farm “where we now live”, in common with said Samuel and Nancy Batchelder (Rockingham Deeds 236-242)” 

Jonathan Batchelder who married Nancy Thompson was listed as #32,213. 

This meant that from this numbering system I could go through the manuscript to see who was Jonathan’s father.  But the 222 page manuscript ended with #3221, which was Nathaniel Batchelder (1763 – 1809).  The next generation was missing from the manuscript.  I knew that from the numbering system Nathaniel #3221 must have had a third son named Jonathan, but that family group sheet was not included.

From page 95 of the Brage manuscript:

“Nathaniel Batchelder (322), son of Stephen (32).  Called Nathaniel, Jr… moved to Deerfield as early as 1756. He married Mary Longfellow, dau. Of Jonathan & Mercy (Clark)…. Children born in Deerfield:

i.                     Mercy b. 1753 m. Smith Morrill of Chichester NH and Strafford VT

ii.                   Anne (Nancy) b. 1755 m. Abraham True Oct. 28, 1779 Deerfield

iii.                 Stephen b. 1757 d. Revolution Nov. 2, 1777 sp

iv.                 Hannah b. 1759 m. Josiah Kennerson

v.                   Mary (Molly) b. April 29, 1761 m. Benjamin True   

              1.  vi.           Nathaniel b. 1762      [my note:  Jonathan is #32,213]

             vii           Sarah b. March 12, 1766 m. Joseph True

             vii          Dau. d. umn dy

             x.            Deborah, b. 1769, m. Samuel Tilton”

This meant that I next had to go to the New Hampshire Historical Society library in Concord, New Hampshire and look through the eleven boxes of notebooks and loose papers held in their archive. Somewhere in there was a note about Jonathan Batchelder #32,213 including proof of his parents and his true Batchelder lineage.

Wow!

Stay tuned for more...

 
Read part 1 of this series at this link:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/batchelder-family-do-over-part-1.html   

Part 3:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/batchelder-family-do-over-part-3.html   

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Batchelder Family Do Over  Part 2", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 10, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/batchelder-family-do-over-part-2.html: accessed [access date]).