Ernest Allan Batchelder, Tilemaker (1875 – 1957) – A Cautionary Genealogy Tale!

My husband is hooked on the home remodeling TV shows on the HGTV, DIY, and PBS channels.  Even if he isn’t really watching TV, it is on in the background of our activities at home.  Lately he has been hooked on a show called “Restored” where the contractor Brett Waterman renovates classic 100 year old California houses back to their original architecture.  Many times I heard the words “Batchelder Tiles” on the TV show, and ran over to see what this was all about.  You see, I have ancestors named BATCHELDER, all descended from the Reverend Stephen Batchelder (1561 – 1656), an early New England settler and founder of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire. 

Every time I heard the phrase “Batchelder Tiles” I was sure that these Arts and Crafts era decorative tiles were made by a distant cousin. I know the name Batchelder is fairly uncommon, but in New Hampshire there are a huge number of Batchelder descendants from the Reverend Stephen Batchelder.  He had ten children, and dozens and dozens of grandchildren born in New England who left even more descendants. The 1898 Batchelder genealogy book written by Frederick Clifton Pierce is enormous, with over 600 pages. 

I started off by using Google, and was delighted to learn that these famous tiles were designed and manufactured by Ernest Allan Batchelder (1876 - 1957) born in Nashua, New Hampshire!  I was so happy to find a cousin! As I traced his family back to nearby Francestown, I was sure I found a descendant of Rev. Stephen Batchelder.  Or so I thought until I continued to follow his line in the Pierce book and on Ancestry, and checked the clues against vital records and other primary sources.  Can you believe that his lineage did NOT come from Rev. Stephen, but from Joseph Batcheller (1604 – 1647), an early settler at Wenham, in Essex County, Massachusetts. 

I should have not been so cocky.  I’ve owned Pierce’s book about the Batchelder genealogy, and it covers not only Rev. Stephen’s descendants, but also the brothers Joseph, Henry, Joshua and John Batchelder of Essex County, Massachusetts.  I’ve run into marriages from both lineages in my own family history research, and know many people who descend from the Massachusetts Batcheller/Batchelders. 

So this is a cautionary tale!  Never take for granted that someone is a cousin, no matter how unusual the surname, and always check the primary sources against lineages you see online.  

I also learned a lot about the Batchelder tiles while researching Ernest Allan Batchelder’s family.  These beautiful tiles are very common out west, especially in California, and are collectible treasures for restoring Arts and Crafts style homes.  Entire rooms were designed around these tiles, especially the fireplaces.  They feature neutral colors, often with animals, flowers and birds.  Some of the tiles are geometric and others have Mayan motifs. Their designs have stood the test of time, and have remained popular for generations.  (Scroll down to the bottom of this blog post for a peek at some Batchelder tiles)

Batchelder went to the Massachusetts Normal Art School, and removed to Pasadena, California to teach at the Throop Polytechnic Institute (now the California Institute of Technology).  As a hobby, Batchelder built a kiln in his Pasadena backyard in 1909 to hand craft tiles. 

Over time Ernest Batchelder wrote two books on architecture and design.  His tile making business went bankrupt during the depression when the house building market dried up.  He closed his business in 1932, but continued to dabble in pottery as a hobby until the 1950s. His house in Pasadena is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is decorated with Batchelder tiles inside and out on the chimney and the front walkway.  The house is privately owned, and not open to the public.


Although I was not related to Ernest Batchelder's paternal line, I am related through his Sleeper, Kimball and Whipple maternal ancestors.  Here are some of the resources I used to puzzle out the genealogy for Ernest Allan Batchelder’s genealogy:

MA-Vitalrecords.org   http://ma-vitalrecords.org/ 

Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org for the NH vital records and records from other states

Batchelder Bachellor Genealogy: Descendants of Rev. Stephen Bachiler, of England, a leading non-conformist, who settled the town of New Hampton, N.H., and Joseph, Henry, Joshua, and John Batcheller of Essex Co., Massachusetts, by Frederick Clifton Pierce, 1898.  Available online at the HathiTrust website and by subscription at the Ancestry.com website.

The Genealogy of the Batchelder Family of Hampton, New Hampshire by Charles Hull Batchelder, edited and prepared by Carl W. Brage in 1985, at the Lane Memorial Library of Hampton, New Hampshire website:  http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/genealog/batchelder/index.htm  

Find A Grave:  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150035305/ernest-allan-batchelder 

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_A._Batchelder 

Batchelder Tile Registry at the Pasadena Museum of History:  https://pasadenahistory.org/research-and-collections/batchelder-registry/ 

A book about Ernest Allan Batchelder Batchelder Tilemaker, was written by Robert Winter in 1999.  There is no preview on Google Books or Amazon of this book.  You can read more about this book at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Batchelder-Tilemaker-Robert-Winter/dp/1890449032 or at AbeBooks.com https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/batchelder-tilemaker/author/robert-winter/ 

To see the original Batchelder Tile Catalog, look at the “Tile Nut” website: http://www.tilenut.com/Batchelder/index2.html

Genealogy:

Generation 1:  Joseph Batcheller, was born 1604 in Canterbury, Kent, England, and died March 1647 in Wenham, Massachusetts; married in 1628 in Thangington, Kent, England to Elizabeth Dickenson. 

Generation 2: John Batchelder, was born 20 January 1638 in Salem, Massachusetts; died 17 December 1698 in Wenham, Massachusetts; married first on 12 July 1661 to Mary Dennis who died in 1665; married second on 4 May 1666 in Salem to Sarah Goodale, daughter of Richard Goodale and Dorothy Whiterent, mother of fourteen children.  She was born 31 May 1640 in Salem and died 22 March 1729. John Batcheller/Batchelder was involved in the 1692 witch trials as a juror.  He signed a statement asking for forgiveness for their judgement “we have been instrumental, with others, through ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon ourselves and this people of the Lord the guilt of innocent blood”.

Generation 3: David Batchelder, was born April 1673 in Wenham, Massachusetts; died 29 January 1766 in Wenham; married first on 7 May 1709 in Wenham to Susannah Whipple, daughter of Colonel Joseph Whipple and Alice Smith.  She was born 3 April 1676, Ipswich, Massachusetts and died 13 June 1764 in Wenham, Massachusetts (mother of nine children including Amos Batchelder).  Married second to Thankful Perham (nine more children!)

Generation 4: Amos Batchelder,was  born 6 April 1727 in Wenham, Massachusetts, died 4 May 1809 in Wenham; married on 18 December 1752 to Lydia Lord Kimball.  She was born 3 June 1734 in Wenham, and died 26 November 1813.

Generation 5: Amos Batchelder, was born 17 December 1761 in Wenham, Massachusetts; died 20 September 1843 in Francestown, New Hampshire; married on 9 June 1786 in Wenham to Hudah Kimball.  She was born 25 January 1764 in Wenham, and died 14 February 1846 in Francestown.

Generation 7: Levi Batchelder, was born 20 December 1798 in Francestown, New Hampshire, died 14 June 1875; married on 7 March 1826 in Francestown to Parmelia Batch. 

Generation 8: Elbridge Kimball Batchelder, was born 13  May 1826 in Francestown,New Hampshire; died 2 April 1900 in New Hampshire; married on 13 December 1849 in Francestown, New Hampshire to Cornelia Ann Vose.  Three sons.

Generation 9: Charles Levi Batchelder, was born 24 June 1851 in Francestown, New Hampshire, died 30 May 1906; married first on 26 November 1873 in Boston to Mary A. Sleeper; married second on 15 December 1882 to Etta Mary (Perkins) Spurling (mother of Ernest Allan Batchelder). 

Generation 10:  Ernest Allan Batchelder, was born 22 January 1876 in Nashua, New Hampshire, died 6 August 1957 in Los Angeles County, California.  He married on 30 July 1912 in Pasadena, California to Alice Emma Coleman, born 27 July 1873 in Beatrice, Gage County Nebraska, died 17 June 1948 in Los Angeles.  They had a son, Alan Coleman Batchelder born 4 August 1914 in Pasadena. 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Ernest Allan Batchelder, Tilemaker (1875 – 1957) – A Cautionary Genealogy Tale!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 6, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/02/ernest-allan-batchelder-tilemaker-1875.html: accessed [access date]).