An American Family History

Various Spellings of Batcheller-
Bachelder, Bacheldor, Bacheler, Bacheller, Bachelor, Bachelour, Bachildor, Bachiler, Bachilor, Batcheldor, Batcheldour, Batcheler, Batcheller, Batchellor, Batchellour, Batchelor, Batchclour, Batchiler and Batchilor

A constable was an elected official who was responsible for keeping the peace. His duties were more limited than the sheriff's. He apprehended and punished offenders, helped settle estates, and collected taxes.

(from The Essex Antiquarian edited by Sidney Perley)

8— iv. Mark3, lived in Wenham; was constable, 1663 and 1666, trial juror, 1658, 1663,1664; and was killed.as a soldier in the company of Capt. Joseph Gardner of Salem, Dec. 19, 1675, in King Philip's war, in the terrible swamp fight with the savages. He was unmarried. His estate was valued at £131

The History of Wenham: Civil and Ecclesiastical by Myron Oliver Allen, Bazin & Chandler, 1860

In the depth of winter, a force of five hundred and fifty men was collected in Massachusetts, and, being joined by reinforcements from the Plymouth and Connecticut colonies, they made a forced march through the snows and over the frozen ground, till they reached, Dec. 19, 1675, a swamp in the country of the Narragansetts, where the Indians had built a fort and gathered their bravest warriors. Notwithstanding that they had camped out the previous night, "with no other covering than a cold and moist fleece of snow," and had marched nineteen miles that day, wading through the drifts, the troops rushed at once to the attack.

The Indians retreated to the middle of the swamp, where they had fortified an island, covering five or six acres, with palisades and a hedge nearly a rod thick." There were two entrances, one over a long tree upon a place of water, the other at a corner," and commanded by a log-house in front, and on the left by "a flanker."

At this point an attack was made by the Massachusetts troops, led on by Capt. Johnson, who unfortunately fell at the first fire, and so many of the soldiers were killed or wounded that they were obliged to retreat. Again however, they were rallied by their valiant leaders; again they rushed to the charge, carrying block house and flanker, and fairly establishing themselves upon the island.

The Indians then retreated to the middle of the fort, and the whole mass was quickly engaged in desperate and deadly strife. The struggle was long and bloody, for the savages outnumbered their assailants more than three to one, but " manifest destiny" was against them. They were routed, their wigwams were burned, and their corn and other stores destroyed by the flames. Three hundred warriors are supposed to have been slain, while as many more were taken prisoners.

But this success was not purchased without severe loss. More than a hundred of the Massachusetts troops were killed or wounded. Five of the inhabitants of Wenham were drafted for this expedition, viz., Mark Batchelder, Richard Button, Thomas Kimball, Samuel Moulton, and Phillip Welsh, the first of whom was killed in that fearful assault upon the fort of the Narragansetts. He was one of the oldest and most respectable citizens of Wenham.