Various Spellings of Batcheller:
Bachelder, Bacheldor, Bacheler, Bacheller, Bachelor, Bachelour, Bachildor, Bachiler, Bachilor, Batcheldor, Batcheldour, Batcheler, Batcheller, Batchellor, Batchellour, Batchelor, Batchclour, Batchiler and Batchilor.
Wenham, Essex County, Massachusetts was settled in 1636. The first settlers called it Enon or Salem Village. It was officially set off from the Town of Salem on May 10, 1643.
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.
Mark Batcheller was probably born in England and immigrated with his parents to America in 1636. His parents were Joseph Batcheller and Elizabeth Warner.
He did not marry.
He was constable in Wenham, Exxex County, Massachusetts in 1663 and 1666 and juror in 1658, 1663 and 1664.
Mary White Rowlandson,Talcot
was captured by Native Americans
during King Philip's War
(1675-1676).
The Great Swamp Fight was on November 2, 1675. Josiah Winslow led a force of over 1000 colonial militia and about 150 Pequot and Mohegan warriors against the Narragansett. Several abandoned Narragansett villages were burned and the tribe retreated to a five acre fort in the center of a swamp near Kingston, Rhode Island. The fort, which was occupied by over a thousand indigenous warriors, was taken after a fierce fight. It was burned and the inhabitants, including women and children, were killed or evicted. The winter stores were destroyed. The colonists lost about 70 men and nearly 150 were wounded.
Essex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when it ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires."
American colonists continued to use British monetary units, namely the pound, shilling and pence for which £1 (orli) equalled 20s and 1s equalled 12d. In 1792 the dollar was established as the basic unit of currency.
from The Essex Antiquarian edited by Sidney Perley
Mark [Batchelder], 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
King Philip’s War was a bloody and costly series of raids and skirmishes in 1675 and 1676 between the Native American people and the colonials. King Philip was the Native American leader Metacom.
The rod or perch or pole is a surveyor's tool equal to 5 1⁄2 yards.
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.
Old Style Calendar
Before 1752 the year began on Lady Day, March 25th,. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year. Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) are used to indicate whether the year has been adjusted. Often both dates are used.
European and indiginous American fought fierce battles as the Europeans expanded their territory.
