USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Hampton Falls > History of the town of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire : from the time of the first settlement within its borders, 1640 until 1900 > Part 15
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MARY BACHILER.
What order was taken upon this petition is not known, nor whether the old lady was successful in getting married again, to which she seemed to have a strong inclination and, judging from the tenor of the language of the above petition. some engagement
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of the kind could be had, provided she succeeded in having the prayer of the said petition granted. Neither is it known who she was before her unfortunate marriage with Mr. Bachiler. She was probably a widow, and the two infirm children spoken of were by a former husband. How many more wives Mr. Bachiler married after this remains to be ascertained.
When Hampton was divided into 14: shares, December 22, 1645, two of the shares were granted Mr. Bachiler, besides his farm, but on the 2d of December. 1647, the farm was given to Mr. Wheel- wright, unless the said Wheelwright removed from the town without permission of the church. In that case the farm was to revert back again to the town. These conditions were taken off by a vote of the town on the 27th of October, 1649, and the farm given Mr. Wheelwright freely. and at the same time it was mentioned as having been bought of William Howard and Thomas Ward. On the 6th of February, 1650, there appears to have been the following vote passed:
It is agreed at a public meeting of the freemen that the 3 men, that is to say, William Fuler, William Esto, & Thomas Paybody, as they are summoned So to answer Mr. Bachiler's action at Salisbury Court in the town's behalf .- It is supposed that this action was respecting the farm. There is no further mention made in the records of it.
It is probable that Mr. Bachiler was not very popular with the people of Hampton after this, as we find a vote of the town, passed November 21, 1656, to pay all the charges of prosecuting a peti- tion concerning Mr. Bachiler's exemption to the General Court. This is the last record of his being in the country which is known. There does not seem to have been any right claimed by any person in his name to shares in the common lands in Hampton after 1650.
He died in Hackney, in England. aged about 100 years. Not- withstanding his errors and follies he had undoubtedly many virtues or he would not have had so many friends, and they would not have continued with him through every change in his fortune. Christopher Hussey, John Cross, and Moses Cox were among his followers. Prince says he was a man of fame in his day: a gentle- man of learning, and ingenuity, and wrote a fine and eurious hand.
It was on his separation from the church at Lynn, and his sub- sequent misfortunes, that Mr. Edward Johnson, in his "Wonder- Working Providence," wrote the following lines:
11
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Throng ocean large Christ brought thee for to feed His wandering flock with words thou oft has taught. Then teach thyself with others thou hast need,
Thy flowering fame unto low ebb is brought. Faith and obedience Christ full near hath joined Then trust on Christ and thou then again must be Brought on thy race though now far cast behind Run to the end and crowned thou shalt be.
Lewis, in his history of Lynn, mentions five children only. The names of two others are known. The name of neither of his wives before marriage is known. His children were,-
1. THEODATA, who married Christopher Hussey and settled in Hampton, afterwards living upon what was known as the Hussey farm. Hampton Falls.
2. DEBORAII, who married John Wing of Lynn. and removed to Sandwich in 1631.
3. DAUGHTER, who married a Sanborn and had three sons, all horn before 1647. Their names were John, Stephen, and Wil- liam, and they all settled at Hampton.
4. NATHANIEL. Rev. Timothy Dalton gave him one hundred acres of land, being a part of the farm granted him by the town at Sagamore hill. Nathaniel, 2d, settled here, on the farm now occupied by John T. Batchelder, where his descendants have continued to live.
5. A Sox, who removed to Reading, where he had a son, Henry, who came to Lynn, where several families of his descendants lived.
6. FRANCIS. In a letter from Stephen Bachiler to his brother Nathaniel, dated London, April 23, 1685, he says he has lost €1,500 "by our brother, Francis Bachiler."
7. STEPHEN, who was living in London April 23, 1685, where he was probably in good circumstances. At that date he had lost €2,500 sterling by his brother Francis, and others, previously, vet then he describes himself to be in such a situation as not being beholden to any relative. He seems to have been a man of good education and a good penman. He mentions a brother Winbourne. He spells his name Bachiler, as did also Na- thaniel.
Rev. Stephen Bachiler's descendants are very numerous. There are not less than one hundred living in Hampton Falls at the present time, and probably as many, or more, in Hampton.
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The farm granted Mr. Bachiler. of 200 acres, at Salisbury bounds. was bounded on the south by the Rocks road, so called. now in Sea- brook, and included what is now occupied by the Browns and Loeks. This farm was afterwards granted by the town to Rev. John Wheelwright, and later sold by him to John Cass. This farm was bounded on the south by what was then known as the Shapleigh line.
REV. TIMOTHY DALTON.
Rev. Timothy Dalton was one of the first settlers of Dedham, about 1635. He lived a short time in Watertown before this, but was supposed to have owned no property there. Hle sold his prop- erty in Dedham to Mr. Parkhurst of Watertown, who was his brother- in-law, and who afterwards sold it to Mr. Michael Powell of Charles- town for £10, payable one half the first year and the remainder the second year. in corn or money, either to Mr. Dalton or Mr. Park- hurst. Dalton came, in company with Mr. Bachiler and thirteen others, most of whom were related to one or the other of them, to Hampton in 1638, and commenced a settlement. Bachiler being the pastor and Dalton the teacher of the church. There were frequent quarrels between them and their respective friends. October 24, 1639, he had 300 acres of land allotted to him which, on April 30, 1640, was assigned as follows: "10 acres for a house lott, as it is layd ont, 14 acres of fresh meadow, wherof 10 were near Bro. Crosses, A piece near his own sellar, the rest where it shall be found, 15 acres of planting ground near Taylor's river. near Sagamore hill, 200 acres for a farm as it is in haste laid out, near Taylor's river, There being 233 acres (or thereabout) of fresh meadow 120 acres of upland & the rest in salt marsh. where it may be had." The residue of his 300 acres, given October 24, 1639, is yet to be located. March 29, 1640. he was chosen. with Mr. Hussey and John Moul- ton, to set the bounds between Hampton and Colchester (Salisbury). June 25. 1640, he and five others were chosen to go and view the highway toward the same place. February 19. 1641. he was ap- pointed on the committee to confer about a ferry place. December 23. 1645, he was to have 3 of the 14? shares besides his farm. On the 12th of February. 1642. Mr. Wheelwright received a call because Mr. Dalton had labored beyond his strength and ability of nature. It would seem from the vote that his health had failed, and from this cause was not adequate to fulfill the duties of the office. Ile.
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however, received £40 per annum for his services for four years afterwards, for which amount he discharged the town in consider- ation of his having from them a farm at Salisbury bounds, and another at Sagamore hill. It is probable that he did not receive any salary after 1652, or that he performed any duties appertaining to the office of teacher, although his connection with the town or church may not have been dissolved by any formal vote. He must have been ?5 years of age, and was doubtless afflicted by the infirm- ities usnal to old people.
On the 12th of March, 1656, he bought of James Davis, Sr., fifteen acres of land for a large sum of money, and on the 12th of May, 1656, he bought of Thomas Moulton all his lands, com- monage, house, etc .. for and in consideration of one hundred pounds in hand. This land consisted of ten acres for a house lot and ten of planting land, adjoining. The twenty acres are in the windmill lot, ten acres fresh meadow, five acres of planting in the East field, share No. 43 in the ox common. and three shares in the cow common.
The town, being anxious to procure the services of Rev. Seaborn Cotton, upon the departure of Rev. Mr. Wheelwright, chose a com- mittee to wait upon Mr. Dalton and make some agreement with him respecting his relinquishing his house for the use of the minister. Accordingly an agreement was made on the 12th of -. 1657.
In consideration of the towns building an addition in front of the house which he bought of Thomas Moulton 36 ft by 20, with a brick chimney, with two flues, to be finished with doors and windows, glazed, & floor layed, & to be fixed as convenient as the house where he now dwelleth, and the old house to be covered with boards and shingles and the floor laid & Mr. Dalton eonsents to remove there and relin- quish the house and lands to the town. for the use of the ministry
The purchase alluded to in the above agreement was a deed of his home lot, containing 20 acres and extending from the Shaw land to the Green, which was the only front it had on the road; 14 acres adjoining it: another small piece of meadow, of which the bounds are given but the quantity is not stated, and 3 acres of up- land joining his 20-acre lot, together with his house and appur- tenances; one share in the ox common and three shares in the cow common, which deed was given to the church and town for the use of the town, in consideration of the town's paying him £200, in equal annual payments of £20, in cattle or corn at the market price. This deed was signed by him December 28, 1657, and
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acknowledged by himself and wife April 12, 1658. Dalton then moved to the Moulton place, which was where Captain Jona. Palmer formerly lived.
This purchase of a house and lands from Mr. Dalton has been a fruitful source of lawsuits. Mr. Dalton was connected by rela- tionship, either of himself or wife, with several of the first settlers of the town. Jasper Blake was one and named a son for him, to whom Mr. Dalton gave one hundred acres of land; Emanuel Hil- liard was another and had a son Timothy, who received a like pres- ent of one hundred aeres. The Smiths and Bachilers were con- nected with his wife by marriage. In consequence of a disturbance at Dover in 1641, between Mr. Knolls and friends and Mr. Larkam and his party, the General Court ordered Mr. Bradstreet, one of the magistrates, together with Mr. Peter and Mr. Dalton, two of the elders, to go there and endeavor to reconcile matters and to report to them, etc. They at length accomplished the object of their mission. Of their journey homeward, Governor Winthrop gives the following account:
Mr. Peter and Mr. Dalton with one from Atamenticus, went from Piscataquack. with Mr. John Ward who was to be entertained there for their minister, and wandered two days and one night, without food or fire, in the snow and wet. But God heard their prayers, and when they were quite spent he brought them to the sea side near the place they were to go to. Blessed forever be his name.
Johnson, in his "Wonder-Working Providence," styles him the "Reverend, grave & gracious Mr. Dalton," and gives the following verses as a short remembrance of him. having before given Mr. Bachiler a similar memorial:
Dalton doth teach perspicuously and sound With wholesome truth of Christ thy flock doth feed Thy honor with thy labor doth abound.
Age crowns thy head in righteousness. proceed
To batter down. root up and quite destroy All heresies and errors that draw back Unto perdition and Christ's folks annoy. To war for him thou weapons does not lack.
Long days to see, that longs for day to come Of Babel's fall, and Israel's quiet peace Thou must live of dayes so great a sum
To see this work, let not thy warfare cease.
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Mr. Dalton was considered a sound and able divine by his con- temporaries. He was a good penman. Several instruments drawn up by him are written in an excellent manner, although their pecu- liar phraseology show him to have been a clergyman, and evince a want of knowledge of legal forms. He was careful and strict in his worldly affairs and accumulated property rapidly. An original award of two of his church is extant, to whom the subject of Wil- liam Fifield's cutting timber for pipe staves on land granted by the town to Mr. Dalton was referred. They decide that if the bolts are worth more when made into staves than the trees would have been when standing, although staves were then of little value, Mr. Fifield is to receive a compensation for his labor: but if other- wise Mr. Dalton is to be indemnified for his loss in having the trees cut, and they acquit Mr. Fifield of committing any intentional trespass in felling the trees. This curious award, which illustrates the love of property Mr. Dalton possessed, bears date of November 2. 1643. The referees were William Howard and William Fuller. Another instance of this propensity is found in the following receipt, taken from the town records October 2, 1651:
Whearas the town of Hampton was to pay unto Mr. Timothy Dalton for the four years last past the sum of £160, The four years ending at midsummer last past .- The Sd Timothy Dalton doth hereby dis- charge the Sd town of Hampton of the money due for Sd four years, Saving yet 40s which appears to be justly lost in the rates .- And as for such persons as appear to be indebted to the Sd Mr. Dalton they are still liable to demands, and upon refusing to pay they are liable to the liberty of the law .- To this writing I have set my hand the day and year above sayed
TIMOTHY DALTON.
November 26, 1651, he discharges the town of Hampton from all debts and dues for his ministry, in consideration of the two farms which were given him at Salisbury line and Sagamore hill.
A comparison of the amount paid by him for the Thomas Moul- ton lands and the amount paid by the town, including the new house built for him, for their purchase made of him, although the town may have contemplated making him a present of a part of it for his former services. goes to show that he understood how to make a good bargain for himself; and that he meant that the town should per- form every iota of the bargain on their part is also shown by his giv- ing in his will whatever remained due of the sum of £200, at the time of his decease, to his brother Philemon and his brother's son
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Samuel. on condition that they should pay his widow Ruth €10 per annum during her life.
The idea that has become prevalent that the Hampton ministerial funds came through the munificence of Mr. Dalton seems to have been erroneous.
There appears to be no correct account of the time or place of Mr. Dalton's birth. Ile died, says the record, October 28. 1661. at 2 o'clock in the morning, leaving a will dated April 8, 1658, one month after his bargain with the town. He gives his wife Ruth the Moulton property and all his personal estate, and appointed her sole executrix. Ile gives to his brother Philemon and nephew Sam- nel the amount to be paid by the town, on condition of their paying his widow €10 per annum during her natural life. Witnessed by Eben Dow and John Clifford. He made a codicil in which he gives to Samuel Dalton fifty acres of land lying at the head of his farm at Sagamore hill, which he bought of William Eastow. This is witnessed by Henry Moulton and Joseph Hutchins, and was proved February 8. 1662.
Mr. Dalton never had any children. His widow Ruth lived till May 12, 1666, and left a will dated May 9, 1662. She gives her nephew, Nathaniel Bachiler, her stock of cattle, four oxen and five cows, and left to him her real estate on condition of his paying her €16 annually during her life. On the ?2d of March. 1664, she deeds him all her lands on condition of his paying £200 in the manner which she specifies. She had a very respectable lot of furniture, especially for the time in which she lived.
All the legatees in her indentures with Bachiler were her relatives except Hanna Willis, who may have been her servant girl. Bach- iler faithfully paid the foregoing sums to the persons mentioned, or their heirs. The receipts of the same were in existence a few years ago.
Nathaniel Bachiler, spoken of above, was a son of Rev. Stephen Bachiler. Mr. Dalton gave him a part of his farm at Sagamore hill in 165%. Nathaniel. 2d, settled there about 1690 and was the ancestor of all the Batchelders who have lived in Hampton Falls. Some of his descendants are living upon his farm at the present time.
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REV. JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.
Rev. John Wheelwright died in November, 16:9, at an advanced age, probably between 80 and 90 years, as he is said to have been at the university with Oliver Cromwell, who, when Wheelwright was in England and waited upon him after he became protector, de- clared to the gentlemen about him that he could remember the time when he was more afraid of meeting Wheelwright at football than of meeting an army since in the field, for he was infallibly sure of being tripped up by him.
Mr. Wheelwright came from Lincolnshire to New England in 1636. He and his wife Mary were admitted to the Boston church the 12th of June, 1636. Soon after his arrival he gave offense to some in the church at Boston, and Mr. Cotton thought that he had better withdraw because he was somewhat inclined to be disputa- tions. He went to Mount Wollasten ( Braintree) and preached with the intention of founding a church there. He was there some time, and had some possessions there, but the church was not established until three years after. He preached a sermon which the magis- trates considered had a tendency to sedition. After much con- troversy respecting it, and the parties growing warm, the court sent for Mr. Wheelwright. He persisted in justifying his sermon and his whole practice and opinions, and refused to leave either the place or his public exercisings. He was disfranchised, upon which he appealed to the king, but neither called witnesses nor desired any act to be made of it. The court told him that an appeal did not lie, "For by the king's grant we had power to hear and deter- mine without any reservation & co." So he relinquished his appeal and the court gave him leave to go to his house upon his promise that if he were not gone out of the jurisdiction within fourteen days, he would render himself to one of the magistrates.
Mr. Savage, who had read the sermon, now in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, says that "It is not such as can justify the Court in their sentence for sedition and Contempt. Nor prevent the present age from regarding that proceeding as an ex- ample and a warning of the usual tyrany of eclesiastical factions." The court also ordered fifty-eight inhabitants of Boston and seven- teen from the adjoining towns to be disgraced. because they had signed a petition in which they affirm Mr. Wheelwright's innocence, and that the court had condemned the truth of Christ, etc.
REV. JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.
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Mr. Wheelwright being banished from us, gathered a company and sat down by the falls of Piscataquack, and called the town Exeter. And for this enlargement there, they dealt with an Indian there, and bought of him Winnecumett ete and then wrote to us what they had done, And that they intended to lot out all the lands in farms except, we could show a better title. They wrote also to those to whom we had sent to plant Winneeumett to have them desist etc.
These letters coming to the General Court, they returned answer that they looked at their dealings as against good government, religion, and common honesty. "That knowing we claimed Winne- eumett as within our patent, and had taken possession thereof by building a house, there above two years since, They should now go and purchase an unknown title, and then come and inquire of our right." It was also in that letter manifestly proved that the Indians had only a natural right to so much land as they could improve, the rest of the country being open to any who could. or would. im- prove it. The foregoing paragraph, taken from Winthrop under date of 1638, proves that the settlement of Hampton had already begun and also the building of the "possession house" (commonly called bound house) in 1636.
August 4. 1639. he and thirty-four others sign an agreement in which they set forth that they agree to such a form of govern- ment as is agreeable to the English laws, and professing themselves to be subjects of King Charles, according to the liberties of the English colony of Massachusetts, etc., etc. Of the thirty-four persons whose names are attached to this agreement. eleven became inhabitants of Hampton in a few years.
Mr. Wheelwright found it necessary to remove from Exeter in consequence of the union between New Hampshire and Massachu- setts. He proceeded to Maine and purchased of Governor Gorges a part of the lands in this section given to him by his uncle, Sir Ferdinando Gorges. He took a deed dated April 17, 1643, which conveyed to the worthy minister, in fee simple, a tract of four or five hundred acres lying at Wells, in the county of Somerset: that is, along the shore eastward of Newgunket river, perhaps to Wells harbor. AAnother deed was obtained the same year, from the same source, by Wheelwright. to himself. Henry Boad, and others, grant- ing some of the remaining territory between that river and the Kennebunk. Both parcels probably contained hardly an eighth of the township, which was large and of about 40,000 acres. Boad and Edward Rishworth were appointed to lay out the land into lots
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suitable for settlers, and then they, with Messrs. Wheelwright, Storer, and Littlefield, began a regular plantation. At Wells, Mr. Wheelwright also gathered a church of which he became pastor. being well beloved and highly esteemed by his parishioners and all his immediate acquaintances; but an exclusion from the fellowship of ministers and a banishment from the society of many pious men who had been his carly friends were trials of extreme severity to his mind. He, therefore, wrote the following letter to the governor and magistrates of Massachusetts, dated Wells, December 2. 1643, which was laid before the court June 8, 1644.
Right Worshipful-Upon long and mature consideration of things I percieve that the main difference between yourselves and some of the reverend Elders, and myself, in point of justification, and the con- deucing thereof. is not of that nature and consequence as was then pre- sented to me in the false, glass of Satan's temptation and mine own distempered passions, which makes me unfeinedly sorry that I had such a hand in those sharp and vehement contentions raised there- abouts, to the great disturbance of the churches of Christ It is the grief of my soul that I used such vehement censorious Speeches in the application of my sermon. or in any other writing which reflected any dishonor upon your worships the reverend Elders, or any of contrary judgment from myself.
It repents me that I did so much adhere to persons of corrupt judgment, to the countenancing of them in any of their errors or evil practices. Though I intended no such thing, and that in the synod I used such unsafe and obscure words falling from me, as a man dazzled with the buffetings of Satan, and that I did appeal from mis- apprehension of things, I confess that herein I have done very sin- fully and do humbly crave pardon of this honored State-If it shall appear to me by scripture light, that in my carriage. word, writing or action. I have walked contrary to rule I shall be ready by the grace of God to give satisfaction-Thus hoping you will pardon my boldness I humbly take leave of your worship, committing you to the good providence of the Almighty. And ever remain your worships in all Service to be Commanded in the Lord.
J. WHEELWRIGIIT. Wells 7-10-1643.
Upon this letter the court was very well inclined to release his banishment, and thereupon ordered that he might have a safe con- duct to come to the court. The governor notified him by letter and received this answer from him:
Right Worshipful-I have received the letter wherein you signify to me that you have imparted my letter to the honorable Court, and
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that it finds good applause, for which I rejoice with much thankfulness. I am very thankful to your worship for the letter of safe conduct which I formerly recieved as likewise for the late act of the Court granting me the Same liberty in case I desire letters to that end .- I should very willingly upon letters recieved express by word of mouth openly in Court That which I did by writing might I. without offence, ex- plain my true intent and meaning, more fully to this effect. That notwithstanding my failings for which I humbly crave pardon, Yet I cannot with a good Conscience condemn myself for such Culpable Crimes, dangerous revelations, and gross errors as have been charged upon me. The consequence of which (as I take it) make up the very substance of the causes of all my sufferings .- I do not see but in so mixt a cause I am bound to use, may it be permitted, my just defense, so far as I apprehend myself to be innoeent, as to make my confession where I am convinced of any delinquency. Otherwise I shall seem- ingly in appearance fall under guilt of many heinous offences for which my conscience doth aquit me. If I seem to make suit to the honorable Court, for relaxation to be granted by an act of mercy upon my Sole Confession 1 must offend my conseience. If by an act of justice upon mine apology, and lawful defenee, I fear lest I shall offend your worships, I leave all things to your wise and godly con- sideration, Hoping you will pardon my simplicity, and plainness. which I am forced into by the power of an overruling Conscience-I rest your worships in the Lord.
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