hachtel8

Among the prospective members of the Plough Company, probably brought in by
Bachiler, was a near kinsman, Richard Dummer, of Bishopstoke, Hants, son of John Pyldrin als. Dummer, of Swathling, Hants, who was a wealthy
yeoman or gentleman. A man of substance, Dummer's name gave strength to the Plough Company.
     By March, 1632 the Company was pushing the work and straining their fortunes to make it a success. Bachiler had sold his lands in Newton
Stacy and invested the proceeds in his new venture. Early in March the second party of Colonists left England, part in the 'Whale', which reached Boston May 26, 1632, bringing Richard Dummer, Nathaniel Harris, John Smith, Anthony Jupe, Ann Smith and her daughter and Nathaniel Merriman. The 'William and Francis', which left London on March 9, 1632 and reached Boston June 5, 1632, brought Stephen Bachiler and his wife, his grandchild, Nathaniel Bachiler, his three Sanborne grandchildren and
several of his Hampshire adherents as well as Thomas Payne of Sandwich and John Bannister, a Yorkshire man.
   Dummer and Carman settled in Roxbury, under Rev. John Eliot. Bachiler and his flock established themselves in Lynn; Binches and Johnson went to
Virginia.
   By the fall of 1632, Bachiler had come under the displeasure of the Court for some heresies of doctrine. He found the Massachusetts Puritans
were as rigid in their tenets of religion as he had found in England. He removed to Lynn, New Hampshire with a small party of his supporters and
became an advocate for a New Hampshire separate from Massachusetts. His first service in Lynn was held on Sunday, June 8, 1632, when he formed a
small church with those who desired to join the six or seven people he brought with him. The first meeting house in Lynn was a small plain building, without a bell or steeple and stood on the northwestern corner of Shepard and Summer streets. It was placed in a small hollow, that it might be better sheltered from the winds and was partly sunk in the earth. It was entered by descending several steps. One the first Sunday at Lynn, four children were baptized, one his grandson, Stephen Hussey.
Within the first four months at Lynn, Stephen fell under "suspicion" of having "independent ideas, which he was not ready to yield at the dictation of others." The General Court issued the following order:
"October 3, 1632, Mr. Batchiler is required to forbear exercising his Guilfts as a pastor or teacher publiquely in or pattent, unless it be to
those he brought with him, for his contempt of authority & till some scandles be removed." After five months this prohibition was removed.
   This was not the end of his troubles. He was censured several more times and was finally asked to remove himself from the town. He finally did move to Ipswich in February, 1636, where he received a grant of fifty acres of land. Descension followed him and he then moved to Newberry,
where on July 6, 1638 the town made him a grant of land. By October of 1638 the General Court of Massachusetts, in order to be rid of a troublesome pastor, and also to strengthen their claim to the territory, granted Mr. Stephen Bachiler and his company, liberty to begin a plantation at Winnicunnet, now called Hampton, New Hampshire. On June 7, 1639 the town was begun.
   In 1639, the inhabitants of Ipswich voted to give Mr. Bachiler sixty acres of upland and twenty acres of meadow, if he would reside with them three years. He preferred his settlement at Hampton. On July 5, 1639, he and Christopher Hussey sold their houses and lands in Newbury for six score pounds, and from then on his entire interest was with the Hampton settlement. The town, in 1639, granted their pastor three hundred acres of land for a farm, besides his house lot, and he gave them a bell for the meeting house. The farm was laid out in the extreme southern limits of Hampton, adjoining Salisbury.
   In 1639 Rev. Timothy Dalton become teacher of the church at Hampton. Mr. Bachiler remained as pastor. From his arrival there were fierce
conflicts in the church. The largest portion of the members sided with Mr. Dalton, since they had been his parishioners in England at Woolverstone, Ipswich, in Suffolk. Bachiler, however, was "positive, earnest and convincing." He was also described as "obstinate, tenacious, and unyielding." The problems between Dalton and Bachiler lasted about four years at which time The Bay Colony had succeeded in its design against New Hampshire. The opposition to Bachiler in the church at Hampton, previously a majority, was greatly strengthened by union of the provinces in 1641. Dalton had succeeded in excommunicating him. At last, wearied with the contest, Bachiler accepted the inevitable and agreed to remove. After much additional haggling he again settled down at Hampton. He was a church member, but probably did not preach.
   While in Hampton Stephen's second wife Helen died at about age 60. He sold his farm at Hampton to William Howard and Thomas Ward in 1644, and
they sold it to the town, who afterwards granted it to Rev. John Wheelwright.
   On April 24, 1647, Mr. Bachiler had left Hampton and was living in Portsmouth. On that day he conveyed all his remaining estate at Hampton, including all grants not appointed, to his grandson, John Sanborn, who was to give bond to pay the grantor's other three grandchildren, namely, Nathaniel Bachiler, Stephen Sanborn and William Sanborn L20 each.
   Shortly after leaving for Portsmouth, Stephen's usual good judgement seems to have deserted him. He was a widower, and obtained for a housekeeper a widow, whom he calls "an honest neighbour." He soon married her. He was 86 or 87 years old, Mary, his third wife, was evidently much younger than he. In the York records of October 15, 1651 is the following: " We do present George Rogers and Mary Batcheller, the wife of Mr. Stephen Batcheller, minister, for adultery. It is ordered that Mrs. Batcheller, for her adultery shall receive forty stripes save one, at the first town meeting held at Kittery, 6 weeks after her delivery, and be branded with the letter "A" ( There is some speculation
that Mary was the model for Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter). Stephen requested a divorce.    His request was denied.

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