John Bates, son of
Jacob and Molly (Clark) Bates was born in Hingham, December 4, 1748, moved to
Attleboro, Massachusetts with his parents, but later settled in Dudley, now a
part of Webster, where he died on December 12, 1834 and was buried in the old
Bates cemetery located in Thompson, CT. He married Chloe Fuller
(1747-1825) on February 17, 1770, in Attleboro and they had six children. She
was a daughter of Noah and Mary (Cushman) Fuller, whose ancestors came from
England in the "Mayflower." John Bates was a descendant of Clement
Bates, an early settler of Hingham, Massachusetts, who arrived on the ship
"Elizabeth" in 1635. The Bates' property, extending at one time the
full length of Thompson Road from Connecticut to Webster, Massachusetts was
purchased by John Bates during the years 1783/85. The original 18th century farmhouse
where he lived still stands on Thompson Road and remains in the family to this
day. The dwelling was expanded around
1825 with the attachment of a handsome Federal Style house which served the
dual purpose of tavern and home for John’s son, Alanson. As the "Fox and
Hounds Tavern" it was a stop on the stage coach line that connected
Providence, Rhode Island with Springfield, Massachusetts. A remnant of this road, covered
with grass and flanked by two old stone walls, still exists, passing in front
of the house. John Bates served as a private in the Revolutionary War
and was in
Captain Jacob Ide's Southwest Company, Colonel John Daggett's 4th
Bristol County Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia. In an order dated July 5,
1778 given by Captain Ide to Ephraim Newel, Town Treasurer of Attleboro he was to
be paid “for services on the alarm caused by the battle of Bunker Hill.” Although
the history is incomplete, a company of about sixty minutemen went to Roxbury
on June 17, 1776 and remained there for a fortnight. Said one of them, “While
there a small party of us went around Cambridge side to look for the British,
but soon the captain of a fort called out to us, that we had better not go in
company, for the enemy would see us and fire at us; and sure enough, in a
minute or two, a cannon ball came whizzing along close by us.” He also marched
to Rhode Island on the alarm of December 8, 1776 (service 12 days).
Webster history records that in 1783,
"to the shore of our beautiful lake [Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg] came John Bates and his family, and his
parents. The Squire was an energetic man and a very prosperous one. Besides
keeping a public house, he sold hides, lent money for mortgages and acted as
High Sheriff, settling many disputes that arose about him.”
Sources: A Sketch of
the History of Attleborough: From Its Settlement to the Division; MA
SOLS & SAILS, VOL 1, P 790 and from Worcester County, Massachusetts Memoirs
p. 432
Clement, son of James
Bates, was born in Lydd, Kent,
England, in 1595. When he was forty years of age he sailed April 6, 1635, on the ship "Elizabeth" with
his wife Anne, also aged forty, and 5 children, James(14) Clement(12) Rachel(8) Joseph(7)
Bengamin(2). They also brought two servants, John Wynchester(19), and Jervice
Gould(30). They travelled with Clement's brother James, James' wife Alice
Glover, and their 4 children. There were 77 passengers on the ship plus the
crew captained by William Stagg.
Lydd which
lies on the Romney
Marsh also known as Denge Marsh, whose headland is Dungeness (coincidentally
the name that Thomas
Carnegie gave to his palatial
home on Cumberland Island, GA.) Lydd
reached the height of its prosperity during the 13th century, when it was a corporate
member of the Cinque Ports. Lying at the eastern end of England the Confederation of Cinque
Ports originally formed for military and trade purposes included a historic series of
coastal towns in Kent
and Sussex . A
Royal Charter of 1155 established the ports to maintain ships ready for the
Crown and in return the towns received certain privileges to include exemption
from taxes and limited self-government. This
latitude, led to smuggling becoming the predominant economic stimulus. As time
went by and some ports declined or silted up, others were added, including Lydd
in the 15th century. The oldest recorded Bates relative was born in
1270. There are number of Bates entombed
in the All Saints Church, also known as Lydd Church and others buried in the adjoining
graveyard.
When Clement and his family left Lydd, the British church and government
was becoming insufferably hierarchical, tyrannical, and tax-hungry. Puritans in particular viewed the Church
of England as being too much like the Catholic Church. Puritans were blocked from changing the
established church from within, and severely restricted in England by laws
controlling the practice of religion, but their views were taken by the
emigration of congregations to the Netherlands and later New England. While common resentment among the English
people would lead to Civil War beginning in 1642, approximately 20,000 colonists came to New England from 1630
through 1640 . Called the “Great
Migration” a distinction drawn is that the movement of colonists to New
England was not predominantly male, but of families with some education,
leading relatively prosperous lives. Winthrop's noted words, a City
upon a Hill, refer to a vision of a new society, not just economic
opportunity. Clement settled at
Hingham, Massachusetts, about the same time that Rev. Peter Hobart's company
arrived in September, 1635, and he had a homestead of five acres on Town Street,
near South Street and the house was passed along to several generations. His
wife Anna died in Hingham, October 1, 1669, aged seventy-four years, and he
died September 17, 1671, aged seventy- six years. His will was dated at
Hingham, October 12, 1669, and he left land to his sons, Joseph, Benjamin and
Samuel.
