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. 