Father of the Man P. Colman Author

In subsequent years, while still pastor of the Hampton church, Rev. Bachiler was accused of having, or wanting to have an illicit affair with his neighbor’s wife. The irony of the potentially sizzling, but scandalous affair is that Rev. Bachiler had vehemently denied his ravenous intentions until, according to the account, during the ‘serving of the Lord’s Supper’ he confessed to the truth of his intent:

“Mr. Stephen Batchellor, the pastor of the church at Hampton, who had suffered much at the hands of the Bishops and having a lusty comely woman to his wife, did solicit the chastity of his neighbor’s wife, who acquainted her husband therewith; whereupon he was dealt with, but denied it, as he had told the woman he would do, and complained to the magistrates against the woman and her husband for slandering him. The church likewise dealing with him, he stiffly denied it, but soon after when the Lord’s Supper was to be administered he did voluntarily confess the attempt, and that he did intend to defile her if she had consented….”

Curiously, not every account of the notable Reverend’s illustrious itinerary in early New England includes the details of his conflict with church leadership and his tendency to exercise his professional ministry skills in favor of the female segment of the population. In his New Hampshire History (Concord, 1922), H.H. Metcalf simply comments that “In 1638 two other settlements were made – one at Hampton and one at Exeter, the former headed by Rev. Stephen Bachilor, the latter by Rev. John Wheelock, both noted religious leaders of their day, and the settlements largely made up of their devoted followers.” (p 13). His closest ‘follower’ and companion, according to the Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (1986) was none other than the patriarch Thomas Coleman.








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