William Bates, of Hanover

From the Bates Association newsletter, Bates Bulletin, of Fall and Winter 2011, information by Stephen Bates:

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Stephen has done extensive research on this Family Line of Ephraim and Ephraim’s Father William of Hanover NJ. Steve believes from his Research that the Father of William of Hanover is Thomas Bates from Wales to NJ.

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William 2-Thomas 1

William Bates 2, was born say 1716, and died between 8 December 1767 when he made his will, and February 1770 when his widow relinquished her executorship. He married first, by 1742, MARY BALL, who was born say 1720, daughter of Caleb II and Elizabeth (___) Ball. Mary died sometime between 1753 and 1767 when William’s will named his second wife, REBECCA _____.

The first record of William Bates of Hanover is in the Morristown Presbyterian Church, which shows Will Bates of Hanover as the father of Ephraim Bates baptized 6 July 1745. William appears in the Hanover Presbyterian Church records at the baptism of his children, David 1747, Uzal 1749, Caleb 1751, Rhoda 1753, and Mary 1757.

On 21 May 1751 he was a bondsman for Zeruah Garner, widow and administratrix of Samuel Garner’s interstate estate; Joseph Wood was his fellow bondsman, and all three were of Hanover, Morris County. On 6 October 1751 William Bates appears on a petition of owners of Bloomaries in Morris County, seeking removal of a tax on their iron works. This suggests that William may have been a blacksmith, as many of them owned small forges to produce their needed iron.

William again appears in the baptismal records of the Morristown Presbyterian Church on 5 August 1759, as the father of his daughter Martha. Sometime between the baptisms of his daughters Mary and Martha, William moved about 10 miles west to the Township of Pequannock, where he is on an undated list requesting a pastor for the Rockaway church.

His will, dated 8 December 1767 in Pequannock, Morris County, witnessed by Ephraim Goble and Stephen Beach, proved 3 September 1770 at Perth Amboy, noted that he was weak in body but of perfect mind and memory. He left one third of his estate to his beloved wife Rebecca, “over and above what the law allows,” and the other thirds “to two of his daughters,” Catherine and Rhoda and named as executors his wife Rebecca, and his “trusty and well Beloved friend” John Huntington of Hanover, Morris County, Cooper.” William was dead by February 1770 when his wife Rebecca requested that John Huntington be the sole executor, but the will was not proved until the following September.

Evidence that William Bates of Pequannock was the same William Bates who lived in Hanover comes from his son Ephraim registering as a member of the Rockaway Presbyterian Church in Pequannock in 1768, and by the appearance of his son Uzal on the Pequannock Tax list in 1778 William’s sons Ephraim and David paid Rockaway Church Taxes in 1768 and 1769, and Ephraim mortgaged land near Cranbury Pond, just north of Rockaway, in 1771 and 1772. Moreover, one of the daughters named in the 1767 will is Rhoda, known to be the name of one of the daughters of William of Hanover.

An 1888 Manuscript genealogy in the Charles Gardiner Collection at the New Jersey Historical Society, “Descendants to the third generation of Edward Ball,” by Joseph Harrison Vance of Erie, Pennsylvania, notes Mary Ball as a child of Caleb Ball II and says that she married a Bates. Caleb Ball of Hanover, gentleman, in his will dated 25 July 1748, proved 29 August 1748, named Mary Bates as one of his daughters. The only Bates at the First Presbyterian Church of Hanover whose wife is not named in records there is William.

The fourth child of William Bates of Hanover was named Caleb and his sixth child was named Mary. This Mary Bates, known to her descendants as Mary Ball Bates, married David Cory Jr. of Hanover and moved to Bridport, Addison County, Vermont. William’s only sons for whom descendants have been found — Uzal,— both named their first daughters Mary. It is not clear when Mary (Ball) Bates died. It cannot be assumed that she was the mother of William’s daughter Mary (known as Mary Ball Bates), because naming a first child for a deceased earlier spouse was common practice at that time and in this case the use of the full maiden name is strongly suggestive of a memorial intent.

Since the time interval between daughters Mary and Martha is normal — two years — it seems more likely that William’s first wife died and he remarried during the four years between Rhoda and Mary, around 1756.

N. Earl Wharton suggested that William Bates of Hanover married Rebecca Tomlinson, stating, “William Bates of Hanover NJ in his marriage license, is of Gloucester County, indicating that he was of the family which was founded by William of Newton Creek.” There is, however, no evidence that a William Bates of Gloucester ever moved north to Hanover. The William Bates who married Rebecca Tomlinson in 1741 was of Waterford, Gloucester County, and Rebecca (who according to the marriage license was a widow), lived in Evesham, Burlington County, both considerably south of Hanover.

Moreover, according to historians, Morris County was settled from the east, from Newark, Elizabethtown, and Long Island. In fact, when New Jersey genealogist, Helen M. Wright tried in 1967 to investigate this link for a descendant of Ephraim Bates, she reported that the Library staff at the New Jersey State Archives thought William of Hanover was not of the Irish line from Gloucester County, as there were several Williams of that line who stayed in Gloucester County.

It is also notable that none of the Hanover William Bates・daughters or granddaughters was named Rebecca. It is likely that the William Bates who married Rebecca Tomlinson is the William Bates of Waterford, Gloucester County, who wrote a will there in 1777 naming [evidently second] wife Elizabeth and nine children, including six daughters: Hope, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Rebekah and Sarah.

Rebecca Tomlinson was born Rebecca Wills, the daughter of John Wills of Burlington County, who in his will dated 17 November 1745 named his daughter Rebecca and four of her children from her marriage to William Tomlinson: Hope, Elizabeth, Anne, and Sarah. Thus William Bates of Waterford, Gloucester County in 1777, names all four of Rebecca Tomlinson’s daughters in his will, as well as another daughter named Rebecca. It seems clear that this William Bates who married Rebecca (Wills) Tomlinson, was not William Bates of Hanover.

Children of William Bates and Mary Ball (Catherine is inserted in the space between Ephraim and David, as William’s preference in his will for his daughter Catherine indicates that she and Rhoda are the two eldest of his daughters):

• 1. Ephraim 3 b 24 May 1743, Hanover NJ, d. 12 Jan 1834, Sarahsville, OH. Marr. by 1768 to Susannah Clark.
• 2. Catherine b say 1745, Hanover, NJ, given one third of her father’s estate in will dated 8 December 1767, Pequannock, NJ.
• 3. David bap. 29 Mar 1747, Hanover, NJ. He is named in his uncle John Bates’ will in 1760. He is noted in 1768 and 1769 to be on the Rockaway Presbyterian Church tax list in Pequannock Township. May be ancestor of William S Bates.
• 4. Uzal bap. 5 February 1749, Hanover, NJ, d. after 1820, Sycamore Township, OH. Marr. Elizabeth Hurin, 1774. Uzal lived in Pequannock as late as 1780, then moved to Chemung, NY by 1788, before going west to Sycamore Township, Hamilton County, Ohio by 1793. Their children were
  • 1. Mary,
  • 2. Seth Hurin,
  • 3. Othneil, and
  • 4. Catherine.
• 5. Caleb bap. 14 July 1751, Hanover, NJ.
• 6. Rhoda bap. 1 April 1753, Hanover, NJ. She is named in her father’s will 8 Dec 1768, Pequannock, NJ.

Children of William Bates, uncertain with first or second wife (see discussion above):

• 7. Mary b. 10 Feb 1757, bap. 20 March 1757, Hanover, NJ, d. 24 Oct 1829 in Bridport, VT. Marr. David Cory by 1777. They had 11 children:
  • 1. Eunice,
  • 2. William,
  • 3. John,
  • 4. Zophar,
  • 5. Jane,
  • 6. Mary,
  • 7. Luther,
  • 8. Anna,
  • 9. Parmella,
  • 10. Elizabeth and
  • 11. David.
• 2. Martha bap. 5 Aug 1759, Morristown, NJ, m. David Reeve, 14 Nov 1780, and had four children,
  • 1. Abraham,
  • 2. Daniel,
  • 3. David Hallock and
  • 4. Bathia.

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William Bates of Hanover, in his marriage license, is “of Gloucester Co.” indicating that he was of the family which was founded by William of Newton Creek. After his marriage in 1741 he settled in Hanover, a few miles from Morristown, where we find the first record of him in connection with the church in 1743, and the baptism of his children a year or two later.

As a parental possibility, Jeremiah is eliminated through the failure of the male line in the death of his grandson in infancy. Joseph’s grandchildren are at present unknown beyond the fact that they constituted the Cloucester County family. William, with his Indian bride, settled on Tyndall’s Run near Haddonfield, N. Jersey, and it is among his and his brother Joseph’s children that we must look for the father of William of Hanover.

As regards generations, the first William’s children married about 1695, and his grandchildren about 1720. William of Hanover was born about 1720 and thus would become a great grandson of the immigrant, if our deductions are correct.

This was taken from the Bates Bulletin Series II Volume IV, Years 1912 1917. These are found in most large libraries.

Mr. N. Earl Wharton gives the following data in addition to the other we have read:

William Bates of Hanover, N. Jersey, had a brother David and probably a brother Daniel. The following tells the story:

David Bates (brother to William) was born about 1725 and died at Hanover September 7, 1620, aged 95 years. He became a member of the church to which William belonged (The Presbyterian Church of Hanover) and their children are recorded almost side by side. David was made an Elder of this church in 1777. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War a meeting of Morris County Delegates was held at the Dickenson Tavern in Morristown September 14, 1775, at which “it was unanimously voted to recommend to the Provincial Congress” that David Bates of Hanover be made a Major of the “minute men”. He was appointed Captain of the Eastern Battalion of Morris County. He married Phebe .... who was born 1740 and died March 7, 1803, aged 63 years. By her he had at least four children. His will is indexed as No. 1828n W 1821 but I have not examined it. His children were, William, John, David, and Ebenezer.

Up until William of Hanover, the story is not really traced completely, but from William on the story and records are true and on record in public places such as the Combined Registers, 1742 to 1885 of Part II of the History of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown which has the records of William of Hanover, the birth and baptism of his children. William is known to have been a resident of the village of Hanover as early as 1743. He m. Rebecca Tomlinson, as a license to marry was granted to the couple in 1741. In his will, proved 1770, he mentions his wife Rebecca and daughters Catherine and Rhoda.

Children:

I. Ephraim, born May 24, 1744, at Morristown, bap. July 6. 1745.

II. David, bapt. March 29, 1747, at Hanover

III. Uzal, bapt. February 5, 1749, at Hanover

IV. Caleb, bapt. July 14, 1751, at Hanover

V. Rhoda, bapt. April 1, 1753, at Hanover

VI.. Mary, bapt. March 20, 1757, at Hanover

VII. Martha, bapt. August 5, 1759, at Morristown, m. David Reeve November 14, 1780, and had four children: Abraham Daniel, David Hallock and Bathia

VIII. Catherine.

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