Bathurst Documents

Because there is so much information on the Bathurst branch of the family it deserved a separate page.  Who would have guessed that Grandmother Miller would have such an interesting family history!

One of the documents I found at the Library and Museum in Bellefonte is a paper by Edmund B. Middleton.  Much of the paper is about the Middleton family and I did not get copies relating to the Middletons but some of the document is about the Bathurst family and I did get some of those.  Another document that is valuable for the research of the American Bathurst family is a document titled "Lawrence Bathurst, 1757-1845 of Centre County, Pennsylvania His English Ancestry and Some of His Descendants" Complied by Ruth M. Coleman 1981.  Portions from these documents is what I will post here.  Other sources come from archive publications, census records, John Bathurst in Canada and Donna Hayes Stueve in North Carolina - more about our cousin Donna later!

The Bathurst family, from which the American branch decends, has been traced back to Richard Bathurst 1390 England.  This information came from John Bathurst who resides in Canada who, as he has stated, he has been researching 63 years and has accumulated 9,348 Bathurst records spanning 9 centuries worldwide.  I have had much contact with him through email regarding the Bathurst lineage and found that John and I share very similar views on research and I'm confident that he has conducted his research and record keeping to a high standard.

SIR FRANCIS BATHURST, FIFTH BARONET OF LECHLADE

The American branch of the Bathurst family began with Sir Francis Bathurst, Fifth Baronet of Lechlade England.  Sir Francis Bathurst was born at Lechlade, England in 1675; baptized March 3, 1675.  He died in the Colony of Georgia on December 19, 1736 at approximately 63 years of age.

Sir Francis married Frances Peacock, a cousin, and the daughter of Reverend Peacock.  Sir Francis and his wife, son Robert and two daughters, Mary and Martha (Patty) embarked for America from England with General James Oglethorpe.  Lawrence and Elizabeth, the eldest son and eldest daughter of Sir Francis and Frances Bathurst remained behind in England.  Two others aboard and bound for the Colony of Georgia were John and Charles Wesley.  After months of delay in Cowes England, the Symond sailed for America in December of 1735.  A further account states "the colonial expedition sailed into the mouth of the Savannah River on February 5, 1736.  Upon reaching the Savannah River Oglethorpe decideds to keep the newly arrived settlers aboard until they could be further transported to Frederica on St. Simons Island.  Oglethorpe, having to speak to officials in Savannah sent fresh meat and provisions to the settlers remaining on board.  The settlers slept aboard that night and landed on Friday the 6th on Cockspur Island near Savannah.  An account of this voyage is found in the book "Oglethorpe and Colonial Georgia a history 1733-1783 by David Lee Russell.

Sir Bathurst was granted 200 acres on which he attempted to establish a plantation and called it Bathurst Bluff.  After considerable misfortune the plantation was abandoned and eventually became part of the Drakies Plantation.  The following description is found in the Colonial Records:

 "The three tracts of the Drakies Plantation were bordered to the north by Augustine Creek.  One of the first owners of Drakies was Sir Francis Bathurst.  He orginally named the plantation Bathurst Bluff.  George Cuthbert later changed the name to Drakies.  During 1735 and 1736, Bathurst was faced with tragedy.  The land that he owned was subjected to numerous floods, and his crops were regulary washed out.  He had crops damaged several times by the trustees' horses, which were allowed to roam at large.  However, these were not the worst of his problems.  The tragic events that surrounded Sir Francis Bathurst were in some ways impacted by the problems he had maintaining his crops.  Bathursts family was practically starving to death.  Lady Bathurst died of what appears to be starvation in April 1736.  Two months after his wife's death, Bathurst married a woman wrongly believed to be of substantial means.  However, instead of helping his financial situation, she died three months after their wedding and left him with her enormous debt.  On September 23, 1736 Bathurst's daughter [Martha who's nickname was Patty] drowned in the Savannah River, and by the end of 1736 Sir Francis Bathurst died, having withstood more than most." 

MARTHA BATHURST, YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF SIR FRANCIS BATHURST

The Colonial Records at pp 250 dated 24 September 1736 include the death of Martha or Patty Bathurst:

"Summon'd a Jury Inquest to set on the Body of Miss Bathurst who was accidentally drowned Yesterday at her fathers plantation."

Also in the Colonial Records at pp 272:

"Sir ffrancis Bathurst continues to improve so farr as the Assistance he has will permitt; He has reced great Losses by his Servants Death and Sickness, and it became necessary to assist him, so that his Account with Your Honours will perhaps rise hight than his freinds may expect.  He is in very good health, ha's buried his Lady he brought with him, was married to Mrs. Pember, And ha's buried her also.  his Son is very Industrious, But his youngest Daughter accidently fell into the River and was drowned."

Source:

1. Ruth Coleman Document
2. The account of Sir Francis Bathurt in America is described in the Georgia Historical Society Journal, Vol 22, pp 207-235
3. Colonial Records of the State of Georgia
4. Rev. John Wesley's Journal

FRANCES BATHURST, 1ST WIFE OF SIR FRANCIS BATHURST

Frances or Francis Peacock Bathurst was the daughter of Reverend William Peacock and was born abt. 1679.  She died 2 April 1736 in Savannah Georgia.

Death notice in the South-Carolina gazette, 1732-1775

"From Savannah in Georgia we hear, that on the 2nd of April last died at Bathurst Bluff in the 57 Year of her Age the Lady of Sir Francis Bathurst, with an Inflammation in her side, she was brought to Savannah the next day, and interred, Gentlemen and Ladies of the best rank in this Place, also the King Tomochichi with his Queen attending her Corps.  her death is much regretted, having always been a loving Wife, an affectionate Mother, and a true Housekeeper."

Source:  Genealogytrails.com/scar/deathnotice_1732-1775.htm     Contibuted by Peggy Thompson

NOTE:  Dec 24, 2010.  I have just recently found a document on ancestry.com - Passenger and Immigration Lists Index's 1500's-1900's.  This index lists a Francis Bathurst in the year 1637 in Virginia.  It notes "Date child brought to hospital to remain until transport and intended destination"  Extracted from microfilms of Bridewell Royal Hospital records kept at Bridewell/.Royal Bethlem Hospital Joint Archives in Beckenham, Kent.  Source is Robert Hume.  Early Child Immigrants to Virginia, 1618-1642, copied from the Records of Bridewell Royal Hospital Baltimore: Magna Carta Book Co., 1986 p.52

If this records the presence of a Francis Bathurst in Virginia in 1637 that would put the Bathurst's in America abt. 100 years before I found them in Pennsylvania.  This will require some additional research!

ROBERT BATHURST, SON OF SIR FRANCIS AND FRANCES BATHURST

Robert Bathurst, one of three know sons of Sir Francis and Frances Bathurst.  Died September 9, 1739 in South Carolina.

Robert Bathurst with both parents now dead and having aquired his stepmothers debts and quarreling with the Trustees of the Colony, found the situation hopeless and left the Colony for Charleston, South Carolina with his sister and her husband Piercy.  In November of 1737, he wrote the Earl of Bathurst (in England) that he had left Georgia in September for "Charles Town" with his sister and brother-in-law, regretting that he was "leaving behind a good plantation in Georgia with nobody to take care of it".

On September 9, 1739, Robert was killed near Charleston.  The circumstances of Roberts death are found in the Ruth Coleman document in which it states the source of this informtion to be The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, Vol. 22, Part 2, page 1233 and is as follows:

"In a letter from General Oglethorpe to the accountant Mr. Harmon Verelst, dated October 9, 1739, there was an inclousrue reporting various atrocitites in a slave insurrection in South Carolina, among which is found the following : On the 9th day of September last, being Sunday, which is the day the platers allow them to work for themselves, some Angola negroes assembled to the number of twenty, and one who was called Jemmy was their captain; they surprised a warehouse belonging to Mr. Hutchinson at a place called Stonehwo.  They there killed Mr. Robert Bathurst and Mr. Gibbes, plundered the house and took a pretty many small arma and powder...etc"

TO BE CONTINUED