Bumping into Great Great Great Grandma

Leavitt Cemetery, Chichester, New Hampshire

Not too far north of Nutfield is Chichester, New Hampshire. My mother’s grandmother was a Batchelder, and she was born in Chichester, but the family lived in Boston. Their roots were on the New Hampshire seacoast, because the first Batchelder in the New World was the Reverend Stephen Batchelder, who founded Hampton. The Batchelders didn’t have their roots in Chichester, but all the brides, and cousins, and in-laws, were born, lived and died in Chichester.

So we set off to Chichester one sunny day to look for various Batchelder names in the cemetery, and the other family names that went along with the family tree. We had a list of Welches and Lockes to search for, too. We didn’t have any idea which cemetery to look in, or where the cemeteries were located (in the days before GPS!) but we had the minivan, the camera, and the notebook.

Just off the center of town, we found a small grassy burial ground called the “Leavitt Cemetery.” This was promising because someone in the Batchelder family tree had married a Leavitt. We parked the minivan and searched the cemetery. There were loads of familiar names, and we took many photos, but we couldn’t find George and Abby (Locke) Batchelder, my 3x great grandparents.
After taking photos and notes, and getting exasperated, I threw open the door of the minivan and hit a gravestone. I jumped out to inspect the stone, and started to laugh out loud. I had just bumped into great, great, great grandma!
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For the Batchelder Family tree back to Rev. Stephen Batchelder, see my post on 20 August 2009

Locke Family Tree:


Generation 1: John Locke, born about 1627 in England, died 26 August 1696 in Rye, New Hampshire during an Indian massacre; about 1652 to Elizabeth Berry, born about 1636 and died after 1708.

Generation 2: John Locke, born about 1654 in Portsmouth, died after 1733; married about 1677 to Elizabeth Bolles, daughter of Joseph Bolles and Mary Howell, born 15 January 1650/1 in Welles, Maine; died 12 November 1734 in Rye.

Generation 3: John Locke born 1683 and died about 1774; married to Sarah Unknown

Generation 4: Richard Locke born 28 July 1720 in Rye, died 15 May 1804; married about 1745 to Elizabeth Garland, daughter of John Garland and Elizabeth Dearborn, born 13 March 1723/4 in Rye.

Generation 5: Simon Locke, born September 1770 in Rye, died 31 July 1863 in Rye; married on 14 February 1792 in Greenland, New Hampshire to Abigail Mace, daughter of Ithamar Mace and Rachel Berry, born 1 February 1767 in Rye, died 18 February 1803.

Generation 6: Richard Locke, born 1794 in Rye, died 23 March 1864 in Chichester; married on 21 Oct 1823 in Chichester to Margaret Welch, born about 1796 in Kittery, Maine, died 11 March 1860 in Chichester.

Generation 7: Abigail M. Locke, born 10 September 1825 in South Boston, Massachusetts, died 15 January 1888 in Chichester; married on 7 September 1845 in South Boston to George E. Batchelder; son of Jonathan and Nancy Batchelder, born on 13 August 1822 in Chichester, died 3 April 1848 in Chichester.



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Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson Rojo