William Batchelor, Richard Berry and John Biggs were arrested and punished in Buckinghamshire, England in 1648, for being Quakers. All appeared in the Maryland and Virginia colonies later that year, with William arriving in Virginia on December 21, 1648. Batchelor family historians assume that the three friends were either deported or fled for religious reasons. William had named his son Richard (for his friend Richard Berry) and Richard had named his son William.
Richard Batchelor had been born in Buckinghamshire, England about 1643/1645. He sailed from Bristol, England on August 27, 1661. He had signed a four-year contract as an indentured servant to William Dunning of Virginia to secure free passage to the new world. Upon completion of his contract, Richard acquired 300 acres in Lower Norfolk County in 1665. He also married Ann Biggs, the daughter of his father’s friend, John Biggs. At the time of his death in 1682, Richard Batchelor owned 3,000 acres of land in Lower Norfolk County (“The Batchelor-Williams Families and Related Lines,” by Lyle K. Williams).
Richard’s son, Joseph Batchelor, was born in the 1660’s in Norfolk County, Virginia. He and his wife, Mary Manning, had many children. Stephen was born in 1702, in Virginia and died in Nash County, North Carolina. Stephen’s son, Solomon, was born in 1750, in Nash County, then moved to Franklin County, North Carolina.
Solomon’s son, Jesse, was the first of this Batchelor branch to live in Georgia. He was born in 1775, in North Carolina and died in Putnam County, Georgia. His son, Cordy, had been born in 1808 in Franklin County, North Carolina. On January 13, 1829, Cordy married Mary Corine/Conine in Putnam County, Georgia. He and his six sons (Cordy Jr., David, James Early, Leverett, Richard and Solomon) all served in the Civil War.
According to military records, Leverett was severely wounded at the battle of McDowell, Virginia on May 8, 1862, but recovered after several months. He continued to serve and was present at the Confederate surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. Leverett’s story is part of a memoir written by Robert Young about the Batchelor family’s remarkable service as Confederate soldiers.
“Thus did the aged father give up all his boys to the Southern cause. David was killed at Spottsylvania on May 10, 1864. Solomon, Cordy, Richard, and Early suffered for months in northern prisons. At the close, Leverett and his four brothers returned home, and as good citizens, entered heartily into the work of restoring the Southland. In this, Leverett was engaged almost to the end of his life, having worked more than 40 years after surrender. I am all the more pleased to write this memoir because my comrade was so quiet and unassuming in life. May he rest in peace." by Robert Young, Commander of Putnam County GA Volunteers.
A second clipping tells that when David Batchelor was mortally wounded, Leverett stayed with him on the battlefield until he died. Then Leverett buried him in a shallow grave dug with his bayonette.
James Early Batchelor had first become a POW on May 30, 1862 at Front Royal, Virginia, but was exchanged on August 5 that same year. Then upon the death of his brother, he was once again captured as a POW on May 10, 1864 at Spotsylvania. After being released on July 26, 1865 from Elmira, New York, he returned to Georgia. Matilda Bluford Haddock, the daughter of Joseph Caswell Haddock, had married him in the midst of the Civil War in 1863. Afterwards, the two resumed their life together in Haddock, Georgia where they lived happily until Early Batchelor’s death on Valentine’s Day, 1887.
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