One Name Study: BATEMAN Family of Bristol

The BATMAN / BATTMAN / BATEMAN Families
of Kingswood and Bitton, near Bristol, England

Part 1: The Early Years (C15th - Late C17th):
Roots traced back to William BATMAN, a Husbandman of North Stoke, a village east of Bristol. He left a Will dated 25.3.1586 which suggests he may have been born c1482.
William is apparently my 12xGGF.
[Understandably the relationships in this period are somewhat difficult and unreliable, so any additional insight to those presented would be appreciated.]

Part 2: The Later Years (Late C17th - C20th):
Dozens of confirmed linked lines and hundreds of relatives connected to the researchers listed below. This includes hundreds of other related families for the Bitton/Kingswood area, some of which are also listed in the Genealogical Index.

Part 3: The Risca Clan, Wales:
Emigrant coalminers who moved from Mangotsfield to Risca, Glamorgan now part of Gwent, South Wales. Descendants of Isaac s/o Abraham BATEMAN and Hannah LUCAS who, during his marriage to Sarah BENNETT moved from the Kingswood area to Machen and Risca. Their fifth child was born there in 1810. Several BATEMAN families were living in Bateman's Row in 1861, a street most likely named after the mining family.
Perhaps the 1990's Welsh rugby union player Alan BATEMAN is a descendant of these families?

These files are made available on the understanding that any additions, corrections and new links will be reported back to help future research. Thanks.

A list of the people connected to the greater Clan through research:
(relationship to myself in brackets [x Cousin y times Removed])
[If you wish your name added to or removed from this list, please let me know.]

Noted Historical Family Connection: The Reverend Robert James BATEMAN, my 7th cousin and a relative of all the Family 1 below, went down with the "SS Titanic". He is mentioned in the book and film "A Night to Remember" where he led some passengers in prayers and conducted the band in playing Nearer My God To Thee (his favourite hymn) as the ship went down. The Oscar award winning film "Titanic" directed by James CAMERON has a similar scene, although the characters are not identified. He was washed overboard and drowned. See his reference also in Encyclopedia Titanica

The following is extracted from press reports:

JACKSONVILLE - Dr. Robert James Bateman became a footnote to history when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. But Bateman's death on April 15, 1912, is only a postscript in the life of an Englishman who made a lasting impression on his adopted home of Jacksonville and in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Baltimore, Maryland, where he served as a minister, evangelist, and a champion of the disadvantaged.

Bateman was already a successful minister and evangelist when he made a trip in the spring of 1912 to his native Staple Hill (Bristol), England. He visited his mother's grave, studied a successful orphanage in Bristol, and escorted his wife's sister, Ada E. Balls, on a visit to Jacksonville.

They boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England. Just hours before the accident, Bateman conducted a church service for the second-class passengers, ending with his favorite song, "Nearer my God to Thee," according to accounts by Mrs. Balls. It was the same song survivors recall a band playing on the sinking vessel, which was about the size of today's aircraft carriers.

"Brother forced me into the last boat, saying he would follow me later. I believe I was the last person to leave the ship. Brother threw his overcoat over my shoulders as the boat was being lowered away and as we neared the water, he took his black necktie and threw it to me with the words, 'Goodbye, God bless you!," she said.

At a memorial service held on April 21, 1912, Bateman was remembered for his work at the Central City Mission in Jacksonville.

Bateman was ordained in the ministry when he was 21 and served as a pastor in Wales, Ireland, England and the United States, according to an article written by Jacksonville historian Edward A. Mueller and published in the "Titanic Commutator," in 1987 by The Titanic Historical Society.

For a while, Bateman worked with his father as a stone mason in the United States before returning to the ministry in Baltimore, where he served as superintendent of the Florence Crittendon Mission. He moved to Knoxville, Tenn., in the late 1890s, where he founded the non-denominational Peoples Tabernacle. He also was known for his work as an evangelist.

After moving to Jacksonville, Bateman started the Central City Mission.

Twelve days after the disaster, Bateman's body was plucked from the icy Atlantic, the 174th recovered. He was identified by his gold watch and chain, a Masonic charm pin, fountain pen, pipe lighter, and gold cuff links.

Bateman was given a hero's funeral with 11 ministers, according to an account in The Florida Times-Union.

He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in an unmarked grave. A nearby cenotaph reads, "Dr. R.J. Bateman. Born Oct. 14, 1860. Died Apr. 15, 1912. He lost his life in the wreck of the S.S. Titanic." ---

The Kingswood miners were a rough and tough lot. John WESLEY made a name for himself in the early days of Methodism. The following is extracted from Bristol and Avon FHS Journal "Parish, Chapelry and Hamlet: The Bitton Area and Its Records" by M. McGREGOR (Asst. Archivist, BRO):

Parish of Bitton: mother church of St. Mary. Within the parish: Chapelries of Hanham and Oldland, where baptisms and burials could be performed (marriages to 1754 only). One register covered both chapelries, entries being marked 'at Hanham' or 'at Oldland'. Later elevated to status of independent parishes which led to individual records. The old register was not split, but passed to Hanham. Hanham became a separate parish in 1844. Hamlets of Hanham and Oldland had separate civil identity since 1601. Ecclesiastical parishes not established for a further two hundred years. St Anne was not formed until 1861. As a chapelry of Bitton its registers run from 1813, but in combination with Hanham from 1572; civilly distinct since Tudor times.

Bishop Transcripts: to 1813 are held at Bristol RO. Bitton and its chapelries are entered on the same sheet. Parish lay in the rural deanery of Hawkesbury, which until 1826 formed part of Gloucester Diocese. BT's sent to Gloucester. From 1836 Hawkesbury was in the Bristol Archdeanery, and records were transferred to Bristol. Post-1813 BT's bound into annual volumes with other Gloucs. parishes remain in Gloucester.

Holy Trinity, Kingswood consecrated in 1820.
Christ Church, Hanham consecrated 1841.
St Barnabas, Warmley 1855.
Ref: ELLACOMBE, Rev. H T "The History of the Parish of Bitton in the County of Gloucester" Exeter, 1881.

- "History of Kingswood Forest" Rev. BRIANE, writing of the old families of Bitton mentions their unusually large and giant-like proportions and the old saying 'He was one of BATMAN's gurt uns'.

- "Annals of Kingswood" & "Killed in a Coalpit" by D. P. LINDEGAARD.
The "Kingswood Index" as held by the same researcher.