William Bateman

William Bateman, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

William Bateman

1824-1867

Biographical Sketch

[Under Construction.]

A native of Lancashire in the Northwest of England, William Bateman was a British emigrant to the United States and a pioneer in southern Utah who later settled in Cache Valley in northern Utah.

Early Years in the North of England

Bateman was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England to Joseph Bateman and Margaret Turner. In 1843, he married Sarah Lavender (1824-1898) from Bedfordshire, East Anglia, England. Joseph and Margaret Bateman and many of their children converted to Mormonism in the 1840s. 

Immigration to America and onto Utah

Like many British converts to Mormonism in the mid-19th century, the Batemans saved their money to immigrate to America. Joseph Bateman and his wife were among the earliest British converts to Mormonism to immigrant to the United States, sailing to America in the early 1840s. When the Mormons departed western Illinois in 1846 and moved westward, so, too, did the Batemans. It appears that they immigrated to Great Salt Lake City in 1849 or 1850.

The early ironworks in Cedar City.

Joining Other British Emigrants in the Iron Mission in Cedar City

By 1853, William Bateman, his wife and their family were in Cedar City in southern Utah where many British Mormons with iron mining or smelting experience worked at founding the "Iron Mission."

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant William Bateman, Company G, John Higbee's 3rd Battalion, Cedar City

In 1857, William Bateman, 33, was listed as a sergeant of a platoon under Captain Eliezar Edwards in Company G in Major John M. Higbee's 3rd Battalion. (A William H. Bateman was a private in Company E under Captain Elias Morris in Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion.)

According to Philip Klingensmith, Samuel Pollock, William "Billy" Young, Nephi Johnson and John D. Lee, Bateman was at Mountain Meadows at the time of the massacre. According to Lee, Bateman attended the fateful military council on Thursday evening, September 10.

Also according to Lee and others, on Friday, September 11, Bateman carried a flag of truce to the emigrant camp to gain admittance to their wagon circle where Lee delivered deceptive terms of surrender to them. Beyond that, Bateman's exact role in the massacre is unknown. He may have been among the militia guard from Cedar City who were alongside the emigrant men as they walked north from the emigrant wagon circle.

Like many of the massacre participants from the Cedar City area, he was listed in Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warranty.

Abandoning Cedar City for Cache Valley

By 1859, the Batemans had moved to West Jordan in Salt Lake County. In the 1860s they moved to Richmond in Cache Valley where he died in 1867.

References

Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 144, 145, 325; Bigley and Bagley, Innocent Blood: Essential Narratives, 70n, 122, 123, 235, 347, 394; Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 73; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 238, 379; Lee Trial transcripts; FamilySearch.org; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Jenson and Morris Collections, 95, 114; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 187, 194, Appendix C, 256.

External Links

For further information on William Bateman, see:

• http://famroots.org/getperson.php?personID=I31779&tree=Complete

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