Overview
by RegBATEMAN is a fairly common name and originates from the ancient ancestors' occupation. They were suppliers of raw materials to the Tanners. In order to remove the hair from hides and skins they were soaked in pits containing water and dog manure - the Bate man went round collecting the manure for the tanners. Nowadays dehairing is a chemical process.
The BATMAN/BATEMAN families have been established in the Bitton area certainly since before the earliest parish register entries. They were never as far up the social scale as, say, the BUSH families of Upton but seem to be mostly husbandmen, farmers and some claimed yeoman. During the boom years of hatmaking some followed that trade, but it eventually changed from a cottage industry to a factory operation and they fell out of the trade then - presumably a good living but no capital to invest in machines. At one time they made broad brim hats for plantation workers in Virginia.
Researchers
Click on the names of researchers to see their additional interests and contact information on the Researchers page.Caroline
Caroline is researching the BATEMAN family. See her contact details on the Researchers page.
Mark
Another origin of family name can be from "Servant of Bartholomew".
My Bristol / Kingswood Local One Name Study is in three parts:
Part 1: The Early Years (C15th - Late C17th):
Roots traced back to single individual 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 would be my 12xGGF.
Part 2: The Later Years (Late C17th - C20th):
Dozens of confirmed linked lines and hundreds of relatives. This includes hundreds of other related families for the Bitton/Kingswood area. The Reverend Dr. Robert James BATEMAN, my 7th cousin, 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 recent 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.
Part 3: The Risca Clan, Wales:
Emigrant coalminers who moved from the Mangotsfield area 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.
Reg
Reg is researching the BATEMAN family. See his contact details on the Researchers page.