PETER BATE 1814-1877

Notes on Peter Bate (coal miner)

last updated on 29 May 2011

"It would be a difficult task to give a description of the Country... I never saw anything that comes so near the description of the lake of Fire & Brimstone Spoken of by the Revelator John as several miles of that country for it is one universal mass of coal pits & Iron mines & while thousands of human beings are underground in the midst of Fire, Brimston[e], sulpher, Gas & cole & in the whole face of the earth & heavens air & horizon men, women, & houses, are filled & Cover[e]d with the composition of Fire, cinders, Gas, sut & smoke of their misery & Labours that ascended up out of their piles, Furnesses, & pitts from day to day & from year to year. In fine, it is more like Hell in comparison than any place I have as yet visited." [Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff's Journal 1833-1898 (Signature Books: Midvale, Utah, 1983), 1: 471-72 (26 June 1840)]. In the fiery hell so eloquently described in 1840 by Mormon missionary Wilford Woodruff lived a polyglot of peoplewealthy nobility, thrifty merchants, grasping industrialistsas well as potters, colliers, and beggars. Wealth for the successful came from the slavery in the mines and with the pots. Josiah Wedgwood had founded his famous firm here which earned the area the name of "the Potteries." A logical place it was for pot-making because of the ample resources of clay and coal [Elie Halevy, England in 1815 (Barnes & Noble, Inc.: New York City, 1960), pp. 270-71. This is the first volume of Halevy's series, A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century]. The industrial revolution sucked labor into the Potteries as readily as a modern-day vacuum cleaner gorges itself with lint. The rewards to labor were long hours of hard work, miserable pay (but still an improvement over the lot of agricultural laborers), and atrociously dangerous and unsanitary working conditions. The price for survival included child labor, ill health, and early death. The non-laboring classes who owned the clay, the coal, the forests and the private parks, were rewarded with obscenely lavish lifestyles and amused themselves by hanging poachers and pickpockets. The man whose slight biography we write was not to reap the honest rewards of his labor but was destined to spend his life supporting the aristocratic and "well born." Our account is meager because only the records of the upper classes were well kept: for them genealogies were faked to give them god-like origins. They were letter writers and that correspondence was often meticulously preserved. And of course their letters were "franked" or mailed without charge by friendly members of parliament.

There were no possibilities for jobs in government, the military, or the church. Those sinecures were carefully saved for members of the aristocracy. Men like Peter Bate were destined to unrecorded poverty, affliction, and back-breaking labor. Peter himself had unanswered questions. He does not even seem to know where or when he was born. At various times he suggests birth years between 1814 and 1817. In 1841 his birth place is reported as in the county of Stafford [1841 Census, Bucknall Hamlet, Staffordshire, England]. In 1851 he says he was born in the county of Cheshire [1851 Census, Stoke upon Trent, Wellington District, Hanley, 1 Charles Street, Staffordshire, England]. And in 1861 he reports Betley, Staffordshire as the town he was born in [1861 Census, Bucknall, Staffordshire, England]. Finally in 1871 he slyly points to Bucknall, Staffordshire as the place of his nativity [1871 Census, Wheatley, Bucknall, Staffordshire, England]. The first record we find of him is in the parish of Wolstanton, where Peter, son of Samuel and Frances Bates was christened 23 July 1815, his father a labourer in Chesterton Brook [Bishop's Transcripts, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, England]. Since his brother John was christened only five months earlier, we can be certain this family didn't have their children christened immediately after birth. Despite Peter's ignorance of his birth place and perhaps even of his birth year, his father and those following must have taken pride in their surname, for nearly every record of them in Staffordshire calls them Bates, and yet-illiterate though they were-they and their descendants still use the surname without the extra "s." Another inheritance from Peter's ancestors was undoubtedly his vigorous constitution: his father lived to be 75 and his mother was apparently 72. Peter grew up in Bucknall, a village whose impoverished claim to fame was that Dinah Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, had as a child visited her grandmother in Bucknall. If that meant anything to Peter is doubtful, but Bucknall did have a school capable of accommodating twelve scholars [David Robinson, ed., Visitations of the Archdeaconry of Stafford 1829-1841 (Staffordshire Record Society, 1980), p. 77]. Peter probably didn't get selected as one of the students. In 1806 two million children in England and Wales had no education at all and in 1810 threefourths of agricultural labourers (from whence came Peter's father) were unable to read. By 1819, when the first official statistics were compiled, only one out of fifteen children attended school [Halevy, pp. 532-33]. The industrial revolution lowered educational standards and for a time some

of the ruling classes maintained that universal schooling was promoted by anarchists and revolutionaries. But this attitude was beginning to change because of the relentless pressure from Evangelicals and other religious nonconformists who demanded broader and better education for England's children [Ibid., pp. 529, 533]. Schooling was doubtful: working was certain. Peter must have begun to work in the colliery with his father at a very young age. Mines were the absolute property of the lord of the manor, and the nobility and landed classes were the hereditary rulers--families like the Lowthers in Westmoreland, Curwins in Cumberland, Percys in Northumberland, and Granvilles in Staffordshire. Peter's son William, describing his own growing up, likely echoed his father's experience: "I was taken to work in the coal pit by my father before I was 7 years old... with 5 miles to walk morning and evening for 3 years. The pit was 100 yards deep..." [This statement, written in pencil in the William Bate Notebook, has been copied from an incomplete history of William]. Peter undoubtedly had the same experience for child labor among the working classes was universal and Bucknall school was certainly too small to offer much if he could be spared from his work. He would start out as a surface worker--low status and dangerous jobs held by children, women, the handicapped and elderly. Children were burnt to death, breathed coal dust, and were always in danger of falling down shafts. Transition from surface work to pit work was often terrifying: not only because of the dark and smelly surroundings, but young boys were into the underground work with demeaning ceremonies [John Benson, British Coalminers in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History (Gill and Macmillan Ltd., Dublin, 1980), pp. 6, 20, 34, 28-31]. "The children began work [in the coal mines] at the age of seven or eight," wrote historian Elie Halevy, adding, "Throughout the entire winter they never beheld daylight [Halevy, pp. 262]. In the mine itself, sanitation was dreadful, vicious rats infested the mines, water was a serious danger in North Staffordshire, the seams were wet, faulted and inclined, and the deeper the pits got, the hotter it was. Working space was cramped and disasters were common. Staffordshire was one of the most dangerous coal mining districts in England [Benson, pp. 30-31]. Peter probably soon moved from surface work to "pit lad," an oncost or day worker, paid by the day and in essence serving an apprenticeship. Having gone through the different ranks from running errands on the surface, serving as "pit lad" and "trapper" (opening trap doors), hand putter (running full and empty tubs for the hewers), assistant or temporary hewer, in his young manhood Peter was promoted to hewer, a prestigious achievement to become

the man who actually cut the coal out of the seams. By then, says historian John Benson, the hewer "was already likely to be strong, aggressive, suspicious, obdurate and obsessed with his job" [Ibid., p. 53]. Peter was a hewer when his son William began to work in the mine, and William served as Peter's "hand putter" [William Bate Notebook]. The hewer was celebrated in an old verse: My father always used to say pit work's more than hewing You've got to coax the coal along And not be riving and tewing [pushing and pulling] Noo the deputy crawls frae flat to flat While the putter rams the cummins [empty tubs] But the man at the face has to know his place Like a mother knows her young 'uns [Benson, p. 57]. Because hewers were paid by the piece they could pace themselves and unlike many English laborers had some control over how hard they worked. "The hewer was the aristocrat of the colliery labour force" [Ibid., p. 69]. Housing owned by the colliery was offered to the hewer, and preference was given to the married. While Peter was making a success of himself as a working man, he also seems to have been on good terms with his family. He was to name his first son Samuel after his father and in 1861 he was supporting his retired parents. Peter's brother John and sister Frances each named a son Peter. A successful job and strong family support meant Peter was ready for marriage. The marriage does not show up in civil registration so may have taken place before July 1837. He married Margaret Cross, an illiterate Liverpool woman known to descendants as an excellent cook and dancer [LaMarr Bate Hilton, "Names in the Bate Family," p. 3, a history of Margaret Cross Bate, and John Thomas Bate and Maude Simmons Bate, "History of William E. Bate," p. 1]. Liverpool was a large industrial center with strong economic ties to the Potteries. Whether Peter met Margaret in Liverpool or if her family migrated to Staffordshire isn't known. Margaret was christened 14 September 1817 in St. Nicholas Parish, Liverpool, daughter of a cooper, William Cross [The Cross family was long in Liverpool (see George Sherwood, editor, The Pedigree Register 3 [1913-1916] 158, where a Liverpool Cross named John [occ. 1577-78] traces his pedigree to the time of Henry VI [1422-1471])] of Frederick Street, and his wife Sarah Rook [Parish Register, St. Nicholas, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. William and Sarah (Rook) Cross had christened at St. Nicholas: (1) William, born 3 April, chr. 28 April, 1805, and buried 9 September 1805; (2) Margaret, and (3) Sarah Ann,

chr. 26 September 1819]. Despite some research very little has been discovered about her family. Margaret's people were tradesmen and craftsmen while Peter's were labourers andmore recently-colliers. She claimed her mother died in 1837 and tradition says the place was Hanley, but no burial record supports that. Even Margaret's birth date has been variously given: most "Mormon" records agree on 15 June 1819 [LDS Endowment Records--but American Fork Record of Members p. 7, says she was born 15 June 1820]. Actually it was her sister Sarah who was born in 1819. Since Margaret gives Sarah's birth year as 1821 she was apparently off two years on both dates [In 1847 Margaret gave her age as 30, thus agreeing with her birth year of 1817 (see LDS Branch Records of Hanley, Staffordshire, England 1848-1849, p. 20)]. Margaret also asserts she had a great uncle named Felix Milligan [Salt Lake Temple, Baptisms for the Dead, Book E, page 57 (3 July 1874) shows William Bate baptized as great grandnephew of "Felicex" Milligin, who was born in Liverpool, and the same reference shows Margaret Cross [Bate] Vowles, grandniece, baptized for "Mrs. Felicex Milligin"]. Exactly how he was an uncle is unknown [My guess is that Milligan himself is the blood relative because Margaret knew his first name but she didn't know his wife's name] but we have discovered a little bit about him. He was the most successful member of the family, christened in 1764 son of grocer John and Sarah Mullagan of St. Mary's [1773 Directory of Liverpool shows John Mullagan as a grocer. But a 1776 record shows a John Milligan, linen draper, Milliner, Pluckington Alley. Parish Register, St. Mary's, Liverpool, Lancashire, England give Felix's christening, and show other children of John and Sarah "Mullagan": (1) Esther, chr. 13 Sept. 1761, m. 23 Aug. 1784, Joseph Robinson; (2) Felix, chr. 21 Oct. 1764, and m. but to whom is unknown; (3) Jane, chr. 25 June 1767, and (4) James, chr. 20 Oct. 1771, m. 24 June 1798, Ann Unsworth. I have read the probates of all the Milligans (and variants) of Liverpool up to 1837 and have not been able to add anything to our knowledge of this family. However, Liverpool was the destination of many migrating Irishmen, probably including the founder of this Milligan family]. Felix Mulligan was a successful businessman and listed in Liverpool directories of 1790, 1811, and 1827 as a joiner, living first at 55 Peter Street, then 3 Lambert Street, and finally 4 Craven Street [Lewis's Liverpool Directory for 1790 p. 45; Gore's Directory of Liverpool 1811 p. 178; Gore's 1827 Directory of Liverpool, p. 226]. In 1835-after the 1832 electoral reform-he had the privilege of voting [Poll Book, Liverpool Election 1835 (Parish of Liverpool), p. 59: "Milligan Felix joiner Craven-street S E.] What can we say about Peter's personal life? Little enough. Married colliers generally received free coal so they were warm in the damp, cold English winters. In "North Staffordshire the miners were lost in a vast tide of sprawling

urbanisation" [Benson, p. 83]. wrote Benson, indicating that some of the advantages of cosmopolitan living may have been available to Peter and his family: acrobats, concerts, an specialty shops. There must have been some fire in his relationship with Margaret. Miners expected a hot meal and a bath when they came home and one writer commented "The very nature of pit work made most women slaves, wives and daughters all." Wash days were certainly a trial with the coal dust everything. Sanitary conditions were poor, disease was rampant, and likely they were crowded into a one room house. Perhaps this is why Margaret was always sickly, and that in itself may have led to more family stress. "The family being poor," wrote an anonymous family historian, "the children got little schooling" [Anonymous, "History of William Bate," p. 1]. There were four of them: Samuel born in 1838 but dying in 1849; Emily (called Emmertine" in the 1841 census [1841 Census, Bucknall, Staffordshire, England]) born 1840; Herbert born 1844; and William born 1846. All of the children were born in Bucknall, though William believed he was born in nearby Hanley ["William Bate was born 12 May 1846 at (poteries) Handley, Staffordshire, England. My father Peter Bate was born in Bucknell... ("Life History of William Bate," p. 1). His father, Peter, was not born in Bucknall, either. William also wrote to his son, William Arthur, that "quite a lot of Bates lived at Bucknall that is where I lived when I left home but I was born in Hanley," and believed that his family had long been resident at Bucknall, because "Bro. Densley told me that he saw the man that keep the books [in Bucknall] and there was hundreds of Bates and Bate burried in Bucknall Church. Peter Bate [William's cousin] went with him, and Peter thought that they wasn't all our family but you can try to find that out. Some went By Bate and Bates." (William Bate, Riverton, Utah, 24 January 1898, to William Arthur Bate. Photocopy, original in possession of Donna Bate Kautz)]. Peter and Margaret were exacting parents. Not only was their sons sent to work in the mines very early but they were "whipped for little offenses" [Anonymous, "History of William Bate," p. 1]. "William stopped on his way home one night to slide on the ice and fell and hurt his shoulder severely," the anonymous historian tells us. "Two Mormon elders were staying at their home and one of them took hold of his shoulder a few days later. When he flinched from pain they found his shoulder was out of place but he had never complained because he was more afraid of his parents than the pain" [Ibid.] But all of Peter's surviving children named sons Peter so the harshness must have been moderated by some good qualities. There is a faint smell of gin-or at least the alehouse-around Peter. "The leaders of the Church were very strict and warned the members if they were seen drinking ale or wine they would be excommunicated from the Church," wrote

the anonymous historian, and then added cryptically: "Many succeeded and many didn't" [Ibid.]. Miners were notoriously heavy drinkers, and they were often paid in pubs on Saturday to insure their wages went for drink. Further light on the drinking is cast by Peter's grandson, John Thomas Bate, who wrote, "It was difficult for the people in Engl[and] to keep the Word of Wisdom because they drank Ale and wines as we do water. It was part of their life and it was hard for them to refrain from its use. Peter tried very hard and it was a great trial for him around pay day when everyone was treated to wine by their comrad[e]s in the saloons and Ale houses around pay day... One night Peter was seen drinking Ale in a[n] Ale house and he was excommunicated at once" [John Thomas Bate and Maude Simmons Bate, "History of William E. Bate," p. 1. LaMarr Bate Hilton, 27 January 1983, related the same story, attributing it to Hazel Finn Bate]. But this doesn't ring quite true. The Mormon "Word of Wisdom" was not then strictly enforced and wine was still used in sacrament services. Only habitual drunkenness would result in reprimands or excommunication. A little bit of Peter's personality emerges from a newspaper account his being trapped in a mine with threatening water rising [A photocopy was given to me by Hazel Billman Clegg. Unfortunately it is not further identified]. The implication by its preservation is that someone in the home could read, but there are many unanswered questions: where did the accident occur? How? Why? "[F]rom the statement of Peter it does not appear that he slept at all," wrote the journalist, telling us who was the source of the account of Peter's heroism and perhaps implying that the newspaper reporter thought Bate a little bit of a selfpromoter. Peter, his brother Samuel (who "fell asleep several times") and an unidentified boy were trapped by water. The crying boy finally fell asleep (could this have been Peter's son Herbert? Surely William would have recorded such a dramatic affair in his brief autobiographical account). After explaining Peter kept awake during the ordeal, the account continues, "he did all he could to encourage and sustain the hopes of his companions, and especially when it was found that the water was receeding." Peter noticed the water level dropping, and then heard "peculiar sounds" he and his companions realized that efforts were underway "for their liberation." But not until four or five o'clock on a Thursday evening did they hear a voice call out "Peter," as "the water just began to be unroofed." When they crawled out, wet and muddy and black, they found a large group of people waiting, including the appropriately named mine Superintendent, Cole. "It should also be noticed that amongst those who exerted themselves most indefatigably in rescuing the sufferers were Mr. William Hawkes and George

Bate (a brother of the Bates), an engineer from the Ivy Colliery." The clipping then goes on to detail several other contemporary accidents. We also learn a little more of the family in the 1841 census [1841 Census, Bucknall, Staffordshire, England]: Peter Bates 25 coal miner Y [born in Staffordshire] Margeret do. 20 Y Samuel do. 3 Y Emmertine do. 10 months Y And again in 1851 [1851 Census, p. 3, Stoke-on-Trent, Hanley, 1 Charles Street, Staffordshire, England]: Peter Bate head mar. 34 collier Cheshire Margaret do. wife mar. 32 Liverpool Emily do. dau. 10 Staff, Bucknall Herbert do. son 8 Staff, Bucknall William do. son 4 do. do. England didn't hold out much to those seeking self-improvement. They could attend educational and study classes sponsored by religions not under state control ("non-conformist"). Excluded from the political life of the country except when they rioted, people like Peter and Margaret knew the state religion was designed, organized, and existed to support the established order. The Stafford clergy explained in 1832 the proposed electoral reform extending the franchise was "fraught with danger to their interests." The opportunity for religious fulfillment was limited. Educational success was only marginally more promising. Hanley had a "Mechanics Institute" (Peter and Margaret lived in Hanley in 1851 [1851 Census Hanley, Staffordshire, England]) which "alone seemed to offer any hope to the working classes of access to education" [No author, The Potteries in the Year of the Great Exhibition [1851], A Survey by the Local History Group of the Workers Educational Association (Stoke-on-Trent Festival Committee, n.d.), pp. 20-25]. But these Institutes "failed completely to gain the confidence of the working classes in North Staffordshire" [Ibid.], though the library of that organization had reached 2,500 volumes and had a membership of 4,500. Local boards of health were organized to combat the poor sanitation, but were only representative of the upper classes. Child labor was still rampant, and children as young as five joined Peter's seven-year-old in the mines. One mine owner offered the conclusion that "15 hours a day [of work] is not too much" for children, and astutely noted that if the proposal to cut it down to twelve were adopted, "I do not think... they would go to school" because their parents couldn't afford to send them and even evening school wouldn't work because

"the children are so tired when they get home, that they would not attend them" [Ibid., p. 15, quoting a Mr. Goddard]. The hopes for political reform were continually blasted. The 1832 reform only enfranchised what the English called "the middle classes," and what Americans would call the upper middle class. In 1842 the Potteries erupted into riots. The working people were mostly Chartists who demanded a list of changes in government that included abolishing the import fees on bread (called "corn laws") and the democratizing of the political system. (In England, "Democracy" still meant mob rule.) There was much to be dissatisfied with. One outlet Peter may have had. Both of his sons were enthusiastic musicians and his daughter Emily married a Welsh singer, William Hart [On William Hart, see Second Ward Record of Members, 1893-1911, p. 59 (1 Oct 1899): William Hart sang with several others; p. 93 (4 May 1902): Bro. William Hart sang a song during testimony bearing]. It may be that Peter was an active participant or admirer of the promenade concerts held in the covered market at Hanley or participated in one of the various local choral societies. In 1837 American Mormon missionaries first arrived in England. They preached a new religion with a new prophet, Joseph Smith, and the first place they had any success was in nearby Lancashire. Proselytizers were soon swarming into the Potteries, an area whose religious non-conformity was legendary and whose traditions were so opposed to the established church that one historian wrote that "it is easy to assume that Methodism was the established church of the coalfields." The "Mormon" missionaries were stunned by what they saw. Coming from a boisterous country where most white men participated in a vigorous democracy and could own land, the contrasts between the aristocracy and the working class astonished them. Mormon Apostle Heber C. Kimball wrote of Liverpool, "where wealth and luxury abounded, side by side with penury and want. I there met the rich attired in the most costly dresses, and the next minute was saluted with the cries of the poor with scarce covering sufficient to screen them from the weather. Such a wide distinction I never saw before" [Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball (Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1967), p. 119]. "The poor are in as great Bondage as the children of Israel in Egypt," wrote Wilford Woodruff [Kenney, p. 405 (14 January 1840)]. He was soon directed to accompany Elder Theodore Turley to the Potteries. In Manchester he found thousands out of work, and "Thousands of Souls are almost in a State of uter starvation" [Ibid., p. 409 (20 January 1840)], Woodruff stayed in Hanley with storekeeper William Benbow.

Building up this branch was challenging. On one occasion when Woodruff preached to four or five hundred people some "were full of wrath" and "began to reject my testimony & rave like madmen..." [Ibid., p. 414 (6 February 1840)]. But the Mormons gradually acquired a following and despite an active immigration program there were thirty-five members in Hanley by the middle of 1847 [Millennial Star, 9 (1 August 1847) p. 228, where "Elder [John] Mason, sen.," represents the Hanley Branch at the 16th May Conference, and says "There is a good feeling in this branch, the Saints have a desire to roll on the work of God"]. A significant native leader was James Mollett Wood who was baptized 22 June 1843 [LDS Endowment House Records, Salt Lake City, Utah, p. 96 (15 March 1862)] and whose wife, Peter Bate's sister Mary, was baptized the next year [Ibid., p. 95. (15 March 1862)]. Wood must have been an enthusiastic missionary, for he soon baptized thirteen of his relatives [LDS Branch Records of Hanley, Staffordshire, England 1848-1849, pp. 1, 20, 22] and on 13 November he baptized Margaret Bate. December 4th he baptized his brother-inlaw Peter [Ibid., pp. 1, 20]. Wood must be credited with building the Hanley branch to over seventy members by the end of 1848. [Millennial Star, 10 (1 February 1848) p. 39 shows the Hanley Branch had fifty-five members presided over by Elder Pool, and p. 280 (15 September 1848) Elder Littlefield presided over seventy-two members, when "J. Mollett of Hanley... John Bate of Newport" were ordained priests and G. Mollett of Hanley a teacher. The next conference pp. 328-29 (1 November 1848) shows Hanley is represented by Elder Shaw with 77 members, and A. Wright presides over that branch]. What did Mormonism offer Peter and Margaret? No stories of miraculous "cures" or visitations have come down to us as reasons for their conversions. Mark P. Leone, in a brilliant study of nineteenth-century Mormonism, points out that the Mormon church's goals of that century "were common ownership of property and classlessness, both of which were based on an outspoken criticism of industrial capitalism as it then existed in Europe and the United States" [Mark P. Leone, Roots of Modern Mormonism (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1979), pp. 1-2]. Mormonism "made a desert productive and filled it with tens of thousands of settlers, all by using the supernatural as the chief organizing power for every major activity and rituals as the chief instruments for securing material success... Mormonism grew into a genuine theocracy, governed by priests whose authority was derived not from police, armies, surpluses, and plutocratic, aristocratic, or democratic election... but mainly from the fact that everybody believed in the same version of the supernatural" [Ibid., pp. 3-4]. This religion offered God, home, and land--and largely provided them all to willing converts. This was achieved by the poor themselves who after migration to Utah began to build their ideal theocratic society [I do not mean by this that it was always successful, but wish to point out that the uppermost economic

goal in the minds of Mormon leaders was to literally build the "Kingdom of God" on earth, in a classless, theocratic society demanding little else but hard work and religious subordination]. But with the conversion to Mormonism Margaret's goal was set on reaching "Zion." We don't know what Peter's attitude was. He could not have been completely hostile because when his wife finally left she took two of the three children and Peter allowed the third to emigrate later. They were preceded by Peter's sister Mary and her husband James Mollett Wood who emigrated about 1855 [1860 Census, West Jordan, Salt Lake County, Utah, p. 287, shows that their son James was aged 5 in 1860 and born in Missouri, which would have been a stopping-place on their way to Utah]. In May 1856 Margaret with son William and daughter Emily sailed from Liverpool for America, William writing later that his uncle Thomas Weaver's was "the place place I stayed in England" [William Bate, Riverton, Utah, 24 January 1898, to William Arthur Bate. Photocopy, original in the possession of Donna Bate Kautz. Not in William's handwriting. I do not know how Weaver was related to William]. Peter and Herbert were supposed to come later. John Thomas Bate, Peter's grandson, tells us that the American part of the family were "anxious to save what they could to send for the father [Peter] and brother [Herbert]. Around this time Peter was killed in a mine accident, and bro. Herbert being left alone the mother was anxious to send for him. So they sent what money they had and borrowed the rest and he was soon on his way to American Fork" [John Thomas Bate and Maude Simmons Bate, "History of William E. Bate," p. 1. This is echoed in Birdie Jane Bate Rasband's "History of Herbert Bate and his Wife Jane Shelley Bate," where Rasband writes, "The father and son Herbert (subject of sketch) remained in England until enough money could be saved to pay their passage to America... The father Peter never realized his dream, as he was killed while working in a coal mine in England. Herbert had no friendly relative who would take him in, so taking the money his father had saved and disposing of their possessions the young lad only fifteen years old came on alone to join his mother, brother and sister in 1859"]. The only problem with the received story is the 1861 census, which we repeat from our sketch of Samuel Bate [1861 Census Bucknall]: Peter Bate 47 miner Betley, Staff. Edna Bate wife 28 Chell, Staff. Herbert Bate son 14 miner Bucknall, Staff. Samuel Bate father 77 nil Minshull Cheshire Frances Bate mother 64 Woore, Staff. Hannah Bate dau 5 Bucknall, Staff. Isabella Bate dau 1 Bucknall, Staff.

This is our Peter because he has a son Herbert and his parents are Samuel and Fanny Bate. But someone has taken Margaret's place. Who was wife Edna and who were these additional children? Simple reckoning tells us Hannah was born about 1856 near the time Margaret left for America. But search through English Civil registration finds no marriage of Peter and no birth certificate for a Hannah or Isabella Bate. The 1871 census only adds to the mystery [1871 Census Bucknall]: Peter Bates head 56 coal miner Bucknall, Staff. Edna do. wife 38 Chell, Staff. Hannah do. dau 18 unmd, potter Bucknall Isabella do. dau 14 unmd, handler and half turner Bucknall Edna do. dau 3 unmd, scholar Bucknall Only after Peter's real death, 15 March 1877 (in Bucknall, and of a coal miners' disease, bronchitis) do we find a census which unravels part of the mystery: Ellen Dearbar head 80 widow Norton-in-Moors, Staff. Edna Bates dau 45 Spring Bark, Staff. Job Dearbar grandson 25 coal miner Stoke on Trent, Staff. Edna Bates granddau. 13 potter Stoke on Trent, Staff. James Bates granddau [sic] 9 scholar Stoke on Trent, Staff [1881 Census Bucknall] With the clue of "Dearbar" we finally find Edna was christened 11 August 1833, St. John, Burslem (as "Durbar"), daughter of James and Ellen (Booth) Durbar. Her father was a coal carrier in 1871 [1871 Census Hanley East Ward, Staffordshire, England. James Durbar married 27 May 1822, Stoke-uponTrent, Ellen Booth. Children: (1) Elias, chr 16 June 1822, St. John, Burslem, as "Derber"; (2) Ambrose, chr. 30 April 1826, Norton-in-the-Moors "Doorbar"; (3) Margaret chr. 16 Nov. 1828, St. John, Burslem, "Doorhar"; (4) Eliza, chr. 12 June 1831, St. John "Doorbas"; (5) Edna, chr. 11 Aug. 1833, St. John "Durbar"; (6) Sarah, chr. 15 June 1837, Tunstall by Stoke-upon-Trent, Primitive Methodist; (7) Hannah, chr. 8 Dec. 1839, Norton-in-the-Moors, bur. 12 Mar. 1854, Bucknall-cum-Bagnall, age 14; (8) James, chr. 22 Feb. 1849, Norton-in-the-Moors. Bucknall records the burial of "Ann Derber" 24 February 1850, aged 74 (hence born ca. 1776), possibly James Durbar's mother] and Job "Durber" was living with him as his grandson. Job was born 14 June 1852 and christened 1 March 1854 in Bucknall [Bishops' Transcripts of Bucknall, Staffordshire, England], Edna's illegitimate son. Edna's father flirted with Methodism and her sister Sarah was christened in 1837 in the Primitive Methodist Church in Tunstall. Additional searches in Civil Registration, this time under the name Durbar and its variants, reveals that Hannah "Doorbar" was born 20 December 1855, illegitimate daughter of an illiterate Edna who signs the certificate with a mark.

No father is given. Isabella we never find and Edna Jr. is lost still from civil registration but James was born 18 May 1872 in Bucknall son of Peter and Edna Bates, the latter formerly "Derber," and his father is a collier. Did any of these newly-found children grow up and marry? Advertisements in English newspapers produced no results but searches of the civil marriage indexes guide us to the marriage 23 March 1890 of Edna Bates aged 22, spinster of 73 Ward Street and daughter of coal miner Peter Bates, married to Albert Plant Jones 21-year-old bachelor and potters mould-maker of 122 Eagle Street son of coal miner John Jones. The marriage was solemnized in the parish church of Wellington in Stoke-on-Trent district. Both bride and groom could sign their names. There the mystery rests: additional research will be necessary to see if other's birth certificates can be found amongst the myriad of spellings of the name Durbar, to see when Edna died (and since she was born in 1833, she could have lived well into this century), and to find the marriages of other children [Edna's children, so far as I can make out, are: (1) Job Dearber, born 14 June 1854 in Bucknall, father unknown; (2) Hannah Doorbar, born 20 December 1855, Bucknall, father unknown, but later claimed to be Peter; (3) Isabella, born ca. 1860, Bucknall, father unknown but claimed to be Peter and likely his as she is born just before the 1861 census, by which time we know Peter was living with her); (4) Edna, born ca. 1866, daughter of Peter; (5) James, born 18 May 1872, Bucknall, son of Peter]. So ends the story of Peter Bate. And what about Margaret? She courageously crossed the sea searching for her Zion. The voyage was eventful except for a near-mutiny ["Life History of William Bate" (the longest autobiographical fragment) says: "Our first few days out there was mutiny or disagreeing on board between sailors and the Captain. After sailing two months the first ship stopped leaving some of the sailors on shore and got some more men"] and a terrible storm followed by a fire. They finally docked in Boston then migrated to Philadelphia and then to Minersville, Pennsylvania. William worked in the coal mine and Margaret and Emily got "odd jobs" here despite Margaret's poor health. Margaret's grandson, John Thomas Bate, says she baked bread and sweet breads which they sold in the streets [John Thomas Bate and Maude Simmons Bate, "History of William E. Bate," p. 1]) to save enough money to cross the plains. They were members of the Horton D. Haight Company and during the crossing Margaret survived a bout with cholera because William violated doctor's orders and gave her a drink of water [Anonymous Historian, "History of William Bate," p. 1]. They arrived in Utah 1 September 1859 [Journal History, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 12 June 1859 p. 5, quoting the Deseret News, gives the arrivals as Margaret Bate, William Bate, William Hart, and Emily [Bate] Hart..."].

Margaret must have found Utah more attractive than did Peter's sister Mary, for that woman eventually left Utah and the Mormons for California [A scrap of paper tells us "Mary Bate, wife of John Wood said to have been mother of Mary Elizabeth Wood, born 5 Feb. 1864, Salt Lake County, Utah. It is said Wood married also a woman named Allsop, and that Mary Bate Wood later went to California." The origin of this statement is uncertain. A brief genealogical account of her and her husband shows James (not John) Mollett Wood born 25 September 1820, Waste, Staffordshire, England, son of James Mollett (sometimes Mollatt) and Maria Wood. Why he took his mother's maiden name is uncertain, but most likely he was illegitimate. James and Mary (Bate) Wood's children: (1) John, born ca. 1843 in England; (2) Elizabeth, born ca. 1847, England; (3) James, born ca. 1855, Missouri; (4) Emeline, born ca. 1859, Utah; (5) Mary Elizabeth, born 5 February 1864, Salt Lake County. The family was living in West Jordan when the census was taken in 1860 (p. 287). He was then a farmer.] Margaret must have eventually learned about Peter's liaison with Edna Durbar for on 24 July 1862 she married Samuel Vowels [His name is spelled indifferently as Vowells, Vowels, Vowles. A family named Vowles, also from Somerset, settled in Tooele, Utah. Samuel himself spells it Vowel]s, a Somerset man who had been working as a labourer in Salt Lake [J. R. Kearl, et. al., Index to the 1850, 1860 & 1870 Census of Utah (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1981), p. 23 shows Samuel "Voules" as aged 50, a labourer, in 1870. In 1860 he was in Salt Lake City (see Ronald Vern Jackson, editor, Utah 1860 Territorial Census Index (Accelerated Indexing Systems Inc., Salt Lake City, 1979), p. 523]. Vowels was not a polygamist but he was "sealed" to Margaret's deceased sister Sarah Ann Cross. Soon after their marriage Margaret, her husband and son William moved to American Fork where several years later Herbert Bate joined them. Margaret "weighed 200 lbs. but she was a beautiful stepdancer," wroter John Thomas Bate. "She once danced for Brigham Young upon special request" [John Thomas Bate and Maude Simmons Bate, "History of William E. Bate," p. 1]. We have here a possible source of the dramatic skills inherited by many of her descendants. Vowels was a firm believer in his new faith: he donated four dollars toward the Salt Lake Temple in 1879 [Samuel Wagstaff Account Book, 1 May 1879 - 1 January 1880. Temple donations. "William Beats" donated one dollar], he was an active member of the American Fork Teacher's Quorum [American Fork, Teacher's Quorum Minutes, 1873-1883, p. 2, 6, 10. In one series of twenty-four meetings, he only missed four] and was a ward teacher who along with Wagstaff and Grant was assigned the "Third District" [Ibid., p. 79 (15 February 1876)].

Brigham Young, anxious to fulfill Mormonism's dream of a classless society, ordered the expansion of the cooperative movement. American Fork was directly affected. That town's bishop, L. E. Harrington, "spoke [to Samuel Vowel's quorum] of the severe rebuke given to the bishops by Prest. Young last conference for not sustaining cooperation" [Ibid., p. 35]. The women's Relief Society also supported this movement and leader Eliza R. Snow "Illustrated the order of Cooperation in all its beauties, and the females could do a great deal in forwarding the cause" [Relief Society Minutes, American Fork, 1868-1880, p. 30 (20 October 1869)]. Vowels was enthusiastic. He and several others "spoke with a good spirit" [American Fork, Teacher's Quorum Minutes, 1873-1883, p. 36 (2 February 1874)], and endorsed cooperation (United Order). "Bro Saml Vowells Said he felt like going in and doing all he can with his brethren" [Ibid., p. 46 (4 May 1874)] noted the recorder. "I remember Samuel Vowles having Oxen he used to farm with them," recalled John Thomas Bate [John Thomas Bate, "History of John Thomas Bate," written July 1950, p. 1]. Oxen were of course very valuable and they may have been his most important contribution to the communal movement. Otherwise he wasn't very wealthy, his estate valued at only two hundred dollars in 1870 [1870 Census American Fork, Utah County, p. 11 shows he was a fifty year old laborer who could read and write while his wife Margaret could do neither]. Margaret was a busy grandmother. She always had a jar of molasses cookies for her grandchildren, and they much enjoyed visiting her [John Thomas Bate, "History of John Thomas Bate," written July 1950, p. 1]. In 1870 her granddaughter and namesake, epileptic Margaret Hart, was living with her while attending school. The ten-year-old girl had learned to read but not to write [1870 Census American Fork, Utah County, p. 11]. For many years Margaret was also "a faithful and efficient teacher in the relief society" [William Bate, "Expense Account Book," has under "Obituaries" an obituary of Margaret Cross Bate Vowels, from the American Fork Relief Society Minutes]. As a charter member of the American Fork organization she gave donations of thread, bacon or eggs and sometimes script or cash [Relief Society Minutes, American Fork, 1868-1880, p. 9 (15 Jan. 1869); p. 16 (26 Mar. 1869); p. 22 (7 July 1869); p. 27 (20 Oct. 1869); p. 43 (13 Apr. 1870); p. 58 (1 Dec. 1870); p. 62 (2 Mar. 1871); p. 66 (4 May 1871); p. 84 (7 Mar. 1872); p. 105 (6 Feb. 1873); p. 116 (14 Aug. 1873), p. 137 (May 1874), p. 143 (9 July 1874)]. By some standards the Relief Society was a "radical" organization. At the organizing meeting Eliza R. Snow confidently announced that "soon the United States will pass into the hands of this people" [Ibid., p. 3 (29 Oct. 1868)]. Sustaining polygamy [Ibid., p. 23 (23 July 1869)] meant in January 1870 the Society sponsored a "Mass Meeting of the Ladies of American Fork City" which

passed a resolution opposing the federal anti-polygamy Cullom and the Cragin Bills [Ibid., pp. 35-37 (24 January 1870)]. One of the many women speakers at this Mass Meeting was "Mrs. Vowels." The Society also raised money to help Mormons emigrate. Margaret laid down fifty cents for that effort [Ibid., p. 91 (6 June 1872)]. She also donated fifty cents to help Brigham Young fight a lawsuit [Ibid., p. 73 (2 November 1871)]. Margaret was also probably the motivating force behind Samuel Vowels' contribution of three loads of rock for the new Relief Society building [Ibid., p. 149 (1874)] and she may have motivated her son Herbert to haul four loads (Herbert's own wife was not an active member of the group). Margaret seems timid about speaking in front of a group: from 1868 to 1874 she is only spoke once, at the American Fork Mass Meeting. In 1872 she was called as an assistant teacher [Ibid., p. 84 (7 March 1872)] and in 1874 she offered a prayer [Ibid., p. 142 (9 July 1874)] On at least one other occasion she helped collect contributions [Ibid., p. 137 (May 1874)]. Probably her lack of education was a hindrance. Ill health plagued Margaret, and we may note that heart disease seems unknown in the family prior to her genetic contribution and endemic to it afterward. The Relief Society Minutes record her obituary. "[S]he had been ailing for a long time her decease was very sudden, she being in a neighbors house the evening previous to her death." The sisters assembled at her house to honor her and followed the funeral procession to the chapel for services. "She leaves a husband, two sons and one daughter. Also a number of grandchildren and numerous friends to mourn her loss, she died as she had lived, a f[a]ithful latter-day Saint, in the sure hope of a glorious resurrection with the just" [Ibid. Two histories have been written about Margaret, the first, Nora Lund's "History of Margaret Cross Bate Vowles," is useless. The second, LaMarr Bate Hilton's "Names in the Bate Family," pp. 3-7 (a biography of Margaret Cross Bate), is helpful]. Samuel Vowels died 1 December 1898 in American Fork. Before his death Margaret's son William realized her temple "sealing" to Vowels made him their celestial father in the Mormon hereafter instead of Peter Bate. He obtained from Vowels' a qualified relinquishment of that man's celestial rights to Margaret with the following statement: To the Pres. of S. L. Temple I am willing to do what is right concerning my temple work in regards [to] Bro. [William] Bates desires in relation to his mothers welfare. Samuel Vowels [Original paper in the "Bate Book," a genealogical compilation presently in my possession].

On this slim concession William had his mother joined eternally by sacred Mormon ritual to the man from whom she had been so long separated. Devout Mormons recognize the Vowels sealing as her choice and feel obligated to trace their genealogical records through him and not Peter Bate. Such is the Mormon law of "sealings" and "adoptions." Kerry William Bate