Hester Mercer Batchelder

Biography

Hester Mercer, whose surname also appears as Mercier or LeMercier, married Nathaniel Batchelder, a merchant at Southampton, a port on England’s south coast, and son of the Reverend Stephen Bachiler. She was the mother of Nathaniel Batchelder of Hampton, on the coast of present-day New Hampshire. The family also included a daughter Anna and sons Francis and Benjamin.

Hester's family connections survive particularly through the Mercer wills. Paul Mercer named Anna as a daughter of the late Nathaniel Batchelder and Hester; other bequests connected the Batchelder children with their Mercer uncles. These records show a family network extending beyond one English household.

Hester died before her husband, whose later wife Margery administered his estate in 1645. Her marriage and death dates have not been securely established.