Rbodora | 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 14. March, 1912. No. 159. 
FREDERICK WILLIAM BATCHELDER. 
Marra L. OwEN. X 
A gentle, unassuming, lovable life came to its earthly close when 
Frederick W. Batchelder left us. The task of writing a fitting notice 
of him for a botanical journal is a hard one; for those who knew him, 
the man is so much more than the botanist, that with a heavy heart 
and with eyes that scarcely see through tears, the tribute which he 
well deserves in this magazine is attempted. 
Frederick W. Batchelder was born in Pelham, N. H., in 1838, son 
of Dr. Amos Batchelder and Rebecca (Atwood) Batchelder, a descend- 
ant on his father’s side from the Rev. Stephen Bachiler who came 
over from England in 1632. In the nearly three centuries which have 
elapsed since that time, the spelling of the name has undergone many 
changes, for every branch of the old divine’s posterity seems to have 
had its own way. The common ancestor of all was excommunicated 
in his own country for his independent religious opinions, and in this 
country too, the sturdy and brave old parson was so persecuted for 
his departure from the ecclesiastical ruts to which he was consti- 
tutionally averse, even his moral character being assailed, that after 
some twenty years here, he shook off the dust of New England from 
his feet, and returned to Old Boston, England, where he died at the 
age of 100, a man of great vigor physically and intellectually. His 
character is thoroughly vindicated in our times from the injurious 
charges which prevailed against it for two centuries. 
On his mother’s side Mr. Batchelder came down from Hugh Tallant 
of whom Whittier wrote in “The Sycamores.” The poet gives many 
verses to him as a story-teller and musician, but Hugh was much more 
than a “rustic Irish gleeman.” He was a man of great force of char- 
