Sir William Batten

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Sir
William Batten
JP
Constant Warwick, a frigate part-owned by Batten in which he defected to the Royalists in 1648
Master of Trinity House
In office
June 1663 – June 1664
Member of Parliament
for Rochester
In office
May 1661 – October 1667
Surveyor of the Navy
In office
1638 to 1648 – 1660 to 1667
Personal details
Bornc. 1601
Easton in Gordano, Somerset, England
Died5 October 1667(1667-10-05) (aged 65–66)
London, England
Resting placeSt. Mary's Church, Walthamstow
Spouse(s)(1) Margaret Browne (1625–her death)
(2) Elizabeth Turner (1659–his death)
Children(1) William (1626–after 1675); Benjamin (1644-1684); Mary; Martha (1637–after 1667)
OccupationNaval officer and administrator
Military service
AllegianceParliamentarian 1642–1648; Royalist 1648
RankVice-admiral
Battles/wars

Sir William Batten (c. 1601 – 5 October 1667) was an English naval officer and administrator from Somerset, who began his career as a merchant seaman, served as second-in-command of the Parliamentarian navy during the First English Civil War, then defected to the Royalists when the Second English Civil War began in 1648. After the 1660 Stuart Restoration, he was elected Member of Parliament for Rochester and re-appointed Surveyor of the Navy, a position he had previously held from 1638 to 1648. In this capacity, he was a colleague of the author Samuel Pepys, who mentions him frequently in his "Diary", often to his detriment.

Personal details

William Batten was born around 1601 in Easton in Gordano, Somerset, second son of Andrew Batten, Master mariner of a merchant ship. Little is known of his family, except that his elder brother was also in the merchant navy, while he had at least one sister, who married Captain John Browne, another master who served with Batten in the Parliamentarian navy.[1]

In 1625, he married John Browne's sister Margaret, daughter of a London cobbler.[2] They had six children, of whom at least four survived him; William (1626–after 1675), a member of Lincoln's Inn, Benjamin (c. 1644–1684), who followed his father into the navy, Mary, who married James Lemon, and Martha (born 1637) who in 1663 married William Castle, a shipwright. Samuel Pepys mentions the children and their spouses in his "Diary", and has little good to say of any of them, particularly William Castle. He is more positive about Margaret's brother John, who died in 1663 after a drunken fight with one of his servants.[3]

Margaret died sometime in the 1650s, and in 1659 Batten married again, this time to Elizabeth Woodstocke (died 1683), widow of William Woodstocke of Westminster. His second marriage produced no children.[2]

Early career

Whalers near Spitsbergen, ca.1690; Batten began his maritime career in a similar ship

Batten started as an apprentice with the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in London, becoming a fully-fledged member in 1623.[4] However, he decided instead to follow his father and brother into the merchant marine, and in 1625 appears as commander of one of two whalers sent to Spitsbergen by Thomas Horth, a merchant from Great Yarmouth.[5]

An Anglo-Spanish war began in 1625 and in August 1626 Batten became captain of the 350-ton "Salutation", an armed merchant ship licensed to attack Spanish shipping. He later resumed his whaling career and by 1630 was master and part-owner of the Charles, a position he retained until 1638 when he took over the Confident, a merchant ship converted for military use and hired by the Royal Navy, paid for by Ship money.[6] In return for a payment of £1,500, Batten became Surveyor of the Navy in September 1638, supported by the Earl of Northumberland, who was Lord High Admiral from 1638 to 1642.[2]

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Like many officers appointed by Northumberland, including William Rainsborough, father of the political and religious radicals Thomas and William, Batten was a Presbyterian with no previous service in the Royal Navy, a policy intended to increase the number of "Godly" captains within the fleet.[7] As the political struggle with Charles I intensified, in March 1642 Parliament nominated the devout Puritan Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, as commander of the navy, with Batten as his vice admiral and second-in-command. These positions were confirmed on 1 July, shortly before Batten received orders from the king, requiring him to place the fleet at his disposal. He immediately sent for Warwick, who declared for Parliament, followed by the majority of his captains.[7]

William Batten is located in England
Exeter
Exeter
Hull
Hull
London
London
Bristol
Bristol
Newcastle
Newcastle
Yarmouth
Yarmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Dover
Dover
Liverpool
Liverpool
Gloucester
Gloucester
Cardiff
Cardiff
Plymouth
Plymouth
Scarborough
Scarborough
Milford Haven
Milford Haven
Major ports in England & Wales, 1642 to 1646

As later noted by Royalist statesman and historian Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Batten's prompt action in securing the fleet was a major boost to the Parliamentarian cause. Its possession allowed them to protect their own trade routes and block Royalist imports, while other countries were wary of antagonising one of the strongest navies in Europe by supporting their opponents.[8] With the exception of Newcastle, when the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Parliament held every major port in England and Wales. This gave them control of access to internal waterways, the primary method of moving large bodies of men and supplies until the advent of railways in the 19th century, and prevented Royalist areas in Wales, South-West and North-East England from supporting each other. In early 1642, Charles had sent his wife, Henrietta Maria, to Europe to purchase weapons; the absence of a secure port delayed her return until February 1643, and even then, she reached Scarborough only after narrowly escaping a squadron led by Batten.[9]

Although the Royalists captured Bristol and Exeter in 1643, they lacked a significant fleet and so Batten spent most of the war resupplying Parliamentarian garrisons or supporting coastal operations. These included the 1644 sieges of Lyme Regis and Plymouth, where he built a blockhouse at the tip of the peninsula, known since then as Mount Batten.[2] In February 1645, he helped repel a Royalist attack on Weymouth, shortly before the Self-denying Ordinance obliged Warwick to resign. Batten took over as commander but since his promotion was viewed as temporary, he retained his original rank, a perceived lack of appreciation that marked the beginning of his alienation from the Parliamentarian cause.[10]

In August 1645, Batten supported Rowland Laugharne's victory at Colby Moor, which secured Pembrokeshire for Parliament, then helped recapture Dartmouth in February 1646. Charles surrendered to the Scots in June 1646, but victory highlighted divisions between religious Independents like Oliver Cromwell who dominated the New Model Army, and moderate Presbyterians such as Northumberland and Batten who formed a majority in Parliament. In June 1647, the army demanded the impeachment of eleven MPs identified as their principal opponents; to escape arrest, they fled by sea to the Dutch Republic in August and were intercepted by Batten, who released them and was removed from command as a result.[2]

Batten had been in secret correspondence with the Scots Covenanters since December 1646 and now tried to organise support within the fleet for a coup designed to re-assert Parliament's control over the New Model. Part of the fleet defected to the Royalists when the Second English Civil War began in April 1648, and in early July Batten sailed for Holland aboard the Constant Warwick, a frigate part-owned by himself and Warwick. Here he met Prince Charles, who made him a knight and commander of the new Royalist fleet.[4] Batten was regarded with suspicion by many Royalist exiles, particularly Prince Rupert, who replaced him as commander. He returned to England in November 1648.[2]

Restoration

Samuel Pepys c. 1666, Batten's colleague in the Navy Office

Batten escaped punishment for his actions during the Second Civil War, and focused on commercial activities during the Commonwealth period. Shortly after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, he was re-appointed Surveyor of the Navy, which put him in close contact with Samuel Pepys, who mentions him frequently in his Diary. Many entries record their differences, and Batten is frequently portrayed as both administratively incompetent and corrupt, although whether he was excessively so by the standards of the period is debatable.[2] Despite this, Pepys also acknowledged him as a "good neighbour".[11]

In 1661, Batten was elected MP for Rochester in the Cavalier Parliament, and became master of Trinity House in 1663.[4] His second marriage brought him an estate in Walthamstow, where according to Pepys he "lived like a prince".[4] He died after a short illness on 5 October 1667 and was buried at St. Mary's Church, Walthamstow, leaving debts of over £4,000.[2]

References

  1. ^ Pepys, Samuel (26 May 2004). "Sunday 26 May 1661". Pepys Diary. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Knighton 2004.
  3. ^ Pepys, Samuel (28 April 2006). "Monday 27 April 1663". Pepys Diary. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d Henning 1983.
  5. ^ Harris 1920, p. 52.
  6. ^ Andrews 1991, p. 44.
  7. ^ a b Andrews 1991, p. 187.
  8. ^ Wedgwood 1958, p. 105.
  9. ^ Purkiss 2006, pp. 249–250.
  10. ^ Plant, David. "Sir William Batten". BCW Project. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  11. ^ Pepys, Samuel (4 October 2010). "Monday 4 October 1667". Pepys Diary. Retrieved 26 September 2022.

Sources

1893 text

Clarendon describes William Batten as an obscure fellow, and, although unknown to the service, a good seaman, who was in 1642 made Surveyor to the Navy; in which employ he evinced great animosity against the King. The following year, while Vice-Admiral to the Earl of Warwick, he chased a Dutch man-of-war into Burlington Bay, knowing that Queen Henrietta Maria was on board; and then, learning that she had landed and was lodged on the quay, he fired above a hundred shot upon the house, some of which passing through her majesty’s chamber, she was obliged, though indisposed, to retire for safety into the open fields. This act, brutal as it was, found favour with the Parliament. But Batten became afterwards discontented; and, when a portion of the fleet revolted, he carried the “Constant Warwick,” one of the best ships in the Parliament navy, over into Holland, with several seamen of note. For this act of treachery he was knighted and made a Rear-Admiral by Prince Charles. We hear no more of Batten till the Restoration, when he became a Commissioner of the Navy, and was soon after M.P. for Rochester. See an account of his second wife, in note to November 24th, 1660, and of his illness and death, October 5th, 1667. He had a son, Benjamin, and a daughter, Martha, by his first wife.—B.

This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.

15 Annotations

First Reading

vincent  •  Link

more on This Admiral:
http://49.1911encyclopedia.org/B/…
http://www.rickard.karoo.net/peop…
----------------- from the will of Sir W. Batten
"... Mingo - from Servant to Lighthouse Keeper
give and bequeath to my servante Mingoe a Negroe That now dwelleth with mee the somme of Tenne pounds to be paid within Twelve monethes next after my decease And I doe alsoe give unto him the said Mingoe the Custody and keeping of my Light houses Att Harwich, and the somme of Twenty pounds a yeare of lawfull money of England during the Terme of his naturall life for his paines therein ..."
http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/bl…

vincent  •  Link

from Paul Brewster on Sat 1 Nov 2003,
Sir W. Batten’s country house
L&M: “The Rectory Manor House, Church Hill, Walthamstow, Essex. Penn later had a house not far away at Wanstead.”

Location
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap…

An 1848 Directory
http://www.essexvillages.net/vill…

“The nearby Rectory Manor estate was sold as building plots after the demolition of the old manor house facing Church Hill in 1897”

http://mazalon.co.uk/aroundwaltha…

vincent  •  Link

gleened from will: he did have "... my grandchild Mary Leming my Grandchild William Castle
my sister Martha Bradford
PROB 11/325, q. 144
m
maid servants Rachell Underhill and Martha Peake + Mingo..."

vincent  •  Link

sailing days 1642:William Batten, Vice Admiral :[capt: ] his ship in the 1642 Rainbow [a class 2:] his No 1: Lutten, commanded the following : 260 men, ships wt:721 tons: no of guns 40 was built in 1617, fit for 10 yrs
gleaned from http://www.portsdown.demon.co.uk/…

vicenzo  •  Link

got his letter of "Sir"
"...That the Letter of the Lord Admiral from Warwick House, of 21 Decembris 1648, and the Indemnity of the Lord Admiral unto Captain Wm. Batten, now called Sir Wm. Batten..."
: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… batten
also heavily involved in the capture of the Scilly Isles as vice admiral:
: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…, Sir George

more on the formalities of and paper work.
: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…, Sir George
he knew first hand about vittals.
A Letter from Captain Wm. Batten, Vice Admiral, of the Twenty-ninth of August; representing the great Necessities of the Navy; was this Day

From: British History Online
Source: House of Commons Journal Volume 3: 29 August 1643. Journal of the House of Commons: volume 3, (1802).
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… batten
Date: 10/03/2005

Pauline  •  Link

from L&M Companion (partial)
kt 1648 (?1601-67)....Son of a Somerset mariner, Andrew Batten, he made the sea his career, serving for a while in merchant ships and as a sailing master in the King's ships....During the Interregnum he retired into private life. In 1660 he was reappointed
Surveyor and in 1661 was elected M.P. for Rochester in the face of opposition from the cathedral interest. He and Pepys were soon on bad terms, quarrelling over the right to draft contracts and competing for the favours of suppliers. Pepys early formed an alliance with Warren the timber merchant, and Batten with William Wood, Warren's closest rival. Relations between them remained hostile or at best uneasy throughout the diary period, despite some efforts---always on Batten's part---to improve them. Pepys believed Batten to be corrupt, and no doubt (like Pepys himself) he feathered his nest, but whether he was seriously corrupt is impossible to determine. The charge of incompetence which Pepys also makes is easier to sustain, thought it should be added that his job was one of great complexity. He was a poor speaker and not at his best with ledgers and memoranda. According to Pepys's notes in his 'Navy White Book' he chose his clerks badly (see Gilsthorpe), and undermined the efficiency of the Navy Office by seconding them to the Ticket Office or Navy Treasury in order to earn extra pay. Coventry criticised his slowness; Middleton, his successor, complained of the state of his papers at his death; and the Chatham Chest under his direction remained as badly run as ever. In 1665 and 1666 Batten spent a lot of time in the yards, where he was probably more at home than at an office desk.

Bob Blair  •  Link

Batten's name appears 4 times in Clarendon's history, books 5 and 6.

In book 5.44, which deals with events in March, 1641/42: "...By this means, the vice-admiralty, which was designed to captain Cartwright, the comptroller of the navy, who hath since sufficiently testified how advantageously to his majesty he would have managed that charge, upon his refusal (which shall be hereafter mentioned) was conferred upon Batten, an obscure fellow, and, though a good seaman, unknown to the navy, till he was, two or three years before [Sept. 1638] for money, made surveyor, who executed it ever since with great animosity against the king's service . . . ."

In 5.378, which deals with June of that year and the disasterously incompetent attempt of the king to put John Pennington back in control of the fleet by coup: "Mr. Villiers hastened to the ships which lay then at anchor, and according to his instructions, delivered his several letters to the captains [July 2]; the greatest part whereof received them with great expressions of duty and submission, expecting only to receive sir John Pennington's orders, for which they staid, and, without doubt, if either the first letters had been sent, or sir John Pennington been present, when these others were delivered, his majesty had been possessed of his whole fleet; the earl of Warwick [the admiral] being at that time, according to his usual licences, with some officers, whose company he liked, on shore making merry; so that there was only his vice-admiral, captain Batten, on board, who was of eminent disaffection to his majesty; the rear-admiral, sir John Mennes, being of unquestionable integrity."

In 5.382, which backs up a bit and talks about the period in late 1641 when the Parliament was asserting control in the Navy: "...The king, looking upon the fleet in a manner taken from him, when another [the earl of Warwick], whose disaffection to his service was very notorious, was, contrary to his express pleasure, presumptuously put into the command of it, and his own minister [Sir John Pennington] displaced for no other reason (his sufficiency and ability for command being by all men confessed) but his zeal and integrity to him, and therefore he would not countenance that fleet, and that admiral, with suffering an officer of his own to command in it under the other, and therefore ordered captain Carteret to decline the employment, which he prudently, and without noise, did; and thereupon, another officer of the navy, even the surveyor general, captain Batten, a man of very different inclinations to his master, and his service, and furious in the new fancies of religion, was substituted in the place: whereas if captain Carteret had been suffered to have taken that charge, his interest and reputation in the navy was so great, and his diligence and dexterity in command so eminent, that I verily believe, he would, against whatsoever the earl of Warwick could have done, have preserved a major part of the fleet in their duty to the king.

Finally, in 6.267, describing the queen's coming over from Holland with arms in February 1642/43: "The second day after the queen's landing, Batten, vice-admiral to the earl of Warwick, (who had waited to intercept her passage,) with four the king's ships, arrived in Burlington Road; and, finding that her majesty was landed, and that she lodged upon the key, bringing his ships to the nearest distance, being very early in the morning [Feb. 23], discharged above a hundred cannon (whereof many were laden with cross-bar-shot) for the space of two hours upon the house where her majesty was lodged, whereupon whe was forced out of her bed, some the shot making way through her own chamber; and to shelter herself under a bank in the open fileds; which barbarous and treasonable act was so much the more odious, in that the parliament never so far took notice of it, as to disavow it."

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Captain Batten [Vice Admiral] in his prime when yung Peepes still trying to decode Aristotle:

Articles for the Surrender of the Isle of Scilly to the Parliament's Forces.
1. First, The Castle of St. Marye's, in Silly, and the Islands thereof, together with all the Forts, Fortresses, and other Fortifications, as well in Trescawe as in that Island, belonging to the said Garrison, with all their Arms, Ordnance, Ammunition, and Furniture of War, and Provision, except what shall be allowed in the ensuing Articles, shall be delivered to such Persons as Captain Wm. Batten Vice Admiral and Colonel Richard Fortescue shall appoint to receive the same, for the Use of King and Parliament, without any Spoil or Embezzlement, upon Wednesday the 16th Day of this Instant September, by Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, or at any Time after when it shall be required by the Persons authorized as aforesaid.

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 9: 20 March 1647', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 9: 1646 (1802), pp. 90-3. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 08 June 2007.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

On the Restoration Batten was reinstated in his office of surveyor of the navy; in the exercise of its duties his remaining years were passed, during which time, through the pleasant pages of Pepys's Diary, we seem to become almost personally acquainted with him. Pepys was often very much out of humour with Batten, though he continued throughout on good terms with him; and much of what we read in the Diary must be attributed to some passing pique. To say that in an age of almost universal corruption Batten's official hands were not quite clean is unnecessary; but there is something ridiculous in Pepys and Sir W. Warren discoursing on Batten's iniquities for some four hours on end, forgetful even of eating or drinking (4 July 1662); or on another occasion adjourning to a tavern to talk 'of the evils the king suffers in our ordering of business in the navy, as Sir W. Batten now forces us by his knavery' (5 May 1664). The relations of Pepys and Warren to each other were of such a nature as to permit us to suspect that Batten's 'knavery' may have largely shown itself in restraining the greed of the clerk of the acts or in insisting on a just interpretation of the clauses of a contract (e.g. 10 Feb. 1662-3, 2 Feb. 1663-4, 16 Sept. 1664). There is, in fact, no reason to suppose that Batten ever exceeded the bounds of what was then considered fair and right; and the story of Batten's cowardice (4 June 1664) as related to Pepys by Coventry, who said he had it from the king, is probably false (29 Aug. 1648); though it is quite possible that he may have shown marks of agitation, of a spirit torn with conflicting emotions, which the king thought a fitting subject for jest. In 1665 Batten had a serious illness, and lay for four or five days at the point of death. 'I am at a loss,' wrote Pepys (7 Feb. 1664-5), 'whether it will be better for me to have him die, because he is a bad man, or live, for fear a worse should come.' He revived, however, and lived on for another two years and a half. On 4 Oct. 1667 Pepys notes: 'Sir W. Batten is so ill that it is believed he cannot live till to-morrow, which troubles me and my wife mightily, partly out of kindness, he being a good neighbour, and partly because of the money he owes me.' He died on the early morning of 5 Oct., 'having been but two days sick;' and on the 12th 'the body was carried, with a hundred or two of coaches, to Walthamstow, and there buried.' From 1661 he had sat in parliament as member for Rochester, and since June 1663 had held the honourable post of master of the Trinity House. He was twice married, and left a son and daughter both grown up and married.
---Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 3, 1885.

Bill  •  Link

BATTEN, SIR WILLIAM (d.1667), admiral; obtained letters of marque for the Salutation, 1626; surveyor of the Navy, 1638; second in command of Warwick's fleet, 1642; engaged in preventing assistance king by sea, 1643; resigned command, 1647, but resumed it on personal invitation of officers; joined Prince of Wales in Holland, where he was knighted; declined to serve against parliament and returned; reinstated surveyor of navy, 1660; M.P. for Rochester, 1661; master of Trinity House, 1663-7.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Officers of The Corporation of Trinity House are elected at the Annual Meeting each year on Trinity Day. (L&M entry) On June 15, 1663, Sir William Batten took over from Sir John Mennes as Master.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sir William Batten c.1600-67
Presbyterian naval officer and administrator who served both Parliament and the King during the civil wars

The son of a Somerset mariner, William Batten went to sea in the merchant service.
In 1638, he took command of the Confident, hired for service in the King's navy. Through the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland, he also acquired an appointment as surveyor of the navy.

As a devout Presbyterian, Batten supported Parliament on the outbreak of the First Civil War. Through his Presbyterianism and his connections with the London mercantile community, he was appointed vice-admiral to the Earl of Warwick in 1642.

In February 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria sailed to England with a convoy of supplies and munitions for the Royalists, escorted by a neutral Dutch squadron commanded by Lt.-Adm. Tromp.
Batten's squadron failed to intercept the convoy at sea but caught it unloading at Bridlington, Yorkshire, and proceeded to bombard the town. The Queen's lodgings were hit and she was forced to take shelter in a ditch. Tromp threatened to attack the Parliamentarian ships if they continued the bombardment and Batten withdrew.

Batten was involved in several operations in support of Parliamentarian land forces during the First Civil War.
He supported the defenders of Lyme, Dorset, in June 1644
and assisted at the siege of Plymouth during the winter of 1644-5, where he built a blockhouse that came to be known as Mount Batten.
In February 1645, Batten reinforced the garrison at Melcombe, Dorset, enabling the Parliamentarians to storm Weymouth and recapture the town.
In August 1645, he supplied naval reinforcement to help Rowland Laugharne defeat Major-Gen. Stradling's Royalists at the battle of Colby Moor.
Batten bought 200 sailors ashore to support the storming of Dartmouth, Devon, in January 1646
and in April he took the surrender of Portland. Batten then sailed with 20 men-of-war to the Isles of Scilly in pursuit of Prince Charles. He surrounded the island of St. Mary's where Charles was sheltering, but a storm scattered Batten's ships on 13 April, allowing the Prince to escape to Jersey.

Under the terms of the Self-Denying Ordinance, the Earl of Warwick was obliged to resign his commission as lord high admiral in April 1645. Batten was appointed commander of the Parliamentarian fleet but, lacking Warwick's political standing, he was not promoted from vice-admiral and his appointment was regarded as temporary.
This discouraged him and helped alienate him from the Parliamentarian cause.
As a staunch Presbyterian, he also disliked the increasing influence of the Independents in Parliament.
From 1646, he was in secret communication with Scottish Presbyterians working for a settlement with King Charles in the Presbyterian interest.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

In August 1647, 6 of the Presbyterian Eleven Members fled abroad after they were ousted from Parliament by the Army. When they were intercepted by Parliamentarian warships, Batten allowed them to continue their journey to the Netherlands. As a result, he was forced to resign as vice-admiral in September 1647.
However, Batten retained his post as a Commissioner of the Navy. He continued his secret negotiations with the Scots and began plotting with Royalist agents to bring the fleet over to the King.

The naval revolt in the Downs on the outbreak of the Second Civil War in May 1648 took place before Batten's schemes had reached maturity.
Parliament re-appointed the Earl of Warwick commander of the fleet and Batten accompanied him to Portsmouth in June 1648 in his capacity as a naval commissioner.
Batten intended to subvert the Portsmouth squadron, but he was now under suspicion. When summoned to London to answer charges of spreading disaffection in the fleet, he boarded the Constant Warwick and sailed to join the Royalists.
He was welcomed by the Prince of Wales, who knighted him and made him rear-admiral, but Batten's conversion to the Royalist cause was distrusted by many, including Prince Rupert.

After failing to bring the Earl of Warwick to battle in August 1648, the Royalists were blockaded in Dutch waters. Warwick offered an amnesty to all seamen who wished to return to Parliament. Batten was among those who took advantage of the offer because he disapproved of Prince Rupert's appointment as admiral of the Royalist fleet and suspected Rupert of inciting the seamen against him.

Batten quietly pursued his commercial activities during the Commonwealth and Protectorate years.
In March 1660, with the Restoration imminent, he wrote to Charles II offering to arrange transportation back to England for the King and his court.
The following June, he was re-appointed to his positon as surveyor of the navy.

Batten's career as surveyor is famous because his corruption and incompetence were mercilessly exposed in the diary of his young colleague, Samuel Pepys.

Batten was elected MP for Rochester in 1661.
In 1663 he was appointed Master of Trinity House.
He died in 1667.
http://bcw-project.org/biography/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Batten came from an obscure family. His father, Andrew Batten, mariner, of Easton in Gordano, Som., had mortgaged property worth only £30 p.a.
His brother was a master in the Royal Navy and later master of a merchant vessel.
Batten, although apprenticed to the Merchant Taylors’ Company of London, had a long naval career.

He married (1) lic. 23 Sept. 1625, aged 24, Margaret, da. of William Browne, Cordwainer, of London, They had 3 sons (1 d.v.p.) and 3 daughters.

He became a navy commissioner in 1638,
and in 1642 was appointed second-in-command of the fleet under the Earl of Warwick. ‘Notoriously friendly to the Presbyterians’, he supported Parliament during the first Civil War and was conspicuous in the attack and relief of besieged ports.

But after assisting the escape 6 of the 11 Members impeached by the army in 1647, he was forced to resign his vice-admiral’s commission.

During the second Civil War he joined Prince Charles in the Netherlands with the Constant Warwick, a frigate of which he was part owner.
He was knighted c. July 1648 and appointed rear-admiral, but in November 1648 the seamen mutinied against him and he resigned.

It is not known when he returned to England.
Before 18 Nov. 1654 he petitioned Cromwell for his share (£161 6s.3d.) on the appraisement of the Constant Warwick, a petition which the treasurer of the navy was instructed to disregard.

He married (2) 3 Feb. 1659, Elizabeth, da. of one Turner, wid. of William Woodstocke of Westminster, s.p.

He wrote to Charles II on 28 Mar. 1660 offering his services, and was reappointed surveyor of the navy.
In this capacity he became closely associated with Samuel Pepys, who recorded many references to his corrupt practices.

A proviso to the indemnity bill was introduced into the Convention on his behalf, but rejected on 3rd reading.

The mayor of Rochester, said to represent the ‘cathedral interest’, was ‘a great stickler against’ Batten’s election in 1661, but he won and served until his death.
(Sir William Batten’s son married the daughter of Stephen Alcock, a wealthy resident of Rochester, in 1657, and this and the enfranchisement of the freemen from Chatham helped his election.)

He was listed as a court dependant in 1664, but was an inactive Member, named to 18 committees, the only one of any importance being the Five Mile bill.

Batten paid off the mortgages of his property in Easton in Gordano, and besides his official home in London, acquired through his first wife a country house at Walthamstow, where (according to Pepys) he lived ‘like a prince’.
In 1664 he was given permission to erect 2 lighthouses at Harwich; the terms of the lease were profitable, but at his death on 5 Oct. 1667 his debts were over £4,000.

His eldest son, a lawyer, was a spendthrift, and all the landed property was sold within 5 years of Batten’s death.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

Matt Newton  •  Link

Re Batten passing away; SP mentions being owed money.
Is there any reference to this being paid back?
Are the son / wife, obliged to pay off outstanding debts?

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1660

1661

1662

1663

1664

1665

1666

1667

1668