The First Edition of the Batie Family History was published in 1991 and discussed the descendants of Adam BATIE (1799-1856) and Mary ROBSON (1803-1871). This Second Edition starts two generation further back with Adam's grandfather, Thomas BATIE (c1720-b1806) and his wife Margaret ROBSON (1724-1806). There is no known connection between Mary ROBSON (1803-1871) and Margaret ROBSON (1724-1806). As can be seen from the fold-out chart of the descendants of Thomas BATIE and Margaret ROBSON immediately after the Table of Contents, the scope of the effort has been significantly increased, and several additional major family lines are now considered. Chief among these are the TELFER, BATY, HERDMAN, GRIEVE, CHARLTON, ORD and SCOTT families. Although this work is entitled "The Batie Family History," it is just as much a ROBSON Family History for the descendants of Thomas' wife Margaret ROBSON. It is also a TELFER Family History for the descendants of Robert TELFER who married Elizabeth BATIE (B) (1724-1802). These families all lived in close proximity in Northumberland County, England, and emigrated to the same community called the "English Settlement" near London, Ontario. These families all maintained close ties through several generations, and several hundred direct descendants still reside in the London, ON area today.

The information presented in this Second Edition has been compiled from many sources, including church and civil records from Northumberland County, England dating from the mid 1700's; records from New York State and Middlesex County, Ontario since 1819; land and other civil records in county and state archives; and, of course, the numerous contributors from nearly every branch of this expanded BATIE family tree. Where conflicting information was identified, a concerted effort was made to reconcile the conflict through additional, independent research and correspondence with other family members.

This Family History is organized into four main divisions: 1) an introductory history of the England-Scotland border area where our first known BATIE ancestors lived [Chapter 1]; 2) an account of their migration from England to Ontario from 1819 to 1824 [Chapter 2]; 3) a detailed account of the families and individuals descended from Thomas BATIE and Margaret ROBSON [Chapters 3-83]; and 4) a complete alphabetized surname index [Appendix A]. In response to many favorable comments on the format and organization of the First Edition, beginning with the third generation individuals, I have retained the family groupings in separate chapters rather than include all persons of a single generation in a single chapter. With a family this size, the latter approach would have proved much too cumbersome and difficult to maintain a sense of family lines. In attempting to make this Second Edition as readable as possible, I have additionally tried to emphasize clarity over brevity. Except for states and provinces, I have tried to avoid abbreviations wherever possible. I hope this format proves clear enough to maintain the sense of family groups (father, mother & children) as well as family lines. In general, the information available for each Batie descendant is organized as follows:

Reference Letters

Statistics: Name of Batie descendant, birthdate, birthplace. Spouse's name, marriage date and place of marriage. Birthdate and place of spouse, spouse's parent's names. Date of death of referenced descendant and spouse, place of burial.

Narrative: Highlights of each person's life, accomplishments, organizations belonged to, hobbies, interests, anecdotes, and other colorful material that make the person come alive in the reader's mind. [Note: This information must be contributed by the appropriate family member. The Editor will not "guess" what you want to say about the individual being discussed.]

Chronological Listing of Children: Names and year of birth to give the reader an idea of the size and composition of the family group.

I have tried to include all information available on each person at the time this Second Edition was published. If little information has been uncovered, that person's entry tends to be very sparse. However, it is not difficult to update entries with newer or more complete information. Therefore, your continued contributions of information on our family members are needed both for publication in the semi-annual Batie Lettergram, and also to keep this "living" record current as new family members are added.

The conventions established by J. Russell BATIE (CGHGB) for identifying family groupings and descendant lines were used in the First Edition of the Batie Family History and are continued here. This modified Henry System of reference letters designates the first child of Thomas BATIE, the family progenitor, as A; the second child is designated as B, the third child as C and so on. CA is the first child of the third child of Thomas and Margaret, CB is the second child of the third child of Thomas and Margaret, and so forth. Thomas and Margaret are called Generation 0, their children are Generation 1, their grand-children are Generation 2, and so on. The number of letters in a person's Reference equates to that person's generation number and is an easy way of telling how many generations that person is removed from the family progenitor, Thomas BATIE, and his wife Margaret ROBSON.

Note that the letters designating an individual in the First Edition are different than the letters designating the same person in this Second Edition. For instance, as the progenitor for the First Edition, Adam BATIE (1799-1856) did not have a letter designation, and his children were designated A through M. In this Second Edition, this same Adam is now designated CG, the eighth child of the third child of his grandparents Thomas BATIE and Margaret ROBSON, and Adam's children are designated CGA through CGM.

In several instances, descendants of two different branches of the Batie family tree have married. For example, Adam TELFER (BDL) married Eliza BATIE (CGK). Their children and descendants are entitled to designations from both lines (BDLA/CGKA, BDLB/CGKB, etc). However, to eliminate any possible confusion and to eliminate unnecessary duplication, I have chosen to assign their children's reference letters only from the father's line, in much the same fashion as they assume their last name. In the example used here, the children would have reference letters only from the BDL line.

I have highlighted (bolded) the names of descendants of Thomas BATIE and Margaret ROBSON. The name a person prefers to go by, if known, is underlined or enclosed in quote marks ("). An apostrophe (') following the last letter in a person's Reference indicates that person is a twin or triplet. An asterisk (*) indicates that person is adopted. Infants who are stillborn or who die before they are named are still given Reference Letters which indicate their correct birth order. These infants are identified in the text as "Infant Daughter", "Infant Son", or "Child."

Other conventions adopted in this document include the use of US and Canadian Postal Code abbreviations for the individual US states and Canadian provinces mentioned. In England, CUM is used as the abbreviation for Cumberland County, and NUM for Northumberland County.

All surnames have been capitalized for easy recognition (except where quoting directly), and all dates are given in day-month-year format (e.g., 12 April 1990). In many early records, a person's name might be spelled with several variations, depending on how it sounded phonetically to the person writing the entry. Several instances have been found where a subject's name is spelled differently in the same register when entries were written by different people. And a few instances show that even the same person spelled a subject's name differently on different occasions. Therefore, where supported by documentary evidence, I have used the spelling of a person's name as entered in an official record such as a baptism register, and, where known, have also included in quotes any different spelling the individual may have used in everyday life. Example: Jane "Janie" Shipley ROBSON, Margaret "Maggie" BATIE, etc.

I hope this Second Edition of the Batie Family History provides much enjoyment for all.

Howard F. BATIE, CGHCCA