Individual Details
Joseph Gatchell
(Abt 1652 - )
Notes for JOSEPH GATCHELL:
He was a tailor and fathered a baby in 1680. He was charged with fathering a child to Bethiah
Gatchell, wife of his brother Samuel.
It appears Joseph Gatchell was not Christian in his beliefs and spoke freely about it. As a result, in
the times of puritan justice, he ended up in the public "pillory" and had his tongue pierced/branded
with a hot iron, as evidenced by the narrative below. He was tried for heresy, and the main witness
against him was his sister-in-law, Elizabeth, wife of his brother Jeremiah Gatchell. In July 1879,
Henry F. Waters wrote in the New England Historical and Genealogical Review: In the Suffolk County
Court files, that in July 1684, Joseph Gatchell of Marblehead was presented "that he not hauing the
feare of God before his eyes being instigated by the divill at the house of Jeremiah Gatchell in
discourse abt generall Salvation (wch he sd was his beleife) & that all men should be saved, being
answered that our Saviour had sent forth his disciples and gaue them comission to preach the Gospell
and that whosoever Repents and beleives shall be saued; to which Joseph Gatchell answered if it be
so he was an Imperfect saviour and a foole. And this was a yeare agoe and somewhat more, as p' the
evidences of Elizabeth Gatchell and since in the moneth of March last past and at other times and
places hath uttered seuirall blasphemous speeches saying ther was no God divill or hell as in and by
their presences may appeare contrary to the peace of our Souiraigne Lord the King his croune and
dignity the law of God & of this Jurisdiction." He was "sentenced to be returnd from this place to the
pillory to haue his head and hand put in, have his toung drawne forth out of his mouth and peirct
through wth a hott Iron then to be returnd to the prison there to Remayne until he sattisfye and pay all
ye charges of his tryall and ffees of Court wch came seuen pounds."
According to the Massachusetts & Maine Family Histories, 1650s-1930s, a Martha Wiles (Wild) and
John Putnam testified in 1682 in a case in which Joseph Gatchell was accused of "presumptuous evils
7
which are next door to forgery."
Child of JOSEPH GATCHELL and JUDITH is:
16. i. BEZABEEL4 GATCHELL, b. Bef. 1685.
He was a tailor and fathered a baby in 1680. He was charged with fathering a child to Bethiah
Gatchell, wife of his brother Samuel.
It appears Joseph Gatchell was not Christian in his beliefs and spoke freely about it. As a result, in
the times of puritan justice, he ended up in the public "pillory" and had his tongue pierced/branded
with a hot iron, as evidenced by the narrative below. He was tried for heresy, and the main witness
against him was his sister-in-law, Elizabeth, wife of his brother Jeremiah Gatchell. In July 1879,
Henry F. Waters wrote in the New England Historical and Genealogical Review: In the Suffolk County
Court files, that in July 1684, Joseph Gatchell of Marblehead was presented "that he not hauing the
feare of God before his eyes being instigated by the divill at the house of Jeremiah Gatchell in
discourse abt generall Salvation (wch he sd was his beleife) & that all men should be saved, being
answered that our Saviour had sent forth his disciples and gaue them comission to preach the Gospell
and that whosoever Repents and beleives shall be saued; to which Joseph Gatchell answered if it be
so he was an Imperfect saviour and a foole. And this was a yeare agoe and somewhat more, as p' the
evidences of Elizabeth Gatchell and since in the moneth of March last past and at other times and
places hath uttered seuirall blasphemous speeches saying ther was no God divill or hell as in and by
their presences may appeare contrary to the peace of our Souiraigne Lord the King his croune and
dignity the law of God & of this Jurisdiction." He was "sentenced to be returnd from this place to the
pillory to haue his head and hand put in, have his toung drawne forth out of his mouth and peirct
through wth a hott Iron then to be returnd to the prison there to Remayne until he sattisfye and pay all
ye charges of his tryall and ffees of Court wch came seuen pounds."
According to the Massachusetts & Maine Family Histories, 1650s-1930s, a Martha Wiles (Wild) and
John Putnam testified in 1682 in a case in which Joseph Gatchell was accused of "presumptuous evils
7
which are next door to forgery."
Child of JOSEPH GATCHELL and JUDITH is:
16. i. BEZABEEL4 GATCHELL, b. Bef. 1685.
Events
| Birth | Abt 1652 | Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts | |||
| Marriage | Bef 1679 | Judith Gatchell mnu | |||
| Death | Y |
Families
| Spouse | Judith Gatchell mnu ( - ) |
| Father | John Gatchell (1615 - 1694) |
| Mother | Wibera Gatchell mnu (1615 - 1684) |
| Sibling | Samuel Gatchell (1639 - 1710) |
| Sibling | Henry Gatchell (1640 - ) |
| Sibling | John Gatchell (1645 - 1675) |
| Sibling | Jonathan Gatchell (1646 - ) |
| Sibling | Jeremiah Gatchell (1648 - ) |
| Sibling | Thomas Gatchell (1654 - ) |