I am still pursuing my ongoing researches into the story of Mary Bateman (nee Harker), the infamous Yorkshire Witch who was hanged at York in 1809 for the murder by poisoning of Rebecca Perigo (nee Stockdale). My current quest is to try and pin down how many children John and Mary Bateman had and what were their names and approx DoBs. This is not proving easy, since there were probably several John Batemans in Leeds at the appropriate time and, unfortunately, the baptismal registers of Leeds Parish Church (St Peter's), where the Batemans baptised their children, only give the fathers' names and not those of the mothers. I have FOUR marriages of John Batemans at St Peter's, as follows..... John Bateman to Martha Hargrave, 24 Apr 1775. John Bateman to Christiana Batley, 1 Jan 1776. John Bateman to Elisabeth Mirfield, 29 Sep 1782 John Bateman to Mary Harker, 26 Feb 1793. * This last marriage was that of the Yorkshire Witch. I know for a certain fact that the couple had at least three children because..... 1) Mary Bateman wrote to her husband from the condemned cell and asked for her wedding ring to be given to their daughter. 2) There was a son called Jack (presumably John) Bateman who was mentioned at her trial. 3) It was reported that she was allowed to have her youngest child (sex not stated) in the condemned cell with her until she was hanged. >From these facts I have worked out that the children most likely referred to were... MARY BATEMAN, bapt. at St. Peter’s, Leeds, February 16 1794 (IGI Batch no. K009625), dau of John. JOHN BATEMAN, bapt. at St. Peter’s, February 21 1796 (Batch no. C009628), son of John. JAMES BATEMAN, bapt. at St. Peter’s, July 19 1807 (Batch no. J151051), son of John. They may have had two others, i.e...... MARIA BATEMAN, bapt. at St. Peter’s, December 6 1801 (Batch no. C009629) GEORGE BATEMAN, bapt. at St. Peter’s, May 20 1804 (Batch no. C009626) What I would like to know is whether anyone can trace their ancestry back to the OTHER John Bateman marriages and therefore perhaps permit me to eliminate other possible children from those marriages. John Bateman, BTW, spent some time in the militia in order to escape from the notoriety of his wife. However, they must have spent SOME time together in order to have at least three children! -- Roy Stockdill Editor, Journal of One-Name Studies Guild of One-Name Studies website: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE