It's 1635 and a glorious May day in Dorset....

Imagine you're 24, and there's no future in the Somersetshire village where you grew up and where your family has lived for at least a hundred years. You, your bride, and your younger brother Samuel have decided to seek your fortune in the New World. The journey will begin at Weymouth on the coast of Dorset, which borders Somerset.

As the coach at last crests the hill above Weymouth, you gaze upon the natural harbour bracketed in the distance by white chalk cliffs. From here, you can't tell which ship bobbing at anchor is the Hopewell, but you can't board her until morning anyway. Deferring to your wife's comfort, the two of you will pass your last night in England at an inn rumored to be a favorite of pirates who find the hidden coves around Weymouth Bay convenient for off-loading ill-gotten treasures. Samuel hasn't decided yet where he'll rest his head.

You'll try not to remember that you'll never see your beloved England again. You push aside thoughts of the perils of a month at sea. At least the Hopewell's passengers won't suffer the same fate as those of the Mayflower did fifteen years earlier. There have been reports that the Indians haven't totally accepted their new English neighbors, but there's now some semblance of civilization on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.

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Inside St. Augustine's...

Charles Edward "C.E." Banks implies in his Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650 that John and Samuel were born in the West Monkton area of Somerset, where there was a significant Gatchell family presence at the correct time. A fire in the West Monkton parsonage destroyed the parish's records, therefore no definitive birth records exist proving the birth locality or parentage of John or Samuel. Consequently, their presumed births in the West Monkton area is based largely on circumstantial evidence.

High on a wall inside St. Augustine's (left) in West Monkton is a Gatchell family monument. Its location denotes they were prominent members of the community, although not titled.

In fact, the monument is so high on the wall that on my visit there in 2003, I couldn't make out what it said, even by (shhh...don't tell anyone) standing on the back of a pew.

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