Scituate woman feels a connection to the Bates sisters’ former home

Ruth Thompson
Wicked Local

Jill West entered the Bates House for the first time in October 2018 after having been accepted as a tenant by the Scituate Historical Society, which oversees the historic property located at 6 Jericho Road.

“From that moment, upon entering the house, I knew I was home,” West said.  

Jill West stands in front the Bates House which dates back to 1650 and where she now resides on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

She moved into the house, which is owned by the town, in February 2019.  As the in-house caretaker, she conducts open house tours and shares the illustrious history of the house with visitors.

An American Army of Two

Rebecca and Abigail Bates were two of the nine children of Simeon and Rachel Bates. 

In 1811, Simeon Bates, a Revolutionary War veteran, was appointed lightkeeper of the new Scituate Lighthouse.  One evening in September 1814, when their parents and other siblings were away, Rebecca, age 21, and Abigail, age 17, noticed a British warship anchored in the harbor and that British soldiers – redcoats – were rowing towards shore.

During Heritage Days this year, Jill West’s granddaughter Gianna Fallon DeMasi, and grandniece Harmony Alexandra Sullivan, dressed as Rebecca and Abigail Bates to greet visitors to the Bates House.

It is said that Rebecca knew she could kill one or two of the soldiers with a musket, but knew that would draw retaliation on the village.  Instead, she told her sister to take up the drum and that she would grab her fife.

As the story goes, the sisters took cover in a dense stand of cedar trees where they continued to play their instruments louder and louder hoping the British would believe an American militia was gathering to meet them.

Jill West stands in the original part of the house that dates back to 1650 and shows off the Beehive oven next to the fireplace at the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

Their plan worked and the British withdrew, and the sisters became known  as the "American Army of Two."

The fife Rebecca played is on display in the lightkeeper’s house at Scituate Light.

Coming full circle

West, who was born in Hawaii, has spent the majority of her life in Scituate.  Her connection to the town goes way back.  Her great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel Ward, brought the mossing industry to Scituate in the mid 1800s, she said.

She also has a connection to the Bates House.

The Bates House dates back to 1650 and was the home of the Bates sisters who helped thwart a British attack during the War of 1812.

“My grandmother and Yvonne Twomey’s mother, whose grandfather bought the Bates House in 1907, were cousins,” she said.  “I had Yvonne as an English teacher in eighth grade. My father taught with her in the early 1960s.  She and my mother and aunts would get together annually for their ‘Cousins Lunch’ for many years. I wish I had known her better.”

Twomey lived in the Bates House for years, and before her death in September 2018 at age 93, she had made arrangements for the town to purchase the house to protect the site from development.

After graduating from Scituate High School in 1976 and going on to college, West enlisted in the U.S. Navy and saw a decade of active service through the Gulf War.  She ended up in Marin County, California where she raised her daughter, Kate.

She returned to Scituate in 2003.

The beehive oven sits next to the fireplace in the original section of the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

Upon retiring as the business manager for the Scituate Harbormaster, West began volunteering with the Scituate Historical Society.

“It was here that my knowledge and interest of the history of the town and the Bates House blossomed.”

When she learned Twomey had sold the Bates House to the town, the idea of living in the house as its caretaker took hold. 

Living in the shadow of history

While West said she loves everything about the house, there are certain aspects she treasures more than others.

“I love the attic,” she said.  “There are two rooms in the attic – a small one that was Yvonne’s bedroom when she would visit her grandparents in the summers as a small child.  We found her diary from 1932, she would have been eight, writing about seeing an eclipse at her grandmother’s house in Scituate.”

A photo of Rebecca Bates is on display at the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

From the attic there is a clear view of the lighthouse.

“I think of all the people who must have looked out on that same view over the centuries.”

A certain floor plank in one of the original rooms in the house is especially poignant for West. 

“I measured it to be over 19 inches in width,” she said.

Sunflowers rest on a table in one of the older additions to the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

This has significance as at the time the house was built the King of England would have trees larger than 12 inches in diameter stamped with the royal seal indicating they would be cut and shipped back to England.

Jill West stands on one of her favorite parts of the Bates House because the 19” plank was a silent protest to the British as wood bigger than 12” would have been considered King’s Wood and sent back to England while showing off the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

“It was illegal for ‘commoners’ to use wood of this width,” West said.  “I love the idea of the home’s first owner, William Tichnor, cutting down a tree belonging to the king to build his home in 1650, over a hundred years before our revolution.”

West actually enjoys sharing the house during open house tours, and telling the story of the Bates sisters, especially to children.

“Some people just like to wander through the rooms and see the beams, the fireplaces, and the structure.”

When asked if she sees ghosts, and she is always asked, West said her answer is a resounding “yes.”

Jill West shows the stairway to the attic bedrooms at the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

“I don’t actually see ghosts walking around.  I feel the young Rebecca and Abigail living here prior to 1811 with their nine siblings, looking across the harbor as the lighthouse is being built. I feel their honor and the responsibility to carry that story onward for them now.”

She sits in the attic sometimes, she said, looking out at the lighthouse.

“I feel these ghosts who are here with me are looking out, too.  I feel the weight of honoring their past by sharing it with visitors in this unique place that I am privileged to call home.”

Scituate lighthouse can be seen from the attic bedrooms at the Bates House on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.

For more information on the Scituate Historical Society visit scitiuatehistoricalsociety.org

Follow Ruth Thompson on Twitter @scituateruth