William Bateman

William Bateman was an English convert to Mormonism whose part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre was to bring the emigrants a false offer of safe passage. Sent toward the Fancher party under a white flag, he helped secure the surrender that left the emigrants disarmed and vulnerable. The book later connects him to DeLoy Bateman as DeLoy’s great-great-great-uncle, making the massacre both a historical subject and a troubling part of family history.

Identity and Family Connection

The account identifies Bateman as an English convert and a Mormon participant in the events at Mountain Meadows. It gives little information about his life beyond that role. His later significance in the narrative comes through his relationship to DeLoy Bateman: William was DeLoy’s great-great-great-uncle, a connection that brings the nineteenth-century massacre into the story of a descendant living near the site.

Role at Mountain Meadows

On September 11, John D. Lee sent Bateman toward the encircled emigrants with a white flag. Bateman was instructed to tell them that the Mormons would intervene on their behalf and escort them past the hostile Paiutes if they handed over their weapons. The offer was a deception, presented as a way out of the siege. After Bateman indicated that the emigrants were willing to negotiate, Lee approached them to arrange the surrender. The emigrants eventually gave up their weapons, setting in motion the trap described in the account.

Historical Memory

The book returns to Bateman through a later camping trip by DeLoy Bateman and his family, less than fifty miles from the massacre site. DeLoy is not proud of his ancestor’s notorious role, but believes it should not be concealed; he wants to learn what happened. That pursuit of history contrasts with the restrictions on books and learning imposed in Colorado City under Rulon Jeffs. William Bateman thus appears not as a developed biographical figure but as a link between an act of betrayal and a descendant’s effort to confront, rather than bury, the family’s past.