There appears to be two Edward Bates whose family histories have gotten mixed together:

Edward Bates b. 1606 Buckinghamshire, England married Susanna Putnam d. 1686 Weymouth, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts (left a will) parents = William Bate and Margery Phillips.

Edward Bates Family Page with information on his wife and children. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/`lsfeist/edwardbate1.htm SEE WEBSITE SOURCE INDEX.

Edward Bates b. 1586 Boston, Lincolnshire, England married Lydia Fairbanks d. 1644 Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts (Lydia remarried in 1645) parents = Edmund Bates and Elizabeth Leverett

It is this author’s opinion that #2 is our decadency line.

What is even more difficult to determine is which historical documentation is relative to line #2 and not line #1. Primarily any historical documentation indicating Weymouth was decided to be relative to line #1, and any documentation indicating Boston was decided to be relative to line #2.

Rootsweb.com: Contact: James Snow jsnow@usga.org http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jsnow1&id=I09063 SEE WEB SITE SOURCE INDEX.

Rootsweb.com: Contact: Dennis L. Maness dennis.maness@comcast.net http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=dfbradford&id=I4155 SEE WEB SITE SOURCE INDEX.

From http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jakratzner/bates.edward.htm