Are origins of Dorcas Nichols Mote c 1732-1817 in Virginia? [closed]

Question

It seems that the maiden name and origins of Dorcas (Nichols) Mote are rather murky and perhaps without documentation. This question has been rewritten with new info since originally posted so some replies will seem unusual.
 

Her birth is seen variously as in Miami Co, Ohio or Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1732. Miami Co Ohio was not settled in 1732 and Chester County comes from likely erroneous information on her husband's origins.

The year is approximated from her Quaker death record. Her marriage to David Mote is given as 1752 and was likely in Virginia which now leads to exploring Virginia as her place of origin. The marriage does not appear in Hinshaw's index, only a few entries related to she and husband in North Carolina after they left Virginia (documented in NC 1753) and before they moved to Ohio (1802; after a time in Georgia).
 

She is frequently seen as the daughter of Jeremiah Nichols and Anna White of Massachusetts which appears false (and perpetuated by Ancestry.com). Anna White was married to a James Nichols (not Jeremiah) and other research has discounted these as the parents.
 

Do any of the Virginia or Southern Colonies project people think of any prospective Nichols families in Virginia early 1700s? Particularly Bristol Parish?

Comments

I agree. I think that Jeremiah and Anna (White) Nichols may be the parents of a different Dorcas Nichols, born 30 December 1735 in Andover, Massachusetts. You can find her birth record here: "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZK3-V47 : 10 February 2018), Dorcas Nicols, 30 Dec 1735; citing ANDOVER,ESSEX,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0496897 IT 1-2. Jeremiah may be a mistake for James, the father's name on the record. (Jeremiah seems to come from Find a Grave.)

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Hi Carol. I found that birth record with more info at American Ancestors. It comes from the South Parish Congregational Church records. Father James, mother Anna, last spelled Nicols in the register.

Name	Dorcas NICOLS
Birth	1735
Location	Andover, Essex, Massachusetts, United States
Original Text	(see also Nichols), [Dorcas, C. R. 2.], d. James and Anna, Dec. 30, 1735.
Town Info	Andover
Volume Name	Andover - V1
Page	280

I don't see anything in Andover records that looked like the marriage of this particular Dorcas Nicols.

I can't recall if I checked the Quaker births index for Chester County area (many of the records not transcribed but some indexed). Will look at those again.

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It looks like the potential MM minutes to search in PA would be New Garden, Nottingham, Nottingham (FGC), Chester and perhaps Bradford (but it did not formally exist until 1737). I'm not seeing these in the index I was thinking of. TriCollege library says all of the above are only available via microfilm or in one of the various books (I assume transcriptions) whose titles can be found within the particular meeting record at this site.

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Hi again Carol. Full stop on the above as I didn't go back to my original research notes. There is no documentation that David was in Chester County, Pennsylvania. This comes from the bad info in the 1880 History of Miami County Ohio and also from his descendant Luke Smith Mote whose journal is at the Earlham College archive. I think we need to look for Dorcas' origins in Virginia. It would appear he married her there just a year before he is documented in 1753 in Cane Creek MM in North Carolina.

Just noticed location of birth for first daughter Margaret is incorrect. She could not have been born in Newberry SC.

Answer 1

I added a source to show that Anna (White) Nichols was married to James, not Jeremiah, Nichols. She is almost certainly the mother of the other Dorcas Nichols (Nicols) and at least five other children. She may have been born much earlier than 1713 if this is her birth record:

"Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZK3-K32 : 10 February 2018), Annah White, 17 Sep 1699; citing ANDOVER,ESSEX,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 0496897 IT 1-2.

Sorry I can't fine anything on Dorcas (Nichols) Mote (my fifth great-grandmother), but at least we can disconnect her from the wrong Nichols family and sort them out.

Where does the name Jeremiah come from for Dorcas (Nichols) Mote's father? Is that from Luke Smith Mote? Should we keep him as her father but remove Anna (White) Nichols, who should be married to James, not Jeremiah?

Comments

Good on Anna White record. I had skipped over the 1699 record since the year was so different but in the context of being the wrong person the year being 1699 doesn't make any difference. Good call on that.

I will have to look back at the Luke Smith Mote things to see if he wrote Jeremiah. Here's the link to the trasncription: http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/family/Churchyard.htm  I will have to reread this but I don't think he says anything about Dorcas' parents. I have no idea where the name Jeremiah came into the picture. David and Dorcas did name a child Jeremiah.

We need to bring in the profile manager Edward before disconnecting anyone. I really should have done that before changing anyone to Uncertain. He is active on WT. I do think Anna could be detached if OK with Edward as she's obviously not the mother (looks like another result of Ancestry.com matching).

Perhaps time to retag the original post and add Virginia and ask those in that project for a Nichols family that might fit the time period and location in Virginia.

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Carol, It appears the 1752 marriage date in NC may come from the book cited on David's father's profile. I don't know what that is based upon as I don't have the book. Most of the info from that book by Jesse Motes and Margaret Motes is very well-researched. Other research doesn't show him definitively in NC until 1753.

Edward McFadden, profile manager for David and Dorcas, has given his blessing to profile changes wherever they may be needed. I think he copied you on the email on that. I don't think we want to disconnect the mother of Dorcas just yet unless we are also first going to correct the fact that woman, though not the mother, was married to a James Nichols. I suppose we could disconnect Anna White, get her married to the correct husband James Nichols, disconnect her, and that would just leave us with Jeremiah as father (and change his vitals to basically unknown) until we sort out if he is or is not the father. Still have not found the origin of Jeremiah as the father and Edward didn't know where it came from.

Edit: from the tiny sliver of the Mote book I could see via Goggle, it does not give a marriage year for David and Dorcas. Dorcas appears only 2 times in the book: the marriage mention pg 235 which is literally only "m. Dorcas Nichols" and the index on pg 268 which sends you back to pg 236 (which I think is an error and means pg 235 based on index layout).

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Yes. Adding James and disconnecting Anna  sounds like the right thing to do. Would you like to do it or should I?

Also, I looked at the Luke Smith Mote excerpt. There seems to be a small clue in our Dorcas having a sister named Rachel who married a John North. I found his Find a Grave page: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81447418/john-north I'll follow up and see where it leads.

Carol

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I'm so glad you found that tidbit in Luke Mote's notes. I glossed right over it. Luke Mote has a number of things wrong but having that info on John North and Rachel Nichols is the best lead right now.

Since you've been poking around on James and Anna why don't you work on getting Anna married to the right guy and then disconnecting her from Dorcas.

Just some quick looking around showed a lot of info on John North and hopefully some of it has some origins info on Rachel. Will check the Mote book again as I think I saw it referenced in relation to John North.

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Hi, Todd. I think I sorted everything out. Anna White is now married to James Nichols (who is now connected to the parents previously assigned to Jeremiah) and added their daughter (the Dorcas born in 1735). I deleted all the birth and death information for Jeremiah, who now has no spouse, and added Rachel (Nichols) North and her husband, John North. There's a lot about him at Find a Grave, which I linked to but didn't quote. Please check everything out and see if it looks okay.

Answer 2

Any chance the name was Nicholson?

Comments

I've been looking at that potential but I've not found a Docas in primary source documents that fits the general parameters. There's also a not well documented Nichols family in Hingham (may be two families). I wondered about that family since some people from that area did migrate to Virginia and Carolina (Perquimans/Pasquotank) at about the time that would be necessary. Haven't yet searched the Hingham records since they are in so many locations.

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If you are researching a " Nichols", look at the records at the Bedford County Courthouse, in Bedford, Virginia. If you are researching a "Nicholson", search the records warehouses in the Virginia counties of; Orange, Page, Madison, Shenandoah.

Answer 3

Yes! Attached to my line. Names like Dorcas are rare, even for back then, and they tend to stick in one's mind. Anyway, I think she was associated with Tryon Nichols, but I will check my records. Nice to meet you! I'm not very practiced at posting on forums, thank you for your understanding everybody who reads this. Thanks, Megan

Comments

Hi, Megan. Looking forward to what you find on this.

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Actually I have found several dorcases. Odd huh

Answer 4

Quakers Project proposes to detach Jeremiah Nichols as father since his daughter Dorcas is otherwise accounted for.