William Dry (abt. 1690 - 1740)

Born about 1690 in Province of Carolina

Ancestors

Died 1740 at about age 50 in New Hanover County, Province of North Carolina

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Biography

William Dry was the son of William Dry and Elizabeth Blake of the Province of Carolina. He was of age by 1717. A merchant, Dry also inherited a plantation of 1,127 acres on Charleston Neck and purchased another plantation in Goose Creek.^[1]

He served in the Commons House of Assembly in 1720-21 and again from 1725-1729 and 1733-1736. He was elected Speaker in 1728 and 1729. Among other offices he held were assistant judge (1721) and captain of militia (1721-1729).^[1]

Dry married Rebecca, daughter of James Moore and Margaret Berringer and widow of Thomas Barker, Jr. (d. 1715). They had children William (1720-1781, m. Mary Jane Rhett) and Dorothy (m. John Morton and John Moultrie, Jr.) ^[2][1]

In March 1734 he advertised his plantations in South Carolina for sale, and by 1736 he had moved with his family to New Hanover County in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina. His wife's brothers Roger, Maurice, and Nathaniel Moore had already settled in the area.^[3]

William Dry died sometime between 25 February 1740, when he was appointed a justice of the peace, and 5 October 1740, when his widow qualified as his executrix.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Edgar, Walter B. and N. Louise Bailey. Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Volume II: the Commons House of Assembly 1692-1775 (1977), pp. 210-11
2. ↑ Webber, Mabel L. “The First Governor Moore and His Children.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 37, no. 1 (1936): 1–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27571450
3. ↑ Watson, Alan D. “William Dry: Passive Patriot,” Bulletin, Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, Inc., Vol.17, no. 1 (October 1973) https://www.lcfhs.org/bulletin-archive.html

• Stott, Clifford L., Humphrey Blake (1494?–1558) and His Descendants in New England and South Carolina: Blake, Richards, Selleck, Torrey, and Wolcott, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2009) Vol. 163, WN 652, Page 291.