Edward Doty Sr. (abt. 1599 - 1655)

Descendants

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Children of Edward Doty and Faith Clarke 1.2 Death & Legacy 1.3 Edward Doty Memorials 2 Research Notes 2.1 DNA 2.2 Disputed Origins 3 Sources

Biography

Edward Doty was born about 1599 in England. He was described in Mourt’s Relation as “of London,” but he may not have been born there. In other biographies, Edward Doty is said to have been born between 1577 and 1600, probably in England.^[1] Another source gives his year of birth "by about 1599 (he was a servant on his arrival, but as he fought a duel within months of landing at Plymouth, he was more likely close to the end of his servitude rather than the beginning; he signed the Mayflower Compact, probably as an adult)."^[2]

Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History.com estimates Edward Doty's birth as between 1597 and 1602 at possibly Lincolnshire, England.^[3]

"Edward Doty's English origins have not yet been discovered. Some sources claim he was baptized on 14 May 1598 in either Dudlick, Shropshire or "Thurburton Hills", Suffolk. I have investigated these in English records, and found both to be fictitious.

However, there is a real Edward Doty baptized on 3 November 1600 at East Halton, co. Lincoln, England, son of Thomas Doty. The Doty families of East Halton are regularly using the names Thomas, Edward, and John: the first three names Mayflower passenger Edward Doty assigned to his children. Even if this particular Edward Doty is not the Mayflower passenger himself, I suspect he may have still originated from amongst this general Lincolnshire Doty family."

Doty's surname was not a common one and sometimes appears as Doten, Dotey or Day. In his will his name is spelled Dotten.

Edward Doty was a passenger on the Mayflower, 1620, as a servant to Stephen Hopkins^[3] and his family. There was also another Hopkins servant, Edward Leister. On 11 Nov 1620, while the Mayflower was anchored off Cape Cod, forty-one of the adult males, including servants, signed the Mayflower Compact; Doty and Leister were among the signers.^[4]

Doty went with his master Hopkins and more than a dozen others on the voyage of "discovery" on 6 December 1620 [Mourt 31-32].^[2] They left in a shallop to search for a suitable site for settlement. This famous journey of exploration of Cape Cod Bay led to the discovery of Plymouth Harbor and the selection of Plymouth as the new home of the Pilgrims.

On 18 June 1621, Edward Doty and Edward Leister fought a duel with swords and daggers which would become the Colony's first and only duel.^[2][3] The incident is described as follows:

" ... the first duel fought in New England, upon a challenge at single combat with sword and dagger, between Edward Doty and Edward Leister, servants of Mr. Hopkins. Both being wounded, the one in the hand, the other in the thigh, they are adjudged by the whole company to have their head and feet tied together, and so to lie for twenty-four hours, without meat or drink; which is begun to be inflicted, but within an hour, because of their great pains, at their own and their master's humble request, upon promise of better carriage, they are released by the governor" [Prince 190-91, citing Bradford's lost register].^[2]

Over the years Doty frequently appeared in court as a plaintiff or defendant. Most of the lawsuits were civil disputes, but some were complaints against him for trespassing (unfenced cow and pigs), assault and battery, and breaking the peace. He was on the losing side in the majority of these cases. He was said to have had something of a temper and was quick to stand up for himself against any perceived wrongs.^[2][3][5]

In the 1623 Plymouth division of land, following the name of Stephen Hopkins, there are two consecutive entries for "Edward [blank]," granted one acre; one of these must be for Edward Doty.^[2][6] In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle "Edward Dolton" was the eleventh person in the fourth company.^[7]

In 1627 an allotment was given to "heads of families and young men of prudence". Edward was also given a share, even though he was unmarried, which shows him to have gained the confidence of the governor. The inventory of his estate at the time of his death was listed as a net value of over 130 pounds. This is substantial for the time and shows that the one-time servant had achieved a greater-than-average level of prosperity during his lifetime.

Edward Doty's name appears in the lists of freemen for 1633 and 1636 and in the 1643 list of males that are able to bear arms.^[2][5][8]

On 2 January 1632/3, Edward Doty was sued by three different people: John Washburn, Joseph Rogers, and William Bennett. It appears to have been a disagreement about a trade of some hogs; John Washburn's case was thrown out; Joseph Rogers was awarded four bushels of corn. In William Bennett's case, Edward Doty was found guilty of slander, and fined 50 shillings.^[5]

Two years later, in March 1633/4, Edward Doty was fined 9 shillings and 11 pence for drawing blood in a fight with Josias Cooke. In January 1637/8, Doty was fined for assaulting George Clarke. In 1639, Edward Doty posted "bail" for John Coombes, who was charged with giving out poisoned drinks.^[5]

Bradford tells us in his journal of Plymouth Plantation in early 1651 "Edward Doty, by his second wife hath seven children, and that both he and they are living."^[9][10]

Edward married first, before 1635; the name of this wife is not seen in any record. Her existence is implied only by Bradford's comment that Edward had "a second wife".^[2][9]

Edward married second, at Plymouth 6 January 1634/5, Faith Clarke / "Fayth Clarke,"^[11][12] who came on the ship Francis in April 1634 with her father Thurston Clarke.^[2][3] Fayth married her second husband at Plymouth 14 March 1666/7, John Phillips and was buried at Marshfield 21 December 1675.^[2]

Children of Edward Doty and Faith Clarke

Children of Edward Doty and his second wife, Faith Clarke:^[2][13]

1. Edward was born about 1636. He married Sarah Faunce on February 26, 1662/3, and had eleven children. He drowned in Plymouth Harbor on February 8, 1689/90.
2. John was born about 1638. He married (1) Elizabeth Cooke by 1668 and had nine children. He married (2) Sarah Jones on November 22, 1694, in Plymouth and had three children. He died on May 8, 1701 in Plymouth.
3. Thomas was born about 1640. He married (1) Mary Churchill by 1675 and had three children. He died in December 1678 in Plymouth.
4. Samuel was born about 1642. He married Jeane Harman on November 13, 1678, in Piscataway, New Jersey and had twelve children. He died between September 18 and November 9, 1715.
5. Desire was born about 1645 She married (1) William Sherman on December 25, 1667, in Marshfield and had six children. She married (2) Israel Holmes on November 24, 1681, in Marshfield and had two children. She married (3) Alexander Standish by 1689 and had three children. She died on January 22, 1731, in Marshfield.
6. Elizabeth was born about 1646. She married John Rowse on January 13, 1674/5, in Marshfield and had three children. She married (2) William Carver on January 28, 1718/9 in Marshfield but had no children. She died on April 7, 1742 in Marshfield.
7. Isaac was born on February 8, 1647/8, in Plymouth. He married Elizabeth Wood by 1673 and had five children. He died after January 7, 1728, in Oyster Bay, New York.
8. Joseph was born on April 30, 1651, in Plymouth. He married (1) Deborah Ellis in 1674 and had ten children. He married (2) Sarah (Woodin) Edwards on March 5, 1711/2, in Rochester. He died in Rochester about 1732.
9. Mary was born about 1653. She married Samuel Hatch after July 10, 1677, and had nine children. She died before June 13, 1728.

Death & Legacy

Edward Doty died 23 Aug 1655 at Plymouth^{[14][2][3][15]} and was buried there at Burial Hill.^[16]

The will of "Edward Dotten senir" was dated May the 20th 1655 and proved 5 Mar 1656.^[17][18][19]

In the Name of God Amen

Know all men to whom It may concerne that I Edward Dotten senir: of the Towne of New Plymouth in New England being sicke and yett by the mercye of God in prfect memory and upon matture Consideration Doe by this my last will and Testament leave and bequeath my purchase land lying att Coaksett unto my sons; my son Edward I give a Double portion and to the rest of my sonnes equall alike if they live to the age of one and twenty if they Die before then to bee prted among the rest onely to my wife I leave a third During her life and then after to returne to my sonnes, And unto my loveing wife I give and bequeath my house and lands and meddows within the precincts of New Plymouth together with all Chattles and moveables that are my proper goods onely Debts and engagements to bee paied; As for my Share of land att Punckquetest if it come to anything Igive it unto my son Edward; This being my last will and Testament; I Edward Dotten Doe owne it for my Act and Deed before these my loveing frinds whoe are Witnesses; and Doe sett my hand to the same; the Day and yeare above written

Witness

John howland Edward Dotten

James hurst his Marke

John Cooke

William hoskins Ther being many names besides

Coaksett I mean all my purchase

land According to the Deed

Att the generall court held the fift of March 1655; faith the wife of Edward Dotten Decased Did give up and make over all her right and enterest she had in the land of Edward Dotten Att Coaksett or places adjacent unto her Children this shee Did in the prsence of the said Court; held att Plymouth yt Day and yeare above expressed;

The above written Will and Testament of Edward Dotten Deceased was exhibited to the Court held att Plymouth the fift of March 1655 on the oathes of Mr John howland James hurst John Cooke and William hoskins.

His inventory was taken on 21 November 1655, inhabitant of the town of Plymouth and exhibited at Plymouth on 5 March 1655 on the oath of Faith Dotten. His estate totaled £137 19s 6d., of which £60 was in land.^[19]

Edward Doty Memorials

Pilgrim Memorials Around the World

Date Unknown — Edward Doty Memorial, Burial Hill, School Street, Plymouth, MA

Monument about ten feet from School Street reads: "They believed in religious freedom / in honor of / Edward Doty / Passenger on the Mayflower / erected by / Descendants of Eliza Doty Cravath / A pioneer to Utah in 1850"

1990 — Edward Doty House Site Plaque, Court and Prince Street, Plymouth, MA

On September 9, 1990, The Pilgrim Edward Doty Society dedicated a historical marker on the site of the land grant which Edward Doty received in 1627. The site is located at the corner of Court and Prince Streets just before the present Cordage Mall.

Research Notes

DNA

Y-DNA Results R1b-FT78842^[20] Previous Y-DNA testing through the Mayflower Society DNA Project and the Doty/Doughty surname DNA project has documented where the Mayflower Doty lineage belongs to the R1b-L21 Y-DNA haplogroup, which is quite common in Northwestern Europe, particularly the British Isles. NGS/WGS Testing NGS testing has been able to refine this prediction. The Doty lineage has been found to belong to the subgroup defined by R-L21>DF13>ZZ10_1>Z16423>Z255>L159.2>Z16429>Z16433>A1248>A1245>A1254>FT78842^[21].

Disputed Origins

Claimed parents of Edward, John Douty and Anne Holland, are at best not properly documented and are based on a fraudulent genealogy—one of many published by the notorious genealogist fraud Gustave Anjou (c1863-1942).^[22]

Another claim, circulated widely on the internet, is that he was baptized 14 May 1598 in St. Mary le Strand, Thurburton Hills, Suffolk, England, son of John. This is just a perversion of the fictional Shropshire origins, and this record is, again, completely mythical. To begin with, there is no such place as Thurburton Hills, Suffolk. Further, the parish of St. Mary le Strand is in London not Suffolk, and contains absolutely no baptismal entries for any Edward Doty's from 1595 to 1600.

There are no fewer than eight known genuine Edward Doty baptisms that occurred between 1585 and 1605, but none have been conclusively identified as the Edward Doty of the Mayflower.

A subsequently removed web page, "MORE FRAUDULENT LINEAGES," still viewable through the WayBack machine, lists the individuals that Anjou fraudulently documented, including Edward Doty. (Last accessed 14 Oct 2018.)

For more information on this hoax, see The American Genealogist, 63:215. ^[23]

Edward Doty, the Mayflower Passenger, is not the person who married Winifred Warner. A record of a marriage between Winifred Warner and an Edward Doty has been found in the English records.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

1. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations Vol 11, Part I, p 2
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004). pp 177-182. also available as: Mayflower American Ancestors.org Edward Doty : accessed 7 Sep 2019;
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History Edward Doty
4. ↑ Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History The Mayflower Compact
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} Pilgrim Hall Museum Edward Dotey: Mayflower Passenger (Link via the Wayback Machine, 19 Mar 2016 capture date.)
6. ↑ Mayflower History Division of Land, pg. 2
7. ↑ Mayflower History 1627 Division of Cattle
8. ↑ Mayflower History 1643 List of Men Able to Bear Arms in the Plymouth Colony (Plymouth Colony Records 8:187-196)
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} William Bradford (Samuel Morison, ed.), Of Plymouth Plantation, New York: Random House (1952).
10. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume 11, Part II, pgs 1 and 2.
11. ↑ Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, and David Pulsifer, ed., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England (New York : AMS Press, 1855), 12 vols., Vol. 1:32.

    "January 6, 1634[/35]. Edward Doten and Fayth Clarke wer maried."

12. ↑ “Plymouth Colony records, court orders, 1633-1690”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3S3-4QXK-6  : 3 April 2023), , FHL microfilm 008492483, image 53, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Vol 1-3, 1633-1640, Page 75.
13. ↑ Pilgrim Edward Doty Society Edward Doty & Kin : accessed 14 Oct 2018
14. ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet; Pulsifer, David, Records of the colony of New Plymouth, in New England (Boston : Press of W. White, 1855) Vol. 8:17.

    "Edward Dotey died the 23d of August, 1655."

15. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations Vol 11, Part 1, p 1.
16. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7463099/edward-doty : accessed 07 September 2021), memorial page for Edward Doty Sr. (1598–23 Aug 1655), Find A Grave: Memorial #7463099, citing Burial Hill, Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Velcro (contributor 47336803) . (No gravestone extant.)
17. ↑ Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History Will of Edward Doty
18. ↑ George Ernest Bowman, "Edward Doty's Will and Inventory, and the Will of Faith (Clark) (Doty) Phillips," in The Mayflower Descendant, 3(1901):87-88
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L97D-VSBW : 6 March 2023), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 157 of 616; State Archives, Boston. Page 14-16.
20. ↑ MayflowerDNA.org wiki for Doty Family
21. ↑ http://www.ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=127&star=false
22. ↑ The fraudulent genealogy is Gustave Anjou, Doty Family (Anjou), available on FHL Microfilm 908084 Item 2 (Salt Lake City, Utah: n.p., 1973).
23. ↑ Thompson, Neil D., "A False Account of the Birth and Parentage of Edward Doty exposed," The American Genealogist, 63:215. (Link via $ubscription to AmericanAncestors.org)

See also:

• Peter Hill, Mayflower Families for Five Generations, Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants (1996): Edward Doty, volume 11, parts 1 and 2.
• Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and Its People, 1620-1691, Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestor Publishers (1986).
• Robert C. Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, (1995), 1:573-577
• Banks, Charles. The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers (Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1962)
• Robert Charles Anderson, The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society (2004): p. 177-182.
• Wikipedia: Edward Doty
• Somerset County Historical Quarterly (Volume? Page? Article title?)
• Doty, Ethan. The Doty-Doten Family in America: descendants of Edward Doty, an emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620 (E.A. Doty, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1897)
• Olive K. Porter, The Doty-Doten Family in America (Porter), FHL Microfilm, Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1977.
• Mary Lovering Holman, Descendants of William Sherman of Marshfield, Massachusetts, Brookline Massachusetts: Harriet Grace Scott (1936), p. 3
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet. Records of The Colony of New Plymouth, in New England (William White, Bostons, 1855) Vol. 1: Court Orders 1633-1640, Page 32
• Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856) p. 448 "8. Mr. Steven Hopkins, & Elizabeth, his wife, and 2. children, caled Giles, and Constanta, a doughter, both by a former wife; and 2. more by this wife, caled Damaris & Oceanus; the last was borne at sea; and 2. servants, called Edward Doty and Edward Litster." p. 455 "Edward Doty & Edward Litster, the servants of M'. Hopkins. Litster, after he was at liberty, went to Virginia, & ther dyed. But Edward Doty by a second wife hath 7. children, and both he and they are living."
• Bradford, William, 1590-1657. Of Plimoth Plantation: manuscript, 1630-1650. State Library of Massachusetts "List of Mayflower Passengers." In Bradford's Hand.
• MayflowerDNA.org wiki and profile for Doty Family