| Notes |
- Mayflower passenger.
One of the 41 signers of the Mayflower contract on board the Mayflower at anchor, at what is now Provincetown, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
“It is believed that Edward Doty was born in England, perhaps about 1600, but nothing has been conclusively established concerning his ancestry or exact location of birth. He came aboard the Mayflower before it sailed from London, and was listed as a "servant" of Stephen Hopkins.
He was one of the forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact.
Bradford's History of Plimoth Plantation clearly indicates that Edward had a previous wife before he married Faith Clark, daughter of Tristram Clark, 6 January 1643 at Plymouth; and by this second wife it is known that he had nine children. Faith came to Plymouth with her father on the Francis in 1634.
Edward was often in court either as plaintiff or complainant in civil cases, and in June 1621 he received a sentence for breach of peace when he and Edward Leister fought a duel with cutlasses. He owned property in Yarmouth, Cohasset, and Dartmouth in addition to the land where he lived in Plymouth.
Edward died 23 August 1655 and his wife then married John Phillips. Edward's will and inventory of estate are on record at Plymouth.
Descent from Edward Doty has been proven through all nine of his children.”
Will of Edward Doty: 20 May 1655
“May the 20th 1655
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 aand 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 tto 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 I give 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 ffrinds whoe are Witnesses; and Doe sett my hand to the same; the Day and yeare abovewritten
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 abovewritten 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”
From NEHGS: The Great Migration Begins:
“ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
OCCUPATION: Planter
FREEMAN: In the "1633" Plymouth list of freemen, ahead of those admitted on 1 January 1632/3. In the Plymouth section of the list of 1639.
EDUCATION: Signed his deeds by mark.
OFFICES: In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms.
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land there are two consecutive entries for "Edward [blank]," granted one acre; one of these must be for Edward Doty. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle "Edward Dolton" was the eleventh person in the fourth company.
Assessed £1 7s. in the Plymouth tax list of 25 March 1633, and 18s. in the list of 27 March 1634.
On 12 July 1637, "Edward Dotey" sold for £150 to Richard Derby "all those his messuages, houses and tenements at the High Cliff or Skeart Hill together with the four lots of lands and three other acres purchased of Josuah Pratt, Phineas Pratt and John Shawe," with an exclusion of an inner chamber in the "chief messuage ... wherein the said Edward Dotey layeth his corn" and that Doty would keep possession of the other house and three lots until he received all the £150 and reaped the crop of corn. If Richard Derby failed to return from old England or failed to have the £150 paid by harvest time, Doty could sow another crop and reap it until Derby returned or paid. Apparently Derby settled for the single lot and paid £22.
On 16 September 1641, Edward Doty was granted a forty acre parcell of upland at Lakenham. On 7 May 1642 "Edward Dotey" purchased one acre of upland at High Cliff from Joshua Pratt. On 5 May 1643 "Edward Dotey" sold two lots totalling forty acres of upland to Stephen Bryan and John Shaw Jr. On a list entitled "Names of the Purchasers" probably dated after 26 December 1651, Edward Doty is twenty-first of fifty-eight.
In his will, dated 20 May 1655 and proved 5 March 1655/6, Edward Doty Senior of Plymouth "being sick" bequeathed "my purchase land lying at Coaksett unto my sons; my son Edward I give a double portion and to the rest of my sons equal alike," onlnly to "my wife I leave a third during her life then after to return to my sons"; to "my loving wife ... my house and lands and meadows within the precincts of New Plymouth"; "my share of land at Punckquetest if it come to anything I give it unto my son Edward"; on 5 March 1655/6 "Faith the wife of Edward Dotten deceased" relinquished to her sons her right in lands at Coaksett.
The inventory of "Edward Dotten lately deceased," taken 21 November 1655, totalled £137 19s. 6d., of which £60 was real estate: "his dwelling house and his land adjoining," £25; "threescore acres of upland with the meadow adjoining to it lying in the woods," £10; "the land at Clarkes Iland," £5; and "the purchase land lying at Coakset," £20.
In her will, dated 12 December 1675 and proved 8 June 1676, "Faith Phillips the wife of John Phillipes" of Marshfield "though weak in body" bequeathed to "my daughter Mary" £9 in "my son John's hands"; to "my daughter Elizabeth £6"; to "my daughter Mary £3 due by bill of sale"; to "my daughter Desire £6 due by my bill of sale and a warming pan." On 4 November 1676 letters of administration were granted to "John Rouse Junior of Marshfield... in the behalf of himself his wife and sisters: viz: Desire [torn] and Mary Doten".
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).
DEATH: Plymouth 23 August 1655.
MARRIAGE: (1) Before 1635 _____ _____; not seen in any record. Her existence is implied only by Bradford's comment that Edward had "a second wife" (see COMMENTS below). (2) Plymouth 6 January 1634/5 "Fayth Clarke", daughter of Thurston Clarke; she m. (2) Plymouth 14 March 1666[/7] John Phillips; she was buried at Marshfield 21 December 1675.
CHILDREN: With second wife
i EDWARD, b. say 1636 (eldest son in father's will); m. Plymouth 26 February 1662[/3] Sarah Faunce, daughter of JOHN FAUNCE.
ii JOHN, b. say 1638; m. (1) by 1668 Elizabeth Cooke (eldest child b. Plymouth 24 August 1668), daughter of Jacob Cooke; m. (2) Plymouth 22 November 1694 Sarah Jones, daughter of Joseph and Patience (Little) Jones.
iii THOMAS, b. say 1640; m. by 1675 Mary Churchill (by whom he had had an illegitimate child in 1672), daughter of John Churchill She m. (2) 8 February 1687/8 Henry Churchill, of unknown parentage.
iv SAMUEL, b. say 1642; m. Piscataway, New Jersey, 13 November 1678 Jeane Harman (by license dated 24 October 1678 Jeane Harman, both parties of Piscataway, New Jersey).
v DESIRE, b. say 1645 (d. Marshfield 22 January 1731, aged eighty-six years); m. (1) Marshfield 25 December 1667 William Sherman; m. (2) Marshfield 24 November 1681 Israel Holmes; m. (3) by 1689 as his second wife Alexander Standish, son of MYLES STANDISH.
vi ELIZABETH, b. say 1646; m. Marshfield 13 January 1674[/5] John Rowse.
vii ISAAC, b. Plymouth 8 February 1647/8; m. by about 1673 Elizabeth England (in his will of 11 January 1684[/5] Hugh Parsons of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who had married Elizabeth, the widow of William England, bequeathed to "my wife's two daughters, living on Long Island, viz: Susannah Carpenter and Elizabeth Doty").
viii JOSEPH, b. Plymouth 30 April 1651; accused of fathering her child by Elizabeth Warren 27 October 1674; m. about summer, 1674 Deborah Ellis (late enough to have conceived a child with her b. 22 February 1674/5 but not so soon as to have committed adultery to conceive a child with Elizabeth Warren still unborn 27 October 1674); m. (2) Rochester 5 March 1711/2 Sarah Edwards, widow.
ix MARY, b. say 1653; m. after 10 July 1677 Samuel Hatch.
ASSOCIATIONS: Edward Doty had a complex financial relationship with Richard Derby, but not one that necessarily implies kinship.
COMMENTS: In 1988 Neil D. Thompson published a refutation of the false claim for the ancestry of Edward Doty made by Gustave Anjou.
Bradford, in his accounting of 1651, stated that Edward Doty came on the Mayflower as a servant of STEPHEN HOPKINS, and that in 1650 "Edward Doty by a second wife hath seven children, and both he and they are living". Doty signed the Mayflower Compact. Doty went with his master Hopkins and more than a dozen others on the voyage of "discovery" on 6 December 1620.
He is said to have been guilty of the "second offence" committed in Plymouth. As Bradford tells us: "...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".
This incident set the tone for the next twenty years in which Doty was frequently in court for fighting, slandering, trespass and debt. Edward Doty was defendant in three civil suits at the court of 2 January 1632/3, all involving hogs; he won one and lost two. On 1 April 1633 Doty was sued for slander by one of the winning plaintiffs just noted, and was fined 50s.
Still he prospered, for he had an apprentice in 1633, although an unhappy one. On 2 January 1633/4 the Court settled a dispute between Edward Doty and his apprentice John Smith, reducing the time of the apprenticeship from ten years to five. On 31 August 1638 Doty received the assignation of seven years labor of William Snow from Snow's previous master, Richard Derby.
On 24 March 1633/4 Edward Doty was fined 10s. for breaking the peace and drawing blood from Josias Cooke. On 28 March 1634 Edward Doty won a suit against Francis Sprague.
On 7 March 1636/7, Edward Doty was found guilty of a "deceitful bargain" over a lot of land, and restored the lot to George Clarke. The controversy continued when George Clark won damages and costs from Doty at court 2 October 1637, Clark chargiging him with denying liberty to hold land for the term he had taken it. Things escalated, for that same day Clark also charged Doty for assault and battery, and Doty was further fined. Doty was sued in less sanguinary encounters between 1638 and 1651 with Richard Derby, John Shaw, widow Bridget Fuller and John Holmes over debt and trespass, and lost them all. He successfully sued James Luxford for trespass, 7 December 1641.
At court 1 February 1641/2, Thomas Symons charged "Edward Dotey" with carelessly allowing cattle put in his hands to "break into men's corn" endangering the cattle and other property, and Doty was ordered to put his cattle in a "keep".
On 10 February 1643/4 "Edward Dotey" was one of six men directed by the town of Plymouth to build a wolftrap at Plain Dealing. In March, 1657, he was midway down the list of "those that have interest and proprieties in the town's land at Punckateeset over against Rhode Island".
Writing in 1897 Ethan Allen Doty quotes many documents, including some that would be very helpful in refining our knowledge of this family, but which do not appear in the colony or town records. The most important of these would be receipts given by all the sons of the immigrant for their shares in his estate. Perhaps these documents are privately held.
Daughter Desire, who married successively William Sherman, Isaac Holmes and Alexander Standish, was said to have been eighty-six when she died in 1731, placing her birth about 1645. But her last child by Standish was born in 1693, when she would have been forty-eight by this reckoning. She was probably a few years younger than her age at death shows, but it is hard to know just where to fit her into the sequence of children.
Savage states that the immigrant had children William and Faith, in addition to the children listed above, but there is no evidence for such children. From the probate records for Edward Doty's widow we may be sure that no daughter by the name of Faith survived to adulthood. Savage also claims that Edward Doty removed to Yarmouth, but all records for him place him in Plymouth.
In 1993 the General Society of Mayflower Descendants published the second edition of its "in progress" volume on Edward Doty, edited by Peter Hill.”,
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Connected Bloodlines
Bef 1599 - 1655 (> 56 years)
