Andrew Dorsey in North Carolina and Maryland

Of great interest to researchers trying to untangle the web of DORSEYs in the South--particularly the Carolinas--is ANDREW DORSEY who was first recorded in North Carolina on the 1768 Rowan County tax list of John Brandon along with his (named) son Endymion DORSEY.¹  Ten years later, in February 1778, both ANDREW and Endymion were dead and their wives PATIENCE and Ann respectively were administering their estates^2,3. There are no clues as to how either died nor as to whether their deaths were connected.   Some glimmerings hint that both deaths were unexpected catastrophes.  In spite of having a modest estate of £435.17.11⁴ and a wife and children, Andrew left no will.  His wife Patience quickly entered 400 acres of land in Rowan County^5,6,7,8 shortly after his death suggesting that Andrew, like many pioneers to new land, had not actually gotten around to making a legal claim on the land he had settled.  The will of Endymion appears to be a hastily scribbled document dated November 14, 1777⁹.  Neither wife nor children are named and Endym(i)on signed by mark in spite of the fact that this appears to have been a literate family.  (In addition, the will sometimes drifts from first person to third person voice as if someone other than the testator (or his attorney)—for example a neighbor or family member--is composing and writing it under press of time.)

Two certain children of ANDREW and PATIENCE were Endymion (above) and a daughter Rachel who married Richard Harrison and moved to Allen County Kentucky.¹⁰  In addition, by 1782, Bazl Doscey [DORSEY] is found next to PATIENCE Docey [DORSEY] on Captain Gram's Tax List for Rowan County.¹¹   This close proximity suggests a relationship between Bazl and ANDREW and PATIENCE. Other speculated sons of ANDREW and PATIENCE are Benjamin and John DORSEY who are next to Bassell in the 1790 census¹² and whose signatures appear in a number of  western North Carolina records with each other and with Bassell¹³.  A GEORGE DORSEY¹⁴ who also appeared in the neighborhood on the 1768 tax list, may have been another son.  Other possible sons or grandsons may be James Dorsey who purchased land in Lincoln County, NC in 1782¹⁵ and Joseph Dorsey who married Margaret Barr in Lincoln County in 1797¹⁶.  Elisha Dorsey who was born about 1773 and raised a family in Burke County, NC was a proven son of Endymion Dorsey and thus a proven grandson of Andrew and Patience.¹⁷

There is little in the recorded lives of Andrew and Patience Dorsey in North Carolina to link them to the Maryland clan of Edward Darcy. They do appear to have been closely associated with several families with known origins in Baltimore County--Baker, Frissel, Justice, Howard, and others.  Furthermore, the unusual name Endymion was trendy among a group of families associated with the Maryland DORSEYs of the mid 18^th century.  There is a tradition among the descendants of Bassel DORSEY that he was born in Maryland.¹⁸   In the 1880 Hall County GA US Census the youngest son of Bassell DORSEY, John DORSEY (then age 79), reports his father's birthplace as Maryland thus also supporting the connection of the family to the Maryland DORSEYs.¹⁹

The first solid documentation of a Maryland connection that I found was a brief, 1994 article by Kathleen Field,  "A Record of Tevis Births" in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin.  This article reports some Tevis family birth records found in an old Bible.  Most exciting for those of us interested in the origins of ANDREW and PATIENCE DORSEY, is the following entry: "(Unreadable--possibly Charles) DORSEY son of Andres DORSEY and PATIENCE his wife was born ye 30th day of November in the year of our Lord 1748." ²⁰

Further details about this Bible record can be found in a correspondence from Virginia Heckel that was published by Henry C. Peden, Jr. in his book More Marylanders to Carolina, Migration of Marylanders to North Carolina and South Carolina Prior to 1800.²¹ Ms. Heckel reports that the record of ANDREW and PATIENCE DORSEY's child was found on a "DORSEY page in the Tevis Bible" that was mostly records of the family of Orlando⁵ G. DORSEY.  Orlando G(riffith) DORSEY was the son of Nicholas⁴ and Sarah Griffith (daughter of Orlando Griffith.)  Nicholas⁴ DORSEY was the son of Nicholas³ (Edward², Edward¹) DORSEY and his wife Frances Hughes. 

(Ms. Heckel's interest in ANDREW and PATIENCE DORSEY is as candidates for parents of her ancestor Cornelius DORSEY of Chester County, SC.  She includes an excellent summary of references to ANDREW and PATIENCE DORSEY and their descendents from North Carolina records and a discussion of Cornelius DORSEY and his family.)

More recently, I have found a record of the sale of Andrew Dorsey's property in Maryland in 1766 just two years before he first appeared in Rowan County.²²  At the end of that record is a notation that Patience "the wife of the within Andrew" appeared in court to relinquish her Dower rights in the property.  (For a scan of the original of that document, please click here.) 

Interestingly, the name ANDREW does not appear to have been a popular name among the early Maryland DORSEYs.  There are only a handful of records for the name Andrew Dorsey in Maryland in the early to mid 1700's.  All records are consistent in date, location, and content with the hypothesis that they refer to the same individual who is also the Andrew Dorsey appearing later in Rowan County, NC.  Unfortunately none of the records name the parents of ANDREW DORSEY.

The first record of ANDREW DORSEY is in the Baltimore County Tax list of 1737 where he is listed between Moris Gosnell and Thos Porter²³.  Other names traditionally associated with the DORSEYs of Maryland are nearby. No records of birth or christenings for Andrew have been found in Maryland and it is possible that he was a recent arrival from England or Ireland or some other area of the US.  Nevertheless it is tempting to speculate that Andrew was born in Maryland and that his first appearance on this list represents his arrival at the taxable age of 16—placing his birth date around 1721.

Andrew Dorsey is next found in the allowances for the Baltimore County Levy Papers of 1739--meaning he was exempt from taxes for 1739/40 (could this be because he was a young man with limited means?)²⁴ Interestingly, he is located on the same page (p. 59) as Comfort DORSEY (wife of John³ DORSEY (Joshua², Edward¹ Dorsey.)   As I have not seen the originals of these records, I do not know if this is the result of actual geographical proximity or an alphabetized list.

In September of 1748, ANDREW DORSEY patented a 50 acre land parcel called DORSEYs Prospect.²⁵ (For a copy of the original certificate, click here.) He is listed, with DORSEYs Prospect,  in the 1754 Baltimore County Debt Book.²⁶  (For a map of the location of DORSEYs Prospect, click here.)

ANDREW DORSEY is found on the list of "Taxables in St. Thomas Parish, 1763, Delaware Hundred".²⁷  Unfortunately this list has been alphabetized so it is not possible to determine proximities of various other residents.  Other Dorseys on the same list include Charles, Edward, John, Lanslot, Nicholas, Jr., Nicholas, Sr., and Vachel.  

In spite of the fact that these early to mid 18th century records show Andrew DORSEY living in Maryland in the midst of many descendents of Edward Darcy and a Dorsey family Bible records his child’s birth, there are no parents of record for him.  More conclusively, the Y chromosome DNA haplotype of ANDREW'S descendents does not begin to match that of two documented descendents of Edward Darcy.²⁸ (We are ever hopeful that more proven descendents of Edward Darcy will join our study to verify this conclusion.)

These circumstances suggest that Andrew Dorsey could have been a child adopted by a Dorsey family or perhaps the illegitimate son of a Dorsey woman who was raised as a Dorsey.  That no record of birth or christening has been found suggests that his birth was not the result of an extramarital affair of a Dorsey wife since such a child could would most likely have been masqueraded as a legitimate child of the marriage.

Andrew Dorsey’s early proximity to Comfort Dorsey the “estranged” wife of Col. John Dorsey is intriguing.  Could he have been Comfort’s child?  An interesting thought—however, John Dorsey left Comfort in 1724²⁹—too late for Andrew to have been born and be on the 1737 tax list.  According to Dorsey, Dorsey, and Ball, Comfort and John’s youngest son, John Hammond Dorsey was born in 1724³⁰ making him younger than Andrew (again judging from Andrew’s appearance on the 1737 tax list.

According to Dorsey, Dorsey, and Ball, John and Comfort Dorsey were married in 1702³¹ and had at least three daughters³². Two daughters were baptized in 1708 but, according to the authors did not survive childhood.  As no birthdates are available for the other three, it is difficult to say whether any of these three daughters would have been old enough to give birth to a child in 1721 (or before.)  There is no evidence that Andrew Dorsey or his descendents lived near or had any interactions with descendents of John and Comfort Dorsey.  The only circumstance supporting a connection between the line of John and Comfort Dorsey and Andrew Dorsey is the possible proximity of Andrew Dorsey to Comfort Dorsey as a young man. 

The inclusion of Andrew and Patience’s child on a Bible page with descendents of Nicholas Dorsey begs for closer attention to possible connections with that line.  Other Dorseys reported on the 1763 Delaware Hundreds tax list included Nicholas, Sr., Nicholas, Jr., and Charles³³—father and brothers to Orlando Griffith Dorsey whose children’s records appear on the Bible page with Andrew and Patience’s child. 

Of considerable interest, Frances Hughes Dorsey, widow of Nicholas³ Dorsey (d. c1717³⁴) and mother of Nicholas⁴ Dorsey (i.e. Nicholas, Sr. in the paragraph above) was charged with bastardy at the August Court of 1721.³⁵ According to the Maryland archivist and professional genealogist, Robert Barnes, she did not name the father of the child.³⁶  Nor was there any indication of the gender or name of the child or what happened to him/her.  The possibility that this child was our Andrew Dorsey is very intriguing!  With a mother and two to four half brothers with the name Dorsey and no named father, what other surname could he have been given? 

More food for further speculation:  according to Robert Barnes, Frances Dorsey, executrix of the will of Nicholas Dorsey, posted administrative bond 27 Feb 1717 with Samuel Dorsey (assume this is Nicholas’ brother Samuel) and Andrew Norwood.³⁷   Where did Andrew Norwood fit into this picture?  Was he a close friend?  Is our Andrew his namesake? 

So Who Was Patience Dorsey?

With so much speculation about the parentage of Andrew Dorsey, it is only fair to hazard a guess about the identity of Patience Dorsey.  A quick search of Family Trees at Ancestry³⁸ has led me to choose Patience Barnes daughter of Peter and Rachel Barnes of Anne Arundel County as my favorite candidate.  Peter Barnes was the son of James Barnes and Keturah Shipley.³⁹  Both families have multiple connections to the Dorsey family.  No files offer up a husband for Patience but she is mentioned in her father’s will written in 1747⁴⁰.  Unfortunately she was either not married at that time or her husband’s name was omitted.  Grasping at straws, I noticed that Patience’s uncle, Robert Barnes, married Lois Porter.⁴¹  As reported above, in 1737, Andrew Dorsey is listed on the tax list next to a Thomas Porter.  Unfortunately for my theory, I wasn’t able to find any connection between Lois Porter and that Thomas Porter.  However, on the plus side for my theory, Patience Barne’s mother was Rachel—as was her only certain daughter. 

My speculation that Patience Dorsey was Patience Barnes, daughter of Peter and Rachel Barnes is purely speculation and I offer it for the purpose of discussion and further research. There is NO real evidence for my theory—I have cobbled it together from bits and pieces of records and assumptions.  I shall be dismayed if I find this speculation listed as fact in some Family Tree or other database!

The table below shows some other candidates (gleaned from my Ancestry browsing referenced above) named Patience who were born about the right time in MD and for whom no husband has been reported (at least in the Ancestry Family Tree database.)   Naturally there is a very real possibility that NONE of these entries is our Patience Dorsey.

 *It is tempting to consider Patience Robinson as Andrew’s wife in light of the close association of the Dorseys and Isaac Robinson in North Carolina.  However, the estimated birth date for her of 1702 makes it unlikely that she would be bearing her first child in 1748 (assuming the child in the Bible record was her first child, which seems reasonable)—or any children after that.   Furthermore, though Isaac Robinson appears in land records with Bassell Dorsey (who married his daughter Mary) and Benjamin Dorsey from time to time, he does not appear with Patience Dorsey in any record that I have found.

After Andrew’s death, Patience Dorsey does appear in a handful of court records in Rowan County.  On March 3, 1778, she was issued the administration on Andrew’s estate and gave bond of £300 with Jason Frizle and William Gibson.⁴²  On April 7, 1778, she entered a claim for 400 acres on a draught of Buffelow Crk adjacent to Jonas Brown and Andrew McClanahan.⁴³ (I presume, with caution, of course, this was  the land that Andrew and Patience had been living on but had not yet legally claimed.) 

In August of that same year (1778) Joseph Justice entered a claim for 100 acres on Buffelow Creek "adjacent to the Waggon Road and between James Houll & Patiance Dorsey.^"44 

It was not until August of 1779 that Andrew Dorsey's estate was settled and Patience Dorsey received £435.17.11.⁴⁵

As noted above, Pationce Docey appeared on Captain Gram’s 1782 tax list for Rowan County next to Basl Doscey.  

Patience Dorsey's last certain appearance in the records of North Carolina was March 18, 1785 when a deed from Patiance Dorsey to Will Wilkie for 397 acres was proved by Absalom Baker. ⁴⁶

Whether Patiance died shortly after this last record or remarried or moved away from the area is so far a mystery.  Of possible interest, a Patiance Kelly was among a number of individuals, known to be associates of the Dorsey family, who appeared, apparently as witnesses, in a suit between Nancy Harbison and James Baker in 1806 in Lincoln County, NC.⁴⁷   Whether this was the widow Patience Dorsey who married a Kelly remains to be discovered.   The latest Patience Dorsey could have been born would have been the mid 1730’s (to have a child in 1748) which would make her in her mid seventies, at the youngest, at the time of this court appearance.  Others appearing with Patience Kelly were Isaac Robeson, Catherine Robeson, Coonrad Ward, James Ash, Nancy Justice, Snr., Rebeca Scronce, George Ward,  Hiram Harbison, William Falls, and Elizabeth Dorsey—many of whom appear with Dorsey family members in a multitude of records in the late 18^th and early 19^th century in western North Carolina.

Conclusion

Records do exist to show that Andrew and Patience Dorsey of Rowan County, NC did move there from Baltimore County, MD sometime between 1766 and 1768.  To date, no records have surfaced to identify parents for either Andrew or Patience.  Some possibilities for parents of both are suggested for the purpose of further research and discussion.  Of certain significance, the DNA of direct line male descendents of Andrew Dorsey does NOT match that of two direct line descendents of John Dorsey, son of the Immigrant Edward Darcy.

End Notes

¹Jo Linn White, compiler, Rowan County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1757-1800, Annotated Transcriptions (Salisbury, NC:  Privately printed, 1995) 66.

²Jo Linn White, compiler, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, (Salisbury, NC:  1982, Privately printed), 29

³White, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, 29

⁴White, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, 55

⁵Richard A. Enochs, compiler, Rowan County, NC Vacant Land Entries 1778-1789 (Indianopolis, IN: Privately printed, 1988) 52, no. 724

⁶Order to Survey Land for Patience Dorsey

⁷Survey Plat for Patience Dorsey claim Rowan County, NC 1778

⁸Rowan County Plat map showing location of Patience Dorsey claim 1778

⁹Endymon Dorsey will (1777); North Carolina State Archives, North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh

¹⁰Sandy Mince, “Re:  Harrison/Dorsey/Robinson” email message from Jimmy Mince <jsmince@netusa1.net> to Nancy Custer 6 August 2000.

¹¹Jo White Linn, compiler, Rowan County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1757-1800, Annotated Transcriptions, 192

¹²Ancestry.com  “1790 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule),  Lincoln County, North Carolina, page 112, Households of  Bazil Dawsey, Ben Dawsey, and Jno Dawsey”,  MrSID image, (Online:  MyFamily.com, 2003) Image 4 of 13,  <http://www.ancestry.com/search/io/browse.asp?c=2&state=North+Carolina&county=Lincoln> (US Federal Government Document, First Census of the United States, 1790.) accessed August 30, 2003

¹³A Summary of references to transactions among Bassell, Benjamin, and John Dorsey in western North Carolina 1790 to 1810

¹⁴Jo White Linn,  Rowan County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1757-1800, Annotated Transcriptions, 66

¹⁵Ann Williams McAllister and Kathy Gunter Sullivan, compilers, Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions Lincoln County, North Carolina April 1779 - January 1789 (Lenoir, NC:  Privately printed, 1988), 47

¹⁶Curtis Bynum, abstractor, Marriage Bonds of Tryon and Lincoln Counties North Carolina (Greenville, SC:  Southern Historical Press, 1929 reprinted 1991), 40

¹⁷Ann Williams McAllister and Kathy Gunter Sullivan, Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions Lincoln County, North Carolina April 1779 - January 1789, 185

¹⁸Letter from Jno. T. Dorsey (Attorney at Law, Marietta, GA) to Mrs. E. H. Eames, 9 July 1927; held in 2003 by Mrs. Eames grandniece Diane Etheridge (335 S. Rivershire Dr.; Conroe, TX 77304).  The late Mr. Dorsey was the great-great grandson of Bazzel (sic) Dorsey.  The letter relates information told to Mr. Dorsey “by some of my older cousins who were raised by my grandfather.”   

¹⁹Ancestry.com  “1880 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule District 137, Hall County GA, page 114C, line 7, Household of John Dorsey”,  JPEG image, (Online:  MyFamily.com, 2003) Image 3 of 33, (census taker A. G. Dorsey) <http://content.ancestry.com/iexechtx=view&r=an&dbid=6742&path=Georgia.Hall.All+Townships.137.3&jb=1&nt=8&td=vert>   (US Federal Government Document, Ninth Census of the United States, 1880.) accessed August 30, 2003

²⁰Kathleen Field, "A Record of Tevis Births", Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, volume 35, number 2, (Spring 1994): 242.

²¹Virginia Heckel, “Dorsey”, More Marylanders to Carolina, Migration of Marylanders to North Carolina and South Carolina Prior to 1800, Henry C. Peden, Jr., compiler, (Westminster, MD:  Willow Bend Books, 1999), 37-41.

²²A photocopy of this deed, apparently from the State of Maryland Archives, can be found in a Dorsey surname folder in the genealogy section of the Salisbury North Carolina Public Library.  The file was placed there by Elmer Dorsey of Hendersonville, NC sometime prior to his death in 1995.  For a scan of this photocopy, click here.

²³Edward F. Wright, compiler, Inhabitants of Baltimore County, 1692 - 1763, (Silver Spring, MD:  Family Line Publications, 1987), 26.

²⁴Wright, Inhabitants of Baltimore County, 1692 – 1763, 31.

²⁵Maryland State Archives, Liber TI3/356 Patents 1746-1749 Microfilm SR7486

²⁶Wright, Inhabitants of Baltimore County, 1692 – 1763, 68.

²⁷Bill and Martha Reamy, "Baltimore County, Maryland Indexed Tax List of 1763, Saint Thomas Parish", St. Thomas' Parish Registers 1732 - 1850, (Westminster, Maryland:  Willow Bend Books, 2000), 69

²⁸Nancy Custer, "The Dorsey/Darsey/Darcy/Dawsey/Dossey/D'Arcy/Dorcy DNA Project Results", (5 December 2003), (Online:  Contexo.info, 2003.) http://www.contexo.info/DorseyDNA/Results.htm.
 

²⁹Maryland Chancery Court (Chancery Record) 6, pp 128, Testimony of Comfort Dorsey in suit brought by Susannah Stokes agains John Hammond [S517-8; 1/34/5/41] Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland.

³⁰Maxwell J. Dorsey, Jean Muir Dorsey, and Nannie Ball Nimmo, The Dorsey Family, Descendants of Edward Darcy-Dorsey of Virginia and Maryland For Five Generations and Allied Familes, (No place: privately printed, 1947), 131.

³¹Dorsey, Dorsey, and Ball, The Dorsey Family, Descendants of Edward Darcy-Dorsey of Virginia and Maryland For Five Generations and Allied Familes, 123.

³²Dorsey, Dorsey, and Ball, The Dorsey Family, Descendants of Edward Darcy-Dorsey of Virginia and Maryland For Five Generations and Allied Familes, 126.

³³Reamy and Reamy, 69.

³⁴Dorsey, Dorsey, and Ball, The Dorsey Family, Descendants of Edward Darcy-Dorsey of Virginia and Maryland For Five Generations and Allied Familes, 63.

³⁵Robert Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, (Baltimore, MD:  Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1989) p. 179.

³⁶Robert Barnes, "Re:  how to locate a record??" email message from Reference Services <ref@mdarchives.state.md.us> to Nancy Custer 29 October 2002.

³⁷Robert Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, p. 179.

³⁸Ancestry.com, "Ancestry World Tree",  (Online: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1998-2004) <http://www.ancestry.com/trees/awt/main.htm> searched for individuals with given name Patience (no surname specified), born 1710 -1730 in Maryland. accessed 21 March 2004.

³⁹Debbie Kraus <commonhousemom@hotmail.com> "Franklin-Rogers Family Tree," Ancestry World Tree, GEDCOM database uploaded 7 August 2003, <http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=:2624402&id=I544154501>, (Online: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1998-2004), accessed 21 March 2004.

⁴⁰Debbie Krause "Franklin-Rogers Family Tree" <http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2624402&id=I544155632>

⁴¹Debbie Krause "Franklin-Rogers Family Tree" <http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=:2624402&id=I544154501>

⁴²Jo Linn White, compiler, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, 29.

⁴³Richard A. Enochs,  Rowan County, NC Vacant Land Entries 1778-1789, 52, no. 724.

⁴⁴Richard A. Enochs,  Rowan County, NC Vacant Land Entries 1778-1789, 97, no. 1346.

⁴⁵Jo Linn White, compiler, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, 55.

⁴⁶Jo Linn White, compiler, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions Rowan County, North Carolina 1775 - 1789, Volume III, 129.

⁴⁷Anne Williams McAllister & Kathy Gunter Sullivan, compilers, Civil Action Papers 1771-1806 of the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions, Lincoln County, North Carolina, (Lenoir, NC:  Privately published, 1989), 115, no. 484.

Date this page was last edited 02/07/2006