Edward Doty
Edward Doty joined the Mayflower Company as an indentured servant to Stephen Hopkins. He was a signer of the Mayflower Compact upon arrival in the waters off Cape Cod and joined with Hopkins and others in the early explorations of the land. Doty, which is sometimes spelled Doten, was a quick-tempered man prone to bursts of rage upon only slight provocations. Plymouth Colony did not keep court records until 1632, but in the years succeeding Doty’s name appears frequently for fighting and other displays of temper.
He also displayed a propensity for defrauding his fellow colonists in business deals and other schemes and he appears in the court records many times in civil actions and lawsuits, debt collections, and land claims. Although other such settlers, most of whom came to Plymouth on later ships, were deported from the colony Doty was not. This curiosity is unexplained in the records. Over the years Doty became a land owner with extensive land holdings, a symbol of wealth in the colony. He did not take an active role in the government and management of the colony, nor did he serve in any juries.
Doty was a participant in the first duel fought in New England, wounding his opponent in the thigh and receiving a minor wound in his hand. The duel was fought with Edward Leister, also an indentured servant of Stephen Hopkins. The punishment ordered by the Governor was suspended by Hopkins’ intervention. They were to have been bound together, as Plymouth as yet had no stocks, for a period of 24 hours. Other options for punishment in Plymouth at the time were branding, whipping, and banishment from the colony.
Doty’s many cases which brought him before the court included slander, debt, criminal trespassing, fraud, and theft. Between 1632, when court records in Plymouth began to be kept, and 1651 Doty appeared before the court no less than 23 times. Despite this evident problem with authority he accepted the decisions of the court, paid his fines and obeyed the court’s decision, and went about his business. Doty signed the decisions and other court papers by making a mark witnessed by others, claiming that he had never learned to write.
Doty married Faith Clarke in Plymouth in 1635. Together they had nine children. He died in 1655 in Plymouth and was buried at Burial Hill. At least one of his sons exhibited similar tendencies in both temper and business dealings. Perhaps strangely one of his descendants was James Otis, a noted attorney in colonial Boston and one of the early Founders. Another was Sile Doty, a notorious horse thief and robber in America’s West.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691”, by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, 1986
“Famous Descendants of Mayflower Passengers”, by Caleb Johnson, 2009
“William Brewster” Mayflower History.
“Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger amongst the Pilgrims”, by David Lindsay, 2002
“Stephen Hopkins”, New England Historical Society.
“The Mayflower Compact and its Signers”, by George Earnest Bowman, 1920
“Of Plymouth Plantation 1620 – 1647”, by William Bradford, edited by Samuel Eliot Morrison, 1991
“Mourt’s Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth”, by Henry Martyn Dexter, 1865