Person:Edward Dorsey (5)

From The Dorsey Family

... lived several years in Virginia before he came to Anne Arundel County in 1650. Various spellings of his name appear in the deeds and land patents of Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, between the years 1642 and 1648.

... John Browne of Elizabeth River in the County of Lower Norff, planter, had on the 11th of February, 1642, sold unto Edward Dorsey of the county aforesaid planter three head of Cattle (Vizt) one Cowe aged about seaven yeares of a brinded Coulor and marked with a Cropp on the right Eare and the left Eare whole...

... On December 15, 1642, Cornelius Lloyd received a grant of land for bringing 60 persons into the colony. Among the list of names was that of Edw: -orsey, the first letter of the last name being obliterated... On October 7, 1646, Thomas Brown was given 240 acres in Lower Norfolk County due by the assignment of the rights of 5 persons transported by Cornelius Lloyd - among them Edward Dorsey.

The County Court held at the house of William Shipp on December 15, 1645, ordered Thomas Todd to pay Edward Darcy and Thomas Hall forty pounds of tobacco a piece for theire tyme and charge in attendance of the Court for two days...

Various spellings of the name - Dorsey - continue to appear on the records in Maryland, but the original signatures of the sons of the immigrant show the family spelled the name - Dorsey.

More than twenty times, the name with its different spellings is listed in Burke's and other Heraldries... but never as Dorsey. Numerous coats of arms and crests are given as belonging to this family, though nothing reveals the one to be used by the Virginia - Maryland settlers.

By the year 1648, freedom of worship in Virginia had been prohibited and life there became less attractive. As a result, many settlers turned to the newly erected county of Anne Arundel in Maryland, where alluring inducements to obtain land were being offered, and where freedom of worship was said to be guaranteed. Among those who went, were Edward Dorsey, John Norwood, Matthew Howard, Thomas Todd and Nicholas Wyatt...

Most of these men, however, maintained a close association with Virginia, and on November 15, 1652, Edward Dorsey and four others who had gone to Maryland, returned to Virginia, where Francis Fleetwood received a grant of land for their transportation...

Col. Edward Dorsey, son of Edward Dorsey the settler

1. ↑ Maxwell J. Dorsey and Jean Muir Dorsey and Nannie Ball Nimmo. Dorsey: The Dorsey Family. (1947 by the authors).
2. ↑ Folger McKinsey. History of Frederick County, Maryland. (1910; compiled by Nancy Jacobsen <njacobsen@@charter.net>).