OFFICES: Essex grand jury, 30 December 1645, 30 November 1658, 28 June 1659, 27 November 1666, possibly September 1675 (no Sr.), likewise 27 June 1676 [ EQC 1:89, 2:123, 157, 3:367, 6:73, 145]. Petit jury, 6 July 1647, 29 November 1653 25 November 1656, 24 November 1657, 26 November 1661, 25 November 1662, 24 November 1663, 30 June 1674 [ EQC 1:114, 313, 2:6, 59, 320, 3:6, 102, 5:316]. Jury, 20 October 1653 [ EQC 1:309]. Represented Salem in various lawsuits, 26 June 1649, 28 December 1649 [ EQC 1:170, 183]. Coroner's jury, June Term, 1660 into the death by drowning of William Ellet [ EQC 2:222].
Surveyor or lot layer for Salem: 16 March 1649/50, 20 July 1658 [ STR 1:164; EQC 2:105].
Beverly tythingman, June 1677 [ EQC 6:289].
ESTATE: In the 1636 Salem land division William Dodge received sixty acres "next to John Woodbury" [ STR 1:26]. In the 25 December 1637 division of marsh and meadows "Will[iam] Dodge" received three-quarters of an acre, with a household of five [ STR 1:103].
On 27 October 1644 George Hawkins of Boston, shipwright, as attorney for George "Richesson" of Wapping, sold to William "Dods" two hundred acres at the head of Bass River [ ELR 1:2].
He received an acre in Salem 20 April 1646 [ STR 1:143].
At some point before 18 October 1652, "Guydo Bayley" then of Bass River sold to William Dodge of Bass River, yeoman, a parcel of land for which he received a yellow cow (this deed was retrospectively created by Bayley 14 September 1695 [ ELR 11:19]). On 27 November 1656 William Dodge of Salem sold forty acres of upland, "being part of eighty acres granted to them both," and six acres of meadow to Richard Dodge of Salem [ ELR 1:34].
Both William and his son John were taxed 1s. in the special rate levied by Topsfield in 1667 [ EQC 3:386]. On 28 January 1668[/9] William Dodge Sr. of Beverly on Bass River, husbandman, and Elizabeth his wife, sold to Mr. John Hale, pastor of the church at Beverly, twenty acres of pasture [ ELR 3:52]. On 22 November 1662, John Stone Sr. of Salem, husbandman, sold to William "Dodg" Sr. of Salem, farmer, seven acres in Salem on Bass River [ ELR 3:61]. On 7 June 1664 William Dodge, John Raymond, Roger Conant, Benjamin Balch, and Peter Woodbury of Bass River in Salem gave to Isaac Hull, cooper, "for considerations moving us thereunto" one acre each, totalling five acres near Great Pond [ ELR 3:78]. On 6 June 1667 John Fisk of Chelmsford sold to William Dodge of Salem all his granted land in Salem [ ELR 3:169]. At the request of William Dodge Sr., John Rayment, Sr., and William Rayment, all of Beverly, Brian "Pemelton of Saco" acknowledged that "about the year of one thousand six hundred and fifty three or fifty four" he sold Dodge and the rest a six hundred acre farm "formerly belong[ing] unto Old Mr. Thomas Dudley" and "was honestly pai d for it" [ ELR 5:82].
On 12 May 1685, "William Dodge, Senr., of Beverly" made a testamentary deed, giving for "my parental care love & affection" to "my son William Dodge" of Beverly "my house I now dwell in with all other edifices, building, orchards, fences belonging thereto & upon the land about it" being twenty acres, also "my land in the new field with all the rest of my land which adjoineth thereunto," also "my land at the horse bridge being sixty acres more or less," also 'ten acres of meadow lying in the bounds of Topsfield," also "five acres of meadow be it more or less," and also "the pond meadow belonging unto me at Goodman Hull's." This gift was made on the condition that William Sr. could use, occupy or sell any of the properties during his lifetime, and if the elder William improved the land he was to be paid £30 per year by the younger William, but he need not demand it. William Jr. was also to pay the following legacies as spelled out by William Sr.: to "my daughter Hannah" two cows; to "my granchild John Porter" £5; and if "my brother --- if he come to New England & dwell in this town I now live in £5 per annum so long as he here shall dwell" [ ELR 7:53]. William Dodge Sr. acknowledged this deed 13 May 1685.
On 12 May 1685, William Dodge Sr. of Beverly, stating that he had given deeds of gift on the same date to his "two sons" John and William, now proceeded to give to others for whom he has parental love and affection. To "Hannah Woodbery" he gave twelve acres in Beverly, and the "improvement on half my farm at Wenham which I bought of Mr. John Fiske"; to John Porter he gave the reversion of the land left to Hannah Woodberry; if John died without heirs, the land to go to the children of Hannah Woodberry equally divided when they reach 21 or marry; to William Dodge "kinsman my brother's son" sixteen acres of land off the home farm at the south end of Bramble Hill, then to his children and their heirs [ ELR 8:163].
