Joseph Doty
Joseph Doty was born at Plymouth at the end of April 1651. The colony's register of births reads: "Josepth Dotey, son of Edward Dotey, born the last of Aprell." His father had come over on the Mayflower in 1620. His mother was almost certainly Faith Clarke, who had been Edward's wife since January 1634/5.
Edward Doty died in August 1655, when Joseph was four. His will left his purchase land at Coaksett to his sons, with a double portion to Joseph's brother Edward and equal shares to the rest. In March 1655/6 their mother gave up her own right in the Coaksett land to her children. Coaksett lay in old Dartmouth, in what is now Westport.
Joseph sold his share as a young man. In 1671/2 "Joseph Doten of Plymouth" sold John Lapham of Portsmouth "all that my seventh part of one whole share of upland and meadow ... which was given me by my father, Edward Doten, deceased".
On 27 October 1674 Elizabeth Warren complained that Joseph was the father of the child she was carrying. She was a daughter of Nathaniel Warren and a granddaughter of Richard Warren of the Mayflower. Joseph was bound over, which meant he had to give security that he would answer to the court. No further record of the case appears. The child was a son, Theophilus Doty.
By 1680 Joseph was living at Sandwich. That year he and a widow, Elizabeth Ellis, won a suit over a boundary marker at Sepecan. He was one of the original purchasers of Rochester, and he settled there. On 20 May 1690 he was made ensign of the town's militia company, the officer below the lieutenant who carried its colors.
He served Rochester for years. In 1697 he was the surveyor who laid out the main roads of Rochester and of Wareham. He was town treasurer in 1698 and again in 1700. On 4 July 1700 he gave the town land for a pound, the fenced yard where stray cattle and swine were held until their owners came for them.
His wife through the Rochester years was Deborah. The American Genealogist in 1960, and the Mayflower Society genealogy after it, call her Deborah Ellis. E. A. Doty's family history of 1897 calls her Deborah Hatch. A Deborah Doty died at Rochester on 21 June 1711, and she is taken to be his wife. On 9 March 1711/12, at Rochester, Joseph married Sarah Edwards, a widow born Sarah Woodin. The compiled accounts count her as his third wife.
His children were Theophilus, born in 1674 to Elizabeth Warren, then Ellis in 1677, Elizabeth about 1680, Joseph in 1683, Deborah in 1685, John in 1688, Mercy in 1691, Faith in 1696 and Mary in 1699.
He was still active at eighty. On 3 May 1731 "Joseph Doty, in his eighty-first year" certified the bounds of a piece of land. He died at Rochester about 1732. No probate of his estate is known.
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Joseph Doty (1651-1732)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joseph-doty-1651-1732-b63257.