General Notes

Source: Genealogy of the Dodge Family of Essex Co MA, Vol. I , by J. T. Dodge, 1894; Democrat Publishing Co, Madison WI; pp23-24

In 1679 and 1680 Wenham claimed a new boundary line between Beverly and Wenham...The Wenham people, represented by Walter Fairfield, Thomas Fiske and Richard Hutton, undertook to collect taxes of Lt. John Dodge under this new boundary line; went there when he was not at home and took pewter platters, etc, for taxes, against the objections and resistance of his wife, Sarah, whom they so abused that they had to pay costs to the amound of fifty pounds. She was evidently spirited and resisted, but they threw her down and hurt her, when Rice Edwards, SR, age 65, called out and his son John, age 36, tripped them up and so saved her...Thomas Hobbs, 48, who went there for Wenham said, she "took me by the hair of my head and did strike me." Zachariah Herrick, 43, saw her the night after the fray, when she complained much of a blow on the head, etc. Deborah Gove, age 33, saw Walter Fairfield have hold of her arm when John Edwards tripped him up.

This shows the resolute character of the poeple of those days. It is not known with certainty who Mrs. Sarah Dodge was before marriage, but from the above incident we can comprehend the martial spirit which has shown itself conspicuously in the revolutionary and subsequent wars.

[Note: Thomas Fiske mentioned above became the father-in-law of Lt. John's son John some eight years after this incident.]