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[0938.ftw]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 22, Ed. 1, Tree #0938, Date of Import: Dec 3, 1998]

On 21 September 1742 Samuel Doty, mariner and wife Zerviah of Wareham sold land in Wareham to Thomas Whitting.

Samuel Doty was the first child of John Doty. He was born in Rochester, Massachusetts sometime between 1713 and 1715. He is first mentioned in the Town Records of June 7, 1739, when he bought 40 acres land which probably is now in the present town of Wareham, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts. In January of that same year, he had married Zerviah Lovell. At the town meeting March 3, 1740, Samuel Doty was chosen hog constable, a position of local responsibility at that day.

"Capt. Samuel Doty was a man of ability and energy. He gets his title from his maritime profession and was undoubtly captain of a craft that sailded and traded along the New England coast. But he was equally at home on the land, and speedily rose to a position of influence wherever he located. At Wareham, Massachusetts, in 1739, he is called a laborer, and as he lived in the house adjoining his father, who was a smith, it is probable that he worked at the forge with him. But he soon became a mariner and then, in 1747, removed to the inland and almost mountain town of Sharon, Ct. Here he at once practiced as a surveyor and the present broad Main Street of that village is a testimony to his skill in his profession." Records show Captain Samuel to have been an exceedingly active business man and operator in real estate, both in Sharon and nearby Amenia, New York.

"The opening of hostilities in the Revolution found Capt. Samuel Doty too old to engage in the active events of the war, but his sympathies must have been entirely with the patriot army, for all his sons and many of his sons-in-laws were officers in the service, and gained somedistinction. His enterprises were generally financially successful, and he soon became a man of means and of social position, living liberally and educating his children well. His residence was about one mile sought of the village of Sharon. In 1784, an epidemic of smallpox claimed his life. Captain Samuel was probably over seventy years of age at his death.

The events connected with the close of the war and establishment of the Independence of the United States and of peace upon a permanent foundation, led tot he separation of the children and, for many of them, to emigration to the North and West. Wherever they have located the descendants of CApt. Samuel Doty of Sharon, CT. have taken high rank, many in the learned professions, others as men of enterprise in business circle and all have inherited a measure of ability that speaks well for their ancestor.

(The Doty-Doten Family, Ethan Allen Doty, 1897, Brooklyn, N.Y. Reprinted Goodspeed's Book Shop, Boston, Massachusetts, 1984.