Edward Doty - An Unexpected Story

The first time I looked for the story behind a name on the family tree was while helping my son with a school project.  He needed to do research on an ancestor and decided to interview one of his grandparents.  He called grandma Clarice, who had been researching the family tree for a number of years (the old fashioned way, through letters and family contacts).

This proved to be a good choice since she was thrilled to share stories and photos from her early life as well as the family tree that she had found and added to over the years.  At the time, the ancestor who stood out was Edward Doty, my son's 9th great-grandfather and a passenger on the Mayflower!   The family tree had the basics - born 14 May 1598 and died 23 Aug 1655.  What was most interesting, though, was the story that was never taught in school.

It turns out that Edward Doty and many other passengers on the Mayflower were not Pilgrims. Edward was an indentured servant to a merchant, Stephen Hopkins.  As noted on Wikipedia, he had an "argumentative nature and display of temper caused him to be in the Plymouth court many times over the years."  He participated in the first duel in the colony, and though neither party was severely injured, their punishment was "to be tied head and feet together for twenty-four hours without meat or drink."  It was not easy to share this news with grandma.

[See the Pilgrim's story in  Desperate Crossing - The Untold Story of the Mayflower.]