| The story begins with John Doggett, born in England about 1602. He was an early Massachusetts settler, arriving with Governor Winthrop about 1630, and relocating to Martha's Vineyard about 1648. Martha's Vineyard is the island labeled as Dukes County in this map. |
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| John Doggett settled with others in the vicinity of Edgartown. As one of the very early settlers, he rubbed shoulders with such prominent citizens as Governor Mayhew. The records suggest that Doggett and Mayhew did not get along well; there was frequent litigation. John Doggett and his wife had 3 sons (John, Thomas and Joseph) and 2 daughters (Elizabeth and Hepzibah). John died in 1673 at the age of 71. |
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Ironically, after his father's difficulties with Governor Mayhew, Thomas (our ancestor) grew up to marry Governor Mayhew's favorite daughter Hannah. In a letter to Governor Winthrop, Governor Mayhew refers to Thomas as "my son Doggett, that hath more language than any other Englishman upon the Island, and is a considerable young man" . Thomas's position was assured and throughout his life he was an official of one sort or another in the Mayhew government. He and Hannah had 4 sons (Thomas, Samuel, John and Joshua) and 5 daughters (Jemima, Mary, Patience, Ruth, and Martha). Thomas died in 1691 at the age of 61. It is Thomas who started using the name Daggett instead of Doggett. Although not in our direct lineage, Thomas's brother Joseph is worth a brief mention. His marriage to an "Indian princess" created quite a stir. The name of the Indian woman has been lost, but that branch of the Daggett family has been referred to as "The Bow and Arrow Daggetts". Of Thomas and Hannah's children, the one in our direct lineage was their eldest child Thomas. He was active in the town militia and was often referred to as Captain Daggett. He is said to have been a carpenter, and was described by one of his contemporaries as "a peaceable man and well inclined and of good understanding". It is thanks to Thomas that we have the Mayflower connection -- his wife Elizabeth Hawes was the great granddaughter of John Howland of the Mayflower. Thomas and Elizabeth had 4 sons (Samuel, Timothy, Thomas and Benjamin) and 5 daughters (Elizabeth, Jemima, Thankful, Mary, and Desire). Thomas died in 1726 at the age of 68, leaving an estate valued at 1393 pounds, a handsome property for those times. Thomas's son Benjamin held the office of deacon in the church for 40 years. Dukes County deeds contain 15 different transfers of real estate in which he was either buying or selling land in Edgartown, at Cape Poeg, at Farm Neck, and at Chappaquiddick. He married Margery Homes, and they had 8 children: 4 sons (William, Timothy, Benjamin, and John) and 4 daughters (Elizabeth, Catherine, Hannah, and Mary). He died in 1783 at the age of 82, described as "a man of eminent piety and virtue". Deacon Benjamin Daggett's wife Margery Homes has her own noteworthy pedigree. Her father, William Homes, was a clergyman, as were her grandfather, Robert Craighead, and her uncle, Thomas Craighead. Cotton Mather described Thomas Craighead as "a man of singular piety, meekness, humility, and industry in the work of God". Thomas Craighead is said to have expired in the pulpit at the end of a particularly impassioned sermon. Deacon Benjamin's youngest son John Daggett was a "sea captain" in his early life. He married Susanna Stewart of Edgartown in 1784, the year after his father died. John was 40 years old; Susanna was 22. They had 3 sons (Elijah, Holmes Stewart and Thomas) and two daughters (Susanna and Sarah). John's wife Susanna died in 1800 at the age of 38. The 5 children ranged in age from about 5 to 15; John was 56. |
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Widower John Daggett married 48 year old Betty Crowell in 1803, and remained in Edgartown for several more years. Then in 1810, at the age of 66, he moved to Farmington, Maine with his three youngest children: Sarah, Thomas, and Holmes Stewart. His choice of Farmington (indicated by the red X on the map) was probably influenced by Susanna's brother Hugh, who had moved to Farmington several years earlier. John Daggett died in Farmington in 1822 at the age of 78. Though not in our direct lineage, Hugh Stewart is another person worth noting. Born in Edgartown in 1751, he was a Revolutionary War soldier, cabinet-maker and house-joiner. He moved to Farmington, Maine in 1794 and was an early settler in that area. He died in 1835, and is buried in the cemetery behind the courthouse in Farmington. Holmes Stewart Daggett would have been about 17 years old when he moved from Martha's Vineyard to Maine with his father, brother and sister. When Holmes Stewart was 22, he married 31 year old Mary Hartson Smith. They had 4 children: 3 sons (William Smith, John Minot, and Holmes Stewart) and a daughter (Mary Sewall). |
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| John Minot Daggett grew up in Maine. When he was 18, he went to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he engaged in whaling for a number of years. He went to California during the 1849 gold rush, and returned to Maine in 1851, where he married Martha Matilda Cates in 1852. John Minot was 34 years old; Martha Matilda was 20. The following year, John and Martha, and John's parents Holmes Stewart and Mary (then in their 60s) moved from Maine to Linn County, Iowa. |
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| Three children were born in Iowa in the years 1853, 1857, and 1859. John's father Holmes Stewart died in Iowa in 1858 at the age of 65, followed by John's mother less than a year later. John Minot and Martha Matilda subsequently moved across the Mississippi River to Dunleith (now East Dubuque), Illinois where two more children were born in 1864 and 1869. |
| John Minot Daggett is shown here with Martha Matilda Cates Daggett. He is listed in the 1880 census as a "R.R. Station Agt. at Allison" in Butler County, Iowa, age 62. He moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1888 and is listed as an insurance agent in the 1889 St. Paul City Directory. He died in Minneapolis in 1905 at the age of 87. The obituary in the newspaper made much of the fact that he was "the oldest Mason in the Northwest". Martha Matilda Cates Daggett died in 1911 at the age of 79. |
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John Minot's son William Smith Daggett was born in Illinois in 1864. He married Anne Ryder, the daugher of Irish immigrants, and they had 5 children, including Dorothy "Billie" Daggett, wife of Edward George Wild.
William Smith Daggett spent most of his life in Minnesota, variously working as secretary to the Indian Commissioner at the White Earth Reservation; telegraph operator for the St. Paul M & M; Deputy U.S. Marshall; detective; and "connected with the Carbol Chemical Company". He died in 1912 at the age of 48. His death certificate lists his occupation as "grain broker" and the cause of death as "chronic nephritis". Anne Ryder Daggett died in 1945 at the age of 76. |
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