The Daggett Dispatch

This article was written by Katherine Shurlds for the Daggett descendants who met in Little Rock and Marianna, Arkansas, on June 23-24, 1984. Most of the facts are found in "Colonial Families," The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931.

Daggett is an old English name. It is believed to have begun as Thurgod of the Domesday Book, or earlier as Toget, now Toogood. It may have also come from Doget, which became Doggett, Duggett, Dugood, Duguid, Dochet and Do good. Records of families of these names show they lived in the counties of Yorkshire, Cambridge, Oxford, Kent, Somerset, Norfolk and Suffolk.

John Doggett of New England belonged to the ancestral branch that was established in Suffolk in 1526,. Richard Doggett, a wealthy inhabitant of Groton, County Suffolk, was the head of the family at that time. From him, the line carried through John, William, to John of Boxford, who was the John Doggett who went with Gov. John Winthrop to New England in 1630.

Many of the descendants of John Daggett, the immigrant ancestor, settled in Attleborough, Mass. The family was also prominent in Connecticut.

Some of the distinguished members of the line were Judge David Daggett, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut (1832-34); Naphtall Daggett, president of Yale University (1766-77) and its first professor of Divinity, and John Daggett, "The Historian of Attleborough."

(I) John Doggett, our first ancestor in this country, was born in England and came to America with Gov. John Winthrop's fleet, arriving in Salem, Mass., between June 12 and July 2, 1630. He was one of the original settlers of Watertown, Mass. He is said to have been engaged with Gov. Thomas Mayhew's company that occupied Martha's Vineyard. About 1648, he moved to the island where his son Thomas had already settled. He settled at Edgartown and reportedly was associated with the Mayhews in the colony's governance, as were many of his descendants. (A different source has him in Nantucket in 1659 where his wife probably died.) He was married again in Plymouth in 1667 to Bathsheba Pratt. He died in 1673 in Massachusetts.

(II) Thomas Doggett, later Daggett (c.1630-1691), son of John Daggett and his first wife, was, it appears, the first to change the spelling of the family name to Daggett, but probably not until near the end of his life. He was clerk and later justice of the county courts, partly because he had married the favorite daughter of Gov. Thomas Mayhew, Hannah. (Hannah's portrait now hangs in the Daggett House in Pawtucket, R.I.) Mayhew speaks of Thomas in a letter to Gov. Winthrop as "my son Doggett, that hath more language than any other Englishman upon the island and is a considerable young man."

Thomas promised Hannah at the time of their marriage that whatever her father gave her would be hers to do with as she liked.

(III) Deacon John Daggett (1662-1724), son of Thomas and Hannah, became an innkeeper in the old Garrison House in Attleborough, located on the road from Boston to Rhode Island. His tavern was a convenient stopping place en route and he soon became well known. He became a deacon and married Sarah Norton.

(IV) Ebenezer Daggett (1690-1740), son of Deacon John and Sarah, bought the farm on the East Bay Road, leading from Bristol and Providence to Boston, which was long known as "the old Daggett place." He married Mary Blackinton. He was a husbandman, tanner and inn-holder. The sign of the old inn, with its royal crown of England and date of 1725, is now owned by the Attleboro Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is in their Chapter House.

(V) Colonel John Daggett (1724-1803) was the oldest son of Ebenezer and Mary, and brother of Naphtall, who was president of Yale. Before the American Revolution, he maintained a firm stand in favor of upholding the liberties of the American Colonists and throughout the war, was a strong supporter of independence. He and Col. May were the leading men in Attleborough at the period. He was a member of the convention of 1779 which formed the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts. He was commissioned colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Bristol County in 1776 and commanded in Spencer's and Sullivan's expedition on Rhode Island in 1777 and 1779. He was a representative to Congress form 1768 to 1775 and 1781. "He supported an unblemished character though life, and he furnished an example worthy of imitation." He married Mercy Shepard in 1751; his second wife was Mary Tucker, 1784.

(VI) Ebenezer Daggett (1763-1832) was the son of Col. John and Mercy. "Attleborough has boasted few citizens whose lives were more solidly useful or more genuinely inspiring." Ebenezer married Sally Maxcy in 1797.

(VII) John Daggett (1805-1885), son of Ebenezer and Sally, lost a leg when he was 14, which "proved a blessing in disguise, for it settled that he should attend college and devote his life to intellectual pursuits, for which he was naturally fitted by talent and inclination." He practiced law most of his life, with the exception of 1833-34, when he was editor of the Dedham Patriot.

As the "Historian of Attleborough," he wrote of town history beginning in 1830. "He had the true antiquarian's spirit of persistence, finding no problem too large and no detail too small to engage his attention. His habits of thoroughness and accuracy made his work authoritative, while the tradition s and anecdotes which he culled from old inhabitants showed the human side of history's page."

He published a "Sketch of the History of Attleborough." After his death, his daughter, Amelia Maxcy Daggett Sheffield, edited and completed the notes he left, and in 1894, issued "A Sketch of the History of Attleborough from its Settlement to its Division." This volume "commands the attention also of all those engaged in research into the history of New England or of the Nation, as well as of those to whom the preservation of ancient traditions and hallowed memories is a sacred duty."

He was married to Nancy McClellan Boomer in 1840.

(VIII) John Mayhew Daggett (1845-1908), son of John and Nancy, lived in Attleborough until about 1872 when he moved to Marianna, Arkansas. There, he was an attorney, postmaster for several years, interested in real estate, acted as loan agent and was deputy clerk of Lee County for 12 years prior to 1885.

A special and important piece of his work started and continued during his life was described by his son, Ebenezer:

"Lee County, Arkansas, was formed by an Act of the Legislature in 1873. Father had been in the county but a short time… He went into the adjoining counties of Phillips, St. Francis and Crittenden, out of portions of which Lee was formed, and compiled a set of 'abstract-books' of all the lands taken into the new county. These books are naught more than a complete history of the land titles of the county, beginning with the government title and continuing to date. These books have been continuously kept up to date by his descendants and are now in possession of John, for the joint use of himself and William and any other descendants who enter the legal profession. WE look up on them as an heirloom and proposed to keep them in the family so long as any member of it is capable of handling them efficiently … They are unique in this respect that they are probably the only set of books in the State which have been handed down from generation to generation in the same family."

John Mayhew married first Ernestine Rose Brown; second, Olive May Anderson; and third, Mattie Dancy Bruce, widow of Rev. Dr. H.T. Bruce. His children by Olive, as we should know, were Jesse Boomer, Charles Ebenezer, Maxcy De Witt, Amelia and Olive.

(IX) Jesse Boomer (1882-1963) married Lyda Jackson of Helena, Arkansas, in 1907. Their children are Mary Jessamine, William Haywood and Jimason Jackson.

(IX) Charles Ebenezer (1885-1954) married Ruby Lockwood of Kiowa, Kansas, in 1905. Their children are John Lockwood, Margaret Cunningham, Maxcyne Motley and Nancy Walker.

(IX) Maxcy De Witt (1887-1975) married Mary Virginia Stephenson of Marianna in 1912. Their children are Eberle Stephenson and Maxcy De Witt Jr.

(IX) Amelia (1889-??) married Griffin Smith of Tennessee in 1910. Their children are Sheffield and Griffin jr.

(IX) Olive (1892-) married Chester A. Howard of Attleborough in 1912. Their children are Chester Augustus Jr. (Pete) and Daggett Horton (Bud).