This name is very well known in the annals of early colonial days and Maryland records contain frequent references to his many public offices. Various spellings of his name appear in the deeds and land patents of Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, between the years 1642-1648 and continued to appear on records in Maryland, but the original signatures of the sons of the immigrants show the family spelled the name Dorsey. The name is derived from the Norman-French of "de Adreci" which is found in Britain by 1086. The founder of this family in Maryland was Edward Dorsey, who had lived several years in Virginia before he came to Anne Arundel County in 1650. By naming one of the early land patents "Hockley-in-the-Hole," it presents a clue that the name was given in memory of and English estate, but with untiring research among English records, no proof has been found for the parent of the emigrant. The Dorsey family had its beginning in Virginia around Lower Norfolk and the immigrant, Edward, did not figure to any marked degree in the public life of Virginia or even Maryland, but there were certainly great potentialities in the genes which he transplanted in his sons and daughter which made the family among the first rank in Anne Arundel County. The Virginia records indicate that sometime before October 7, 1646, Edward Dorsey entered Virginia as a transportee of Cornelius Lloyd who at an unknown date assigned his headrights to Thomas Brown. Edward Dorsey either left the Colony and returned or there were two Edward Dorseys, which is unlikely, for Francis Fleetwood on March 16, 1652, received headrights for importing an Edward Dorsey. At that time Edward Dorsey of Anne Arundel was well established in Maryland, but it is known that headrights were granted sometimes years after the actual transportations. Amidst a strictly agricultural and fur-trading economy, Edward Dorsey, a shipwright, was one of the early industrialists and thus constructed much-needed watercrafts for the early planters along the Bay and the several inlets on which he and the first settlers established their plantations. Edward Dorsey married in Virginia and his wife was undoubtedly Anne - who later became convinced of the Quaker preachings. His four proved children were born in Virginia. Children of Edward and Anne Dorsey: Col. Edward Dorsey (born ca 1645), Sarah Dorsey Howard (born ca 1651), Hon. John Dorsey (born 1658), and Joshua Dorsey (born 1659). By the year 1648, freedom of worship in Virginia had been prohibited and life there became less attractive. As a result, many settlers turned to the newly erected County of Anne Arundel in Maryland, where alluring inducements to obtain land were being offered, and where freedom of worship was said to be guaranteed. Among those who went, were Edward Dorsey, John Norwood, Matthew Howard, Thomas Todd, and Nicholas Wyatt. Edward was undoubtedly one of the first to leave Virginia and settle on the Severn through the graces of Governor Stone, the date being best placed as the summer of 1649. By Edward Dorsey arriving in Maryland from Virginia with the early contingencies of the non-conformists, his political beliefs coincided with those of the Puritans, but during his nine or more years in the Province, he was inactive politically sofar as extant records would indicate. In November 1650, Edward Dorsey of Anne Arundel County was granted a warrant for 200 acres of land in Maryland and in 1651, for 200 acres more and others later. While the early non-conformists settled around present Greenbury Point, then known as Town Neck, his seat and shipyard was at "Dorsey" on the south side of the Severn. It formed a promontory between "Freeman's" or "Norwood's Cove" and Dorsey Creek. On May 4, 1655, Edward Dorsey bought 500 acres of land from Thomas March which later his son and heir, Edward, sold to Tomas Manninge of the Clifts, the transaction being dated November 6, 1670. Ultimately, Edward and his wife became "convinced" of the Quaker doctrine. In 1655 Elizabeth Harris, the proselyting Quaker, arrived in Maryland and was bent on "convincing" and did a great deal of converting the non-conformists around the Severn and elsewhere. A letter of Thomas Hart, dated London 28th of the 2d instn 1658 in which is embodied a letter of Robert Clarkston of the Severn dated 14th of ye llmo 1657 proves definitely that the Dorseys were "convinced." "...& likewise Ann Dorsey in a more larger measure, hir husband I hope abideth faithfull in his measure." At a Quaker meeting there were present "Edw: Dorsey & his wife." A lawsuit in 1659 was instituted before the Provincial Court over the ownership of ten acres of land on the south side of the Severn between the land of Edward Dorsey and John Norwood which had been taken up by Nicholas Wyatt and sold to John Freeman. It can be concluded that the early seat of the Boatright was definitely on the South Shore. When Edward Dorsey settled on the Severn, his children were somewhat young as explained in the will of Thomas Gates, dated May 2, 1659. He requested that his heirs give to the children of Edward Dorsey free outlet to the woods and springs as he had given them. This signifies that the children or some of them were old enough to avail themselves of the privilege. Edward Dorsey with others was drowned off the Isle of Kent during the summer of 1659. It has been said unofficially that his widow under the ancient deodand law of England laid claims to the ship from which he was drowned. Research to date fails to verify this assertion. -Anne Arundel Gentry, Newman