Tristram Dodge

Born:
date unknown
Died:
before 1720
Spouse:
unknown
Children:
John Dodge
Israel Dodge
Tristram Dodge
William Dodge
Margaret Dodge
Ann Dodge

Additional Information:
"Tristram Dodge, according to Robert Dodge's Tristram Dodge and Descendants (1886), sailed April, 1661, from Taunton, Mass., with the original fifteen settlers and their families and settled on Block Island, Rhode Island. Rev. S. T. Livermore, A.M., in his History of Block Island (1876), page 17, names Tristram Dodge as one of the passengers in the shallop which sailed from Taunton, 1661, and he says on page 327 that, although he was not among the first purchasers, he was among the first party of settlers. The following, taken from the records of New Shoreham (Block Island), Rhode Island, whould indicate that Tristram Dodge closely followed the first settlers if he did not come with them:

'To All Persons to Whom This Testomony Shall Appear:

'Know Ye, I, Simon Ray of Block Island, being eighty-one years of age and now upon oath doth testify and declare that on ye first erecting and settleing of s'd Block Island there was some undivided land reserved by ye first purchasers for to accommodate fishermen for promoting of a fishing trade, and Tristram Dodge Sr. a fisherman came from Newfoundland and ye freeholders willing for to settle him on s'd Island, gave unto him said Tristram Dodge three acres of land unto him and his heirs forever which land ordered by freeholders for to be measured unto him said Dodge situated and being on ye South East of ye Harbor that is now joining to the land of John Rathbon.

'And unto ye truth of this testimony I set to my hand,

'Simon Ray, Warden.

'Block Island, Feb. 28, 1718-19.'

Harris' Block Island Epitaphs, p. 10, says the grave of the elder Tristram is not marked.

Descendants of David Britain Dodge (John, Tristram) have carefully preserved records that say that the sons of Tristram followed him in 1667, and that they came from the north of England near the river Tweed. This statement is entitled to much consideration, as it is corroborated by many families scattered widely over the United States. Tristram Dodge, Sr., was Freeman May 4, 1664; Sergeant, 1676. He was dead intestate in 1720. His four sons were made Freemen July, 1670, and of course then of age."

--from "Dodge Genealogy -- Descendants of Tristram Dodge," by Theron Royal Woodward.

Tristram (Trustaram) Dodge sailed with the first group of settlers; they left Braintree, Mass in April of 1661; the surveyors were sent ahead in September of 1661 and the remainder of the settlers, including Trustaram, embarked from Taunton, Mass. in the spring of 1662. He was not one of the first purchasers of the Island; like several others who came with him he occupied lands obtained of some of the sixteen proprietors. He was admitted freeman in 1664.

--from "Livermore's History of Block Island, Rhode Island"


References: Last Updated:
30 August, 2000

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