Captain Joshua Dorsey ^{1 2 3 4}

  Research Notes:

From Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, p. 59:
"Samuel exchanged with his brother, Joshua, his interest in 'Major's Choice' [after 1705], and held the lands of his mother, upon 'Wyatt's Hill,' on the Severn."
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From http://genforum.genealogy.com/norwood/messages/1247.html:
Notes for Capt Joshua Dorsey:
[Ancestors of Abednego Baker by Muriel Schulz.ged]

From Anne Arundel Gentry, pp. 57-58:
When not more than 18 years of age, he with his brother Samuel and Cousin Edward Dorsey were apprenticed on British merchant ships. He, however, relinquished the sea-faring life and settled at "Major's Choice," the parental estate which had been devised to his brother, Samuel. The plantation lay on one of the branches or falls of the Patapsco in what was known as Huntington Hundred, which later fell into Queen Caroline Parish at its organization.

Joshua Dorsey was a communicant of Queen Caroline Parish and occupied pew number one in Christ Church with his brother-in-law, Colonel Henry Ridgely. In October 1711, he was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for Anne Arundel County. He was Captain of the Provincial Militia and when Elk Ridge was organized into a township in 1732, he as Captain Joshua Dorsey of the Elk Ridge Company was made one of the Commissioners. During October 1742 the Lower House sitting in session at Annapolis conducted an inventory of the Powder House and recorded the issuance of certain instruments by the Armourer to several officers. Captain Joshua Dorsey had received "one Trumpet." [Md. Archives, vol. 29, p. 16; vol. 39, p. 125; vol. 42, p. 369.]

His will, written in the presence of Henry Ridgely, Basil Dorsey, Richard Simpson, Elizabeth Ridgely, Ephraim Howard, and Henry Howard, was probated in AA Co., Feb. 6, 1747/8. [Wills, Libert 25, Folio 315.]

To wife Anne during life the dwellng-planation "Major's Choice" of 250 acres, negroes and other personalty.
To son Henry "Dorsey's Angle" of 200 acres and "Dorsey's Hills" 200 acres.
To son Philemon "Brother's Partnership" taken up jointly by the testator's brother John.
To son Joshua "Locust Thickett" of 250 acres, personalty.
To son Nicholas "Huntingtown Quartet" of 250 acres and personalty.
To daughter Rachel Warfield 20 shillings.
To daughter Elizabeth Dorsey 20 lbs.
To daughter Ann Dorsey negroes and other personalty.
To daughter Sarah Dorsey negroes and other personalty.
To son Charles dwelling-plantation at decease of his mother, negroes and other personalty.
Executors - wife and sons Henry and Philemon.

The testator also mentioned his brother-in-law, Henry Ridgely, and his younger sons Nicholas and Charles.

His personal estate was appraised at 1,263/9/6 pounds, including among other personalty a library and 18 slaves. John Dorsey of Edward and Edward Dorsey approved as the kinsmen. An additional inventory was filed at court in Anne Arundel on March 12, 1752, recording a value of 129/4/2 pounds, with Anne Dorsey, Henry Dorsey, and Philemon Dorsey as the executors. It was approved by E. Dorsey and Henry Ridgely "as husband of one of the decease's daughters." [Inventories, Liber 36; Liber 48, folio 234.]

See Anne's Notes for her will.

[Brøderbund Family Archive #310, Ed. 1, Census Index: Colonial America, 1607-1789, Date of Import: Jul 2, 1997]

Individual: Dorsey, Joshua
County/State: Baltimore Co., MD
Location: Elk Ridge Hundred
Year: 1702
Census type code: Tax List

Individual: Dorsey, Joshua
County/State: Baltimore Co., MD
Location: N Side Patapsco Hu
Year: 1703

  Noted events in his life were:

• Inherited: "Barnes Folly" from his father, Abt 1705.

Joshua married Ann Ridgely, daughter of Captain Henry Ridgely III and Catherine Greenberry, on 16 May 1711 in Queen Caroline Parish, Anne Arundel, Maryland, (United States). (Ann Ridgely died in 1771.)