| Name: | Thomas Dutton |
| Born: | about 1660 probably Cheshire, England |
| Died: | about 1695 William and Mary Parish, Charles County, Maryland |
| Married: | Elizabeth (Hill) Dutton about 1690 in Charles County, Maryland |
| Children: | Elizabeth (Dutton) Penn, Matthew Dutton, Notley Dutton (b. 1694), Edith Dutton |
Overview
Thomas Dutton was the immigrant ancestor and patriarch of the Dutton family in Charles County, Maryland. He came to Charles County in the year 1680, forty-six years after the first settlers of the colony landed in neighboring St. Mary's County. Thomas's birthplace, parentage, and origin, are not documented.
Thomas married Elizabeth Hill sometime before about 1690, and they gave birth to four children that are known or that survived to adulthood. Thomas's death is also not well documented, but he appears to have died shortly after his children were born, around 1695.
This page seeks to present the primary sources that are known about Thomas Dutton's life and address any uncertainty and misconceptions surrounding him.
Birth
We say that Thomas Dutton was born about 1660, but in truth, this is a speculation, little more than a guess. A person who would pack up and journey to the New World, to settle in a new colony on a new continent, would be most likely to be a young man, and about twenty years old is a very rough guess. This isn't at all a certainty. He could have been thirty, forty, or even sixty years old, for all we know.
And so, attempts to identify Thomas Dutton with any birth or baptism record in Cheshire, England, are inherently unfounded. We don't know his precise age or birthdate or even know for certain that he came from Cheshire. So it you find a tree purporting to know Thomas Dutton's parents — it had better have some convincing documentation, more than just the birth or baptism record of a person named Thomas Dutton born in 1660.
Immigration and origins
Thomas Dutton entered Charles County, Maryland, in the year 1680, aboard the ship of John Redich, merchant. On 9 July 1680, John Redich made entry of the rights of twenty people; that is, under headright system, he paid for the transport of twenty people into Maryland, and would receive a reward of land for each. Thomas probably did not arrive on this exact date, but shortly prior.
The document reads:
- John Redich makes entry of these following rights ...
| Cornelius Maddock | Richard Minshall | Margery Mason |
| John Topping | Tho. Cooler | Dina Jackson |
| Samuel Preswich | X. Woodrofe | John Browne |
| Parson Manwaring | John Mason | Thom. Dalle |
| Thomas Dutton | Ellinor Cartington | Thomas Haughton |
| Jonathan Ogden | Ginett Thornton | John Redich |
| Samuel Shrigley | Tabitha Redich |
- July the 9th, 1680:
- Then came John Redich merchant and made oath that the above named persons being twenty were by him transported into this Province and that neither himself nor any other person for him or by his consent privily or knowledge ever before prooved or made use of their or either of their rights due for their importation.
- John Redich
- Sworn before
- Mewellin, Register
- Know all mean by these presents that I John Redich of Charles County in the Province of Maryland Merchant do assign all my right, title and interest of the above nominated rights to John Baker of St. Marie's and his assigns forever as witness my hand this 9th day of July 1680.
- John Redich