The Ancestry of Zachariah Dutton: How He Fits Into the Duttons of Charles County, Maryland

(Revised and updated July 2024)

Our progenitor Zachariah Dutton () first appeared in records in Charles County, Maryland, in the 1770s. The earliest record I have identified in which he appeared is a 1772 court appearance. There had been a Dutton family living in Charles County since 1680, when Thomas Dutton immigrated. Thomas Dutton married Elizabeth Hill, and descendants of their family continue to live in Charles County today.

Since the beginning of my research, we assumed that Zachariah Dutton was somehow connected to Thomas Dutton. Over the years, I put out various speculations as to how, and at some point nearly twenty years ago, one speculation stuck, and has become dominant in online family trees and especially Ancestry “hints”: that Zachariah Dutton was the son of Gerrard Dutton (born about 1732), son of Matthew Dutton, son of Thomas. This speculation is provably not the case. We have written documentation that definitively proves that Zachariah Dutton was not the son of Gerrard Dutton. In addition, Y-DNA research definitively shows that Zachariah Dutton’s paternal line was not the line of the Duttons of Charles County, Maryland. Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton.

We have written documentation that definitively proves that Zachariah Dutton was not the son of Gerrard Dutton.

Y-DNA research shows that Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton at all.

I’ve been trying to correct this error ever since. But sadly, the sense of community and collaboration I once felt we shared as Zachariah Dutton researchers broke down a long time ago. I have been hoping to rebuild that in our online community on Facebook.

In this article, I will try to correct this mistaken conclusion and clear up confusion. I will lay out exactly what we know about Zachariah Dutton and his relation to the Duttons of Charles County, Maryland, from primary sources, and then detail what we have learned from DNA research.

What we know for fact

All things considered, we know a good bit about the life of Zachariah Dutton. But regarding his birth and origins, facts and sources are meager.

• His first known appearance in a record is an August 1772 court appearance in Charles County, Maryland, when, as “Zachariah Dutton, planter,” he posted special bond for one William Simpson, who was being sued. This implies that Zachariah Dutton was then of legal age, at least 21 years old, so born before 1751.
• He appeared on a 1777 roster of Captain John Parnham’s Company of Militia, Maryland Militia, out of Charles County, during the Revolution.
• He next appeared in a 1778 census in Charles County and tax assessments in 1782 and 1783. In both he was the only man named Dutton living in the East Newport Hundred. The other Duttons in Charles County lived in the Upper William and Mary Hundred.
• In 1790, he appeared on the first census of the United States in Charles County, Maryland, married and with a house full of children.
• About 1795, he moved to Granville County, North Carolina, where he purchased 700 acres of land by deed on 4 May 1795.
• On 23 Nov 1799 in Granville County, North Carolina, Zachariah Dutton married Mrs. Judith Parrish (née Parrish), widow of Claiborne Parrish. Zachariah’s first wife had apparently died in the few years previous.
• He appeared on the census in Granville County in 1800, 1810, and 1820. These censuses suggest that he was born before 1755.
• Zachariah Dutton signed his will on 10 Nov 1828 in Granville County, North Carolina. It was probated in the August 1829 term of the Granville County court. So Zachariah evidently died sometime in 1829 or at the very end of 1828.

There are several other important facts:

• We have no record of the first marriage of Zachariah Dutton or of the name of his first wife. (I will discuss this in a later post.)
• The name of Zachariah Dutton does not appear, as far as I’ve been able to discover, in any court, deed, or other legal document in Charles County, Maryland, in connection with any of the other Duttons living there.

The Duttons of Charles County, Maryland

Maps of Cobb Neck and southern Charles County, Maryland: These maps show the relative locations of Christ Church (William and Mary Parish), near where the family of Matthew Dutton lived; Poppleton, the estate of Matthew Dutton; and Newport town, in or near which Zachariah Dutton lived. Poppleton is about 2 miles from Christ Church; Newport is 7 miles from Christ Church, driving by modern roads. Upper William and Mary Hundred would have included the church and northern parts of Cobb Neck. East Newport Hundred would have included the town of Newport and probably areas eastward. (Source: Library of Congress)

The pregenitor of the Duttons of Charles County, Maryland was Thomas Dutton (), who arrived in Maryland on 9 July 1680 on a vessel captained by John Redich, merchant. Thomas is supposed to have been born around 1660 and married Elizabeth Hill, daughter of Matthew Hill and Edith Bayne. Thomas died, it appears, around 1695, and his widow died around 1717. On 9 Aug 1717, an estate document relating to the Hill family names their heirs:

1. Elizabeth Dutton, born about 1690; died before 9 Aug 1717; married William Penn.
2. Matthew Dutton, born 28 Sep 1692; died before 9 May 1734; married Judith O’Caine.
3. Notley Dutton, born 19 Dec 1694; appears to have never married and died young, before 11 Oct 1717.
4. Edith Dutton, born perhaps about 1695; no record of her marriage is known.

Since Notley Dutton appears to have died young and Matthew Dutton to be the ancestor of all families surnamed Dutton in Charles County, Matthew has been the focus of the search for Zachariah Dutton’s ancestry. Also, we have further reason to believe Zachariah Dutton had some connection to Matthew Dutton. Judith O’Caine, Matthew Dutton’s wife, was the daughter of Gerrard O’Caine. Zachariah Dutton named a son Gerrard Dutton*, so this appears to be the right family.

* This is the same man whose name was variously spelled Jarratt, Jarrard, and other variants.

According to his will, dated 26 Jan 1734, Matthew Dutton had the following sons:

1. Notley Dutton, born about 1720; died about Oct 1802; married ? Chunn.
2. Thomas Dutton, born perhaps around 1730; killed 8 Sep 1781 during the Revolutionary War.
3. Gerrard Dutton, born about 1732; died about Dec 1790; married Ann ________.

The will of Matthew Dutton does not mention any daughters, if there were any, but it does mention an unborn child at the time of the will. We have no further record of this child, and it can probably be assumed to have been a daughter or not to have survived.

Since it appeared that Zachariah Dutton was connected to Matthew Dutton, by the occurrence of the name Gerrard in both families, we assumed that Zachariah must be the son of one of these named sons. Over several years of research, we speculated that each one of these sons was Zachariah’s father — but in turn, each one was excluded as a possibility.

Gerrard Dutton, son of Matthew Dutton

Having Gerrard Dutton as Zachariah Dutton’s father made for an attractive possibility early on, because of the recurrence of the name Gerrard. Possibly for that reason, this is the conclusion that has taken hold in the majority of Ancestry trees. But Gerrard Dutton had a will and estate records, which make very clear that Zachariah Dutton was not his son.

The children of Gerrard Dutton, named in his will and estate proceedings:

1. Eleanor Dutton, born about 1763.
2. Muriel Dutton, born perhaps about 1765, married Thomas Dutton Nettle (not mentioned explicitly, but see explanation below under “Two Daughters”).
3. Mary Dutton, born about 1770, married Samuel Smith on 1 Jan 1800.
4. Thomas Morriss Dutton, born about 1772.
5. James Dutton, born about 1774.
6. Matilda Dutton, born about 1776.

Thomas Morriss Dutton is named clearly as the oldest son and heir. Thomas Dutton Nettle, Stephen Penn, and Notley Dutton Jr. witnessed the will. This appears to be the same Stephen Penn who later moved to Alabama, which offers a tantalizing possibility of how he might be connected.

The widow of Gerrard was named Ann. Her maiden name is not known. Most online trees identify her as Judith Ann Morris, but I believe this is incorrect — the “Judith” part the result of a bad reading of record abstracts (Gerrard’s mother being Judith, not his wife), for which I take the blame — and the Morris part an assumption based on the name of the son, Thomas Morris(s). Her maiden name could be Morris, but I’ve never seen any positive support for it.

Notley Dutton Sr., son of Matthew Dutton

Part of the problem in eliminating Notley Dutton from the possibility of being Zachariah’s father is that there are so many men named Notley Dutton:

• It is apparent that Notley Dutton, born 1694, the son of Thomas Dutton and Elizabeth Hill, died without issue around 1717.
• The man identified on 1790 and 1800 census records as Notley Dutton Sr. appears to be the son of Matthew Dutton and Judith O’Caine, born probably about 1720 and died 1802.
• Notley Dutton Jr. on 1790 and 1800 census records appears to be Notley Dutton Sr.’s son, called “Jr.” to distinguish him from his father. Notley “Jr.” had another son Notley, and there are other Notleys still — so this can get confusing. But the line that must be excluded here is Notley Dutton Sr.

Notley Dutton Sr. died in 1802 at an advanced age, apparently outliving most of his children. His lengthy and dense will names mostly grandchildren:

1. Grandsons Matthew Dutton, Notley Dutton, and John Dutton
2. Daughter Mary Posey
3. Granddaughter Elizabeth M. C. Posey
4. Granddaughter Jane Money
5. Granddaughters Margaret Dutton Nettle and Alice Nettle
6. Granddaughters Elizabeth Dutton and Matilda Dutton

This is tricky to sort out, but I can determine that Notley Dutton Sr. had the following issue:

1. Matthew Dutton, who died 1778 without issue and whose estate was administered by his father.
2. Notley Dutton Jr., born probably around 1740; father of Matthew Dutton, Notley Dutton, John Dutton, Elizabeth Dutton, and Matilda Dutton.
3. Mary Dutton, born about 1762, who married Thomas Posey on 25 Mar 1788; mother of Elizabeth M. C. Posey.
4. (Female) Dutton, died before 1802, married (Male) Nettle; mother of Margaret Dutton Nettle and Alice Nettle. It is widely reported on the Internet, without concrete documentation, that Edith Dutton, daughter of Notley Dutton, married James Nettle. This appears reasonable and likely.
5. (Female) Dutton, died before 1802, married (Male) Money; mother of Jane Money. Another possibility is that Jane was the daughter of the one of the above other children and married a Money.

The question is, is this list exhaustive? Does it include all Notley Dutton’s descendants? Does it presume that Notley’s children who are not named, these grandchilden’s parents, are deceased? It appears that it probably does. In any case, if Zachariah were the son of Notley, neither he nor any of his children are acknowledged in the will, which would seem quite strange for a will apparently designed to acknowledge each surviving family. It appears conclusive that Zachariah Dutton was not the son of Notley Dutton.

Thomas Dutton, son of Matthew Dutton

Thomas Dutton, son of Matthew Dutton, died 8 Sep 1781, while serving in the Revolutionary War. By comparing this date with known engagements of the First Maryland Regiment in which Thomas served, we can assume that Thomas died at the Battle of Eutaw Springs.

In many online trees, Thomas Dutton is said to have married an unknown woman named Elizabeth, and there is a list of children commonly given for him (Matthew, Notley, Eleanor, and Muriel), but despite searching for it and asking for it for years, I can find no source for this information, no documentation of Thomas’s wife or children. I now believe that it is in error — probably, at its root, my own error. I remember receiving this list of children and spouse as hearsay from a cousin over the phone sometime about 1998, and repeating it as fact on the Internet. I had the sense then to ask for a citation, but the only one I received was that it came from the Maryland Calendar of Wills. Unfortunately, I did not then have the sense to consider the information unverified without a concrete citation.

After years of searching, I have never found a concrete citation; and having consulted the Maryland Calendar of Wills and the Charles County will books, I can verify that Thomas Dutton had no will. He died intestate, and court records in Charles County include a grant of letters of administration to a friend, Ninian Burrage, and an inventory. There is no mention of any survivors that I have found. The fact that the administrator was a friend, and no mention is made of a wife, strongly indicates that Thomas never married.

The pairing of Thomas Dutton with a wife named Elizabeth, and sons named Notley and Matthew — neither of which I can find any record of — now smells very strongly to me of an incorrectly interpreted record of his grandfather Thomas Dutton — who also was married to a wife named Elizabeth and had sons Notley and Matthew.

Thomas Dutton had no issue and no survivors. There is no record at all to suggest that Zachariah Dutton was his son.

Two daughters, Muriel Dutton and Eleanor Dutton

In addition to sons Notley and Matthew, two daughters commonly attached to this Thomas Dutton:

1. Muriel Dutton married Thomas Dutton Nettle on 20 Jul 1779.
2. Eleanor Dutton married John Penn on 20 Jul 1779.

There is documentation of these girls’ marriages, in a parish register kept by Rev. John McPherson of Piccawaxon, or William and Mary Parish. The fact that these two women were married the same day suggests to me that they were likely sisters. Who could these girls have belonged to, if not Thomas?

According to his will, Notley Dutton Sr. did have a daughter who married a Nettle, but there is no record of a daughter who married a Penn; and the Eleanor Dutton who married John Penn is claimed as an ancestor by surviving descendants, so at least her children should have been mentioned in Notley’s will if she were his daughter.

On the other hand, it is known from estate records that Gerrard Dutton had an older daughter named Eleanor. In fact, John Penn was made administrator of Gerrard Dutton’s estate. Almost certainly, the Eleanor Dutton who married John Penn was the daughter of Gerrard Dutton.

But what of Muriel? It could be that she was an older daughter of Gerrard Dutton who predeceased him and so was not named in his estate. There is no provision made for a sixth child’s part or for Nettle grandchildren in Gerrard’s estate; but Muriel may well have died without issue. Thomas Dutton Nettle, who married Muriel Dutton, witnessed the will of Gerrard Dutton. With John Penn, he also would have been a son-in-law if Muriel were Gerrard’s daughter.

With a name like “Thomas Dutton Nettle,” it would appear likely that he had some connection to the Dutton family already. And we have already seen above that Notley Dutton Sr. had grandchildren named Nettle, believed to be the children of his daughter Edith who married James Nettle. Thomas Dutton Nettle was likely their son.

So if Thomas Dutton Nettle were a grandson of Notley Dutton Sr., Muriel Dutton would not have been a daughter of Notley Sr., because then he would have been marrying his aunt. Conceivably she could have been a daughter of Notley Sr.’s only son with issue, Notley Dutton Jr.; but Notley Jr.’s only known wife, Eleanor Philpott Glover, was not born until about 1762 and could not have been the mother of a child who was about the same age as her. So the only candidate left for being Muriel’s father is Gerrard Dutton.

So, after considering all three named sons of Matthew Dutton, we found that none of them worked as Zachariah’s father. There was no documentation connecting him to any of them in any way. As it turned out from our DNA research, this conclusion was entirely appropriate.

Y-DNA indicates Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton

For years, we worked with one speculation after another, trying to fit Zachariah Dutton into one of these Maryland Dutton families, despite the lack of any record tying him to them. And then, in 2007, we began DNA testing on the Dutton patrilineal line. And we quickly realized that the Zachariah Dutton line does not descend from the same paternal line as the descendants of Matthew Dutton at all. This means that Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton.

Y-DNA is the DNA of the Y-chromosome, the male sex chromosome that is passed down more-or-less intact from father to son over many generations. This means that the Y-chromosome possessed by a direct male-line descendant of Zachariah Dutton (i.e. a man named Dutton, whose father and grandfather, etc., were Duttons, descending from a son of Zachariah Dutton) should be the same Y-chromosome possessed by Zachariah Dutton himself — and by his father and grandfather and great-grandfather.

So we tested the Y-DNA of seven direct male-line descendants of Zachariah Dutton, from five different sons of Zachariah Dutton.* They all matched each other, proving that they each have an unbroken descent from Zachariah Dutton — and that we have the Y-chromosome of Zachariah Dutton himself. We also tested the Y-DNA of three descendants of Matthew Dutton of Charles County, Maryland, one from the Notley Dutton line and two from the Gerrard Dutton line. They likewise matched each other, indicating that they have the Y-chromosome of Matthew Dutton. But Zachariah Dutton’s Y-chromosome does not match Matthew Dutton’s Y-chromosome.

* As of 2024, I have confirmed the Y-DNA descent of a sixth son of Zachariah, Stephen Dutton. Not that there was any question. The only child† of Zachariah who hasn’t had a direct male descendant test his Y-DNA is Gerrard — again, not that there is any question about his paternity.

† Zachariah Dutton Jr., son of Zachariah Dutton, has no documented descendants.

Zachariah Dutton’s Y-chromosome is characterized as haplogroup E-L17, a subclade of E-V13, a population group originating probably in the Balkans in eastern Europe and likely spread to Britain and Ireland by ancient Roman colonization. Matthew Dutton’s Y-chromosome is characterized as haplogroup R-DF98, a subclade of R-M269, the most common haplogroup among men of western European descent, and R-U106, marking this an essentially Germanic population group.

Michael R. Dutton’s research has discovered that the Duttons of Charles County, Maryland, are in Y-DNA haplogroup R-FGC13446, sharing a common ancestor with the Warburton family of Cheshire, England. This possibly shows shared descendancy from Odard of Dutton, the first Norman manorial lord of Dutton, founder of the house of Dutton of Dutton.

These two haplogroups are two completely different major Y-DNA branches, proving that Zachariah Dutton’s father could not have been Matthew Dutton or one of his sons. So who, then, is Zachariah Dutton’s father?

Zachariah Dutton’s father was a Thomas

As soon as we realized Zachariah’s father was not a Dutton, that immediately suggested two possibilities: either he was illegitimate, the daughter of a Dutton female who kept his mother’s name, or he was adopted by a Dutton, and not genetically a Dutton at all.

Who was Zachariah’s biological father? Identifying that father almost three centuries has been a difficult task, but through testing several possibilities, and a lot of good fortune in the right family voluntarily testing and eagerly cooperating — many thanks to Barbara Thomas, who asserted the Thomas case even when I was skeptical — we have made significant progress, identifying, it appears, the family if not the man.

Zachariah Dutton’s Y-DNA, as of the most recent update, is in haplogroup E-FTA88333. Zachariah’s descendants share this haplogroup with descendants of Philip Thomas of Charles County, Maryland (born about 1747). Philip was the son of George Thomas (born about 1712), the son of another George Thomas (born 1674). And the line also matches (at Y-37) a Thomas family from Herefordshire, England, indicating that the Thomas connection stretches beyond Maryland.* According to the Y-DNA, it is all but certain that Zachariah Dutton’s father was a Thomas, probably a son or grandson of George Thomas Sr.

* That is to say, that because the line matches Thomases originating in England, descending from someone other than George Thomas Sr., that we can be sure that the line is in fact Thomas stretching back at least several centuries, and not another Maryland-local non-paternity event. The other Thomas man we matched is now deceased and no one has responded to inquiries to his account.

According to the Y-DNA, it is all but certain that Zachariah Dutton’s father was a Thomas, probably a son or grandson of George Thomas Sr.

Determining which Thomas man specifically was Zachariah Dutton’s father will probably fall to autosomal triangulation, which so far has been complicated by the fact that not much Thomas autosomal DNA has survived down to Zachariah Dutton descendants testing their DNA today. That is not terribly surprising — autosomal DNA tests generally only match ancestors back five or six generations, and Zachariah Dutton is four generations back even for my great-aunts and great-uncles; five, six, or more, for most anybody else. My great-aunts and great-uncles appear to have mostly inherited DNA from Zachariah’s mother and Zachariah’s wife, rather than his father. So far, out of all the test kits in my arsenal, I’ve found only one confirmed Thomas segment, shared between four or so Zachariah Dutton descendants.

Alternatively, we could get really, extremely lucky and have just the right Thomas men take Big Y tests and split the haplogroup in just such a way as to triangulate and identify the branch of the Thomas family Zachariah’s father came from. For example, if two or more men descended from a son of George Thomas Sr. — say, William Thomas (b. 1707); ideally from different sons of William Thomas — were to take the Big Y, and the test identified a new SNP belonging only to their branch, and not to ours — then that would put William Thomas’s descendants in a new haplogroup, and leave us and the Philip Thomas family in E-FTA88333 — thereby excluding William Thomas from being Zachariah’s father or grandfather. By a similar process of exclusion, we would narrow down which branch Zachariah’s father does belong to. But the Big Y is so expensive, and so few people take it, that there is a very long shot at best of this ever occurring.

My suspicion is that Zachariah was probably closely kin to Philip Thomas, perhaps even his half-brother, on account of both families going to Granville County, North Carolina, at nearly the same time, and taking adjacent land to one another.

Zachariah Dutton’s mother was probably a Dutton

Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton, but more than likely a Thomas. Why, then, did he have the surname Dutton? We believe his mother was a Dutton. Zachariah Dutton’s descendants have numerous autosomal DNA matches with the descendants of Matthew Dutton and Judith O’Caine, which, if his father is not a Dutton, strongly implies that his mother was a Dutton.

If Zachariah’s mother was a Dutton, she was more than likely a daughter of Matthew Dutton. Given the timeline —Zachariah born no later than 1751, and probably no earlier than about 1730* — this would seem to be the closest fit.

* Zachariah Dutton died in 1829 in Granville County, North Carolina. About 1830 becomes an early limit for his birthdate because being born any earlier than this would make him unreasonably old (more than 100) when he died. Being born between about 1735 and 1750 is a reasonable range for the birthdate of a Revolutionary soldier; being older than about 45 in 1780 would again seem to be too old to have served.

Matthew Dutton was born in 1692 and Judith O’Caine was probably slightly younger, born perhaps about 1695. They could conceivably have been married and having children by about 1715. A daughter born after about 1715‒1720 could have had her own child born any time after 1730. The “unborn child” of Matthew and Judith, born 1734, could have had a child by about 1750‒1751.

Matthew’s will mentions no daughters, but it does not exclude the possibility of his having them. In the patriarchal society of eighteenth century Maryland, it was not uncommon for daughters to be left out of inheritances entirely. Unfortunately, that often meant that they became all but invisible from the perspective of genealogical records. So while there is no direct evidence that Matthew Dutton had daughters, the lack of daughters in his will is not evidence that he did not have daughters. There are, at least, long gaps between the supposed birthdates of Matthew’s known sons (about 1720, 1730, and 1732), which may indicate the births of one or more female children.

Matthew’s will does name an “unborn child,” with whom his wife Judith was pregnant at the time of his death, making allowances for that child if a son. The fact that there is no more mention of this child in the estate records probably indicates that it was a daughter, or else it did not survive. So one way or another, there is some possibility that Matthew Dutton did have daughters.

Conclusions

There are a lot of puzzle pieces that shed light on the ancestry of Zachariah Dutton. Considering all of these pieces, there are a few conclusions we can draw.

• Estate records in Charles County, Maryland, show clearly that Zachariah Dutton was not the son of any of the sons of Matthew Dutton, either Gerrard Dutton, Notley Dutton Sr., on Thomas Dutton.
• Y-DNA research indicates that Zachariah Dutton’s father was not a Dutton. Zachariah was not the son of Matthew Dutton, Notley Dutton, Thomas Dutton, or Gerrard Dutton, or any of the other male Duttons in Charles County, Maryland.
• The Y-DNA instead indicates a high probability that Zachariah Dutton’s father was a Thomas, of the same paternal line as Philip Thomas (b. 1747) of Charles County, Maryland.
• Autosomal DNA matches between the descendants of Zachariah Dutton and documented descendants of Matthew Dutton and Judith O’Caine indicate a high probability that Zachariah Dutton’s mother was a Dutton, more than likely an unknown daughter of Matthew Dutton.

In future articles, I’d like to explain what we know about Zachariah Dutton’s first wife, and about his relationship with the Stephen Penn family.