John Darling of Salem and John Dollen of Monhegan Island

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Contents 1 John Darling of Salem and John Dollen of Monhegan Island 1.1 Purpose 1.2 Current Status 1.3 Questions & Answers 2 Sources

John Darling of Salem and John Dollen of Monhegan Island

Purpose

A place to collaborate on the ambiguity surrounding whether or not John Darling of Salem, Massachusetts, and John Dollen of Monhegan Island, Maine, are two men or have been conflated into one man.

Current Status

I have been managing and working on the profile of John Dollen part time for a little over a year since I discovered that Lyman Weeks in The Darling Family in America believed him to be the father of my ancestor Thomas Darling. Weeks called him "John [Darling]—sometimes recorded as John Dollen of Salem, Mass. and Monhegan island, Maine."^[1] But as I was adding the information I found in the source record it began to look like they were in fact two men with two different families. The marriages alone appeared to be problematic, perhaps even overlapping, with John Dollen being married to Sarah Gridley (c1664) and Mary Waters (c1700-1717) and having at least three children: Grace, Joanna and Patience.^[2] While John Darling appeared to have married two different women Mary Bishop (bef. 1675-1706) and Bethiah Hacker (1709) and having one or more children with his first wife.^[1]

I then split the John Dollen profile in two and began adding sources and notes to one half that could provide evidence for the facts presented by Weeks and his "one man" conjecture, and similarly in the other half for the facts of Charles Libby (Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire), who focused only on John Dollen of Monhegan Island and Boston. It should be noted that Weeks apparently did not come up with his theory on his own, as he wrote that his "sketch" was taken from "Charlotte H. Abbott of Andover, Mass., whose conclusions have been adopted." I have not been able to find a copy of Ms. Abbott's history.

Then, I recently found a new source by another researcher that agreed with my assessment that these were two different men. Lou Ella Martin and William Martin in George Darling of Lynn and Marblehead, openly do not believe that the two men should be conflated, "John Dollen of Monhegan Island has been confused with John Darling of Salem. That they are not the same person can be shown by their marriages [and] evidence other than the similarity of names has not been found."^[3][4]

Questions & Answers

• Q: As you can see there are extensive notes on the Dollen profile, many of which mention the last name Darling.
  A: Most of the "Darling" references are from Weeks who was focusing on the Darling family. The only other reference was by Libby RE Mary Waters: "likely the wid. Mary Darling who d. in Boston 4 Nov. 1717, ag. 85." I have not followed up on this.
• Q: Anderson mentions [Mary Bishop's] last name as Durlan/Darling, and provides citations: EPR 2:434 and ELR 6:29.
  A: The first "EPR 2:43" really provides the key to Mary Bishop's marriage to John Darling, who is called "son-in-law John Durlan" also "John Durland" in Richard Bishop's will. I've not seen the second citation.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Weeks, Lyman Horace. The Darling Family in America. (William M. Clemens, New York, 1913). Pages 10-13.
2. ↑ Libby, Charles Thornton. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (Southward Press, Portland, Maine, 1928-1929). Vol. 2 (pp.vii-x, 73-248) Preface to Part II, Bailey-Frye. Page 198. Citing: "Dollen, 2 John."
3. ↑ Martin, Lou Ella & William A. George Darling of Lynn and Marblehead and Some of His Descendants 1650 to 1920 (Creative Continuum, Placentia, CA, 2001). Appendix-A. Pages 345-347. Citing: "John Darling of Salem."
4. ↑ Martin, : Page 372. Citing: "John Dollen of Monhegan Island, Maine."