New York Immigrant, Jacob Dolmage

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New York immigrant, Jacob Dolmage (Jan 2023)

The Irish Palatine Dolmage family has numerous descendants all over the world, including in Canada and the USA. One of the more familiar ancestors is Jacob Dolmage (the NY Immigrant) who left Ireland to travel to New York, some 50 years after the Palatines originally came to Ireland. He is reported to have had sons Jacob Jr, John, and David (1746-1824), who were loyalists during the American Revolution.

About a year ago I came across an interesting argument that the NY Immigrant Jacob Dolmage may in fact have been the same person as the original Palatine emigrant Jacob Dolmetsch b.c.1700 who arrived in Ireland in 1710. I am hoping to get thoughts and critiques on this.

For reference, the NY immigrant’s profile is at Dolmage-27, and the original Palatine emigrant’s profile is at Dolmetsch-2. There is a proposal to merge these two profiles.

This article :

• Identifies the discrepancies in the current construction
• Examines the evidence for considering the two men to be the same person
• Addresses alternative reconstructions of the family

Discrepancies in the current construction

Hank Jones says in The Palatine Families of Ireland that the earliest known ancestor, Johannes Dolmetsch (1679-1751, later Dolmage) came to Ireland in 1710 with sons Garret b.c.1697, Jacob b.c.1700, and a younger son b.c.1703. Jones notes that it was interesting that the eldest son, Garret (1697-1769) didn’t live in the more middle-class lands of Castlematrix like his siblings, but instead was in the poorer lands of Courtmatrix. This seems to set Garret’s family apart from the others in the early generations. So it is strange that Jones then places Jacob Dolmage of Courtmatrix, who married Anna Barbara Switzer in 1749, as a son of Jacob b.1700 of Castlematress, instead of as a son of Garret - this seems to contradict the statement that was just made. I propose that this was done because of a faulty source.

This faulty source was “To Their Heirs Forever”, by Eula C Lapp. For what it's worth, I quite like this book, it is an honest attempt at family history and it really has a nice, homey vibe while reading it. But it seems Lapp has included a couple of inaccuracies and worked off sources that are hit-or-miss, like the Herbert Charles Burleigh fonds (HCB) files, to create a pre-NY narrative that doesn’t feel right. For example :

Wikitree users have already noted how it was assumed that the Dolmages came on the Pery in 1760, while they were in fact in America in 1757 (see: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Perry%28Pery%29_Palatine_Ship_1760).

Lapp misquoted the birthdate of John Dolmage (1744-1813, Dulmage-56)

There are also a number of major inconsistencies in Lapp’s family structure for the NY Immigrant. On page 10, Lapp gives :

Jacob Dolmage (s/o Garret and Ellenor) b.c.1720.

Married (1st) c.1737 to Margaret Embury (d.c.1747 Courtmatrix). Children of first wife:

1. John b.c.1738 Courtmatrix, d.c.1814 Edwardsburgh, Ontario, m. Sophia Heck
2. Jacob Jr b.c.1740 Courtmatrix, m. Barbara
3. David b. 1746 Courtmatrix, d. Hay Bay Canada, m. Mary Jennings

Married (2nd) c.1749 to Anna Barbara Switzer in 1749. Children of second wife :

1. Catherine 1750
2. Elizabeth 1756
3. possibly Mary

This construction is problematic for several reasons :

• There is no evidence to indicate that the NY Immigrant Jacob was born c.1720. This date has been selected in order to squeeze him in as both the child of Garret (b.1697) and the father of John (b.1738).

• A number of children were born in Rathkeale to Jacob Dolmage and his wife Barbara (sometimes Anna Barbara) between 1750 and 1777, and if these all belonged to the same couple then they could not have been the family who emigrated in the 1750’s. It’s possible this Jacob (who had a son named Garrett) was the son of Garret (b.1697) of Courtmatrix.

• Lapp makes no further mention of Jacob Jr’s wife, Barbara, and later records indicate that he probably married a woman named Martha (see “Evidence” below). On page 233, Lapp mentions the tradition that Jacob Jr went to Jamaica, but says that this is a garbled tradition and is unlikely. I tend to agree, as Jacob was in New York in 1784, and there was an Adam Dolmage in Jamaica in the 1790s-1820s, but that is another discussion and quite complicated.

• Lapp (p.30) later contradicts herself by saying that John was born in 1744, which is in fact consistent with baptism records, HCB, and military service records (see “Evidence” below).

• Catherine is often dropped from the family (p.51), while a brother Garret (p.43) is added.

All of this indicates that Lapp’s account must be treated with caution, and by disagreeing with Jones’s construction of the family, I am not disagreeing with his methodology, but with his reliance on Lapp.

Evidence for reconstructing the family

The argument for identifying the NY Immigrant as the man born c.1700 rests on three main pieces of evidence : (i) the birthdate of his son Jacob (Jr), (ii) papers of the NY governor, and (iii) Jones’s observations of the Castlematrix family.

(i) Birthdate of Jacob (Jr)

A close analysis of the sources for the son Jacob Jr show that he must have been born somewhat earlier than the 1740 date suggested by Lapp (p.10).

Lapp (p.62) records a petition from the following people (all from Ireland, except for Folk, asking for land in Charlotte County NY) in 1763: “John Embury, Phil. Embury, David Embury, Peter Embury, James Willson, Geo. Willson, Samuel Willson, Henry Lower, Paul Heck, Philip Cook, John Cook, Jacob DuImidge Senr., Jacob Dulmidge Junr., Edward Carscallen, Nicholas Shouldes, Peter Shouldes, Julius Shire, Henry Shire, Peter Lawrence, William Folk, Vallentine Debtler, Peter Poff, Vallentine Shimmel, Peter Sparling, Elias Hoffman

Unbeknownst to Lapp, most of these names also appear on a 1757 Falmouth MA militia list, serving under Samuel Skilling, with Jacob Sr and Jr being under ‘Dalinge’. (https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/362286/?offset=0#page=306&viewer=picture&o=search&n=0&q=skillings). This is also shown to be our Dulmage family by a couple of church records: “3 Dec 1757 Jacob "Dulmige" committed to marry Martha Berry in Falmouth. This was entered on the same day as his sister Mary "Dulmidge" committed to marry Peter Laurence. (Note Jacob is not recorded as 'Jr' or 'Sr'). It is interesting to note that the Town Clerk, Stephen Longfellow spelled the surnames of brother and sister differently”. That was taken directly from the wikitree profile for Jacob Jr (Dolmage-34). Peter and Mary ended up having a bunch of kids, and were noted elsewhere in Jones’s book. “Dec 1757? Dulmidge and wife ask for occasional communion at the First Church of Falmouth in Maine (see Records of First Church in Falmouth p.19)” From Jacob the immigrant’s profile (Dolmage-27).

A 1756 date of immigration for the Dolmage family seems most likely, as John’s Revolution records and an old sketch of David’s life both support it.

With military service being required of men aged 16-60, that would mean that Jacob Jr was the only Dolmage child born before 1742. With Jacob Jr’s marriage/engagement to Martha in 1757, that pushes his birth date back to around 1736, assuming he was aged about 21 at marriage. This would suggest that his father, Jacob the NY Immigrant, was born in the 1700s or early 1710s, but no later than 1715. And this makes it very unlikely that he was the son of Garret (b.1697), or of any other children of the original Palatine emigrant Johannes. Of course, you could try and cram them in together, but this feels really contrived and isn’t supported by the Rathkeale parish records.

(ii) NY governor’s papers

The papers of George Clinton (Governor of NY) mention Mr and Mrs Jacob Dulmage, who, in 1781, were explicitly described as “very old”. Being born in 1700 would definitely qualify as very old in 1781, but an age of around 60 would probably not, which is another piece of evidence against Lapp’s model.

(iii) Birthdates of John and Garrett

Something that I haven’t gotten into is the Rathkeale records, which were invaluable to researching this. It seems that Lapp or one of her sources must have had access at some point to these, since she mentions Jacob’s son Garret, although he appears to have been forgotten at some point.

Although there is no proof that Jacob’s wife’s last name at birth was Embury (as suggested by Lapp), two baptismal entries are directly relevant to the family of the NY Immigrant Jacob :

Garret Dolmedge

1742/8/24

Jacob

Margaret

of Castlematress

John Dolmage

1744/12/30

Jacob

Margaret

Also relevant is this muster roll extract, stating that the John who was a loyalist of Camden Valley/Charlotte County was born around 1744 : https://archive.org/details/hcbdulmage/page/90/mode/2up?view=theater

Jones agrees that these baptisms are associated with the children of the original Palatine emigrant Jacob b. 1700. With this John’s date matching the post 1742 date for John son of the NY Immigrant, and both parents matching, the Castlematrix residence supporting non Garret 1697 lineage (which was probably forgotten by the time Lapp’s ancestry chart was prepared), and the Clinton papers supporting a 1700 birthdate for Jacob, I propose that Jacob (b.c.1700) Dolmedge / Dolmage and his wife Margaret of Castlematrix are identical with the Jacob and Margaret Dolmage who came to the colonies in 1756.

Conclusion

Although I did not go much into the children of Jacob and Margaret, this is the working model that I have for them. I’d appreciate thoughts and criticisms on all of this and hope to gain a greater understanding of our family and the history behind it.

1 Johannes Dolmetsch 1679-1751-- the immigrant. m.(1) Anna, m.(2) Elizabeth Kieffer.

1-1 Gerhardt Dolmetsch / Garret Dolmage of Courtmatrix 1697-1769; m. Eleanor.

1-1-1 Jacob Dolmage 1725-1779 m. Anna Barbara Switzer.

1-2 Jacobus Dolmetsch / Jacob Dolmage ‘the immigrant’ 1700-Aft 1781 m. Margaret

1-2-1 Jacob Dolmage Jr ~1735- m. Martha Berry

1-2-2 Mary Dolmage ~1739 m. Peter Lawrence

1-2-3 Garret Dolmage 1742-; probably died young.

1-2-4 John Dolmage 1744-1813; m. Sophia Heck.

1-2-5 David Dolmage 1746-1824, m. Mary Jennings.

1-3 Adam Dolmage of Castlematrix ~1703-1790; Etc.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Trent

Revisiting Jacob Dolmage (Oct 2024)

1990 construction (Hank Jones)

The Irish immigrants Jacob Dolmage (Jr), David Dolmage, and John Dolmage, who arrived in New York in the mid-18th century, are believed to have been sons of a man named Jacob. Hank Jones, widely regarded as an authority on Palatine emigration into Ireland, and writing in 1990, identified their father as Jacob Dolmage, son of Garret Dolmage, who was the oldest son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes Dolmage.^[1]

Jones’s 1990 construction of the family tree looked like this :

• Johannes Dolmage (c.1679 - before 1751)

• • 1. Gerardus / Garrett (1697 - 1769)
    • 1.1 Jacob (? - after 1781) m. Margaret [LNU] - emigrated to America
      • 1.1.1 Jacob
      • 1.1.2 John (1738-1813)
      • 1.1.3 David b.1746
    • 1.2 Adam (b.1744) m. Elizabeth Piper
      • 1.2.(1-4) 4 children born between 1767 and 1783

• • 2. Johannes Jacob (1700 - 1779)
    • 2.1 Jacob (c.1725 - c.1779) m. Anna Barbara Switzer [may have been a second marriage for Jacob (1700 - 1779)]
      • 2.1.(1-8) 8 children born between 1750 and 1777
    • 2.2 Garret (b.1742) of Ballyorgan - descendants not traced
    • 2.3 John (b.1744) of Ballyorgan - descendants not traced

• • 3. Adam (c.1703 - 1790) m. Maria Dorothea
    • 3.(1-11) 11 children born between 1739 and 1761

• • 4. John (c.1715) m. Anna / Barbara / Anna Barbara
    • 4.(1-7) 7 children born between 1744 and 1765

Revised construction (Jan 2023)

More recent research by John Buchanan, Jean Ffrench and Trent Harper revealed that :

• the young Irish immigrants probably arrived in New York earlier than previously reported.
• their birth dates matched the birth dates which had been attributed to other Dolmage family members (who were assumed to have remained in Ireland but who were untraced there).
• they were accompanied by a man named Jacob (Sr) who also settled in the NY area.

It was suggested that Jacob (Sr) of NY was the father of the immigrants, and that he was in fact the same person as the child (2) Johannes Jacob b.1700, second son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes. This theory, while generally accepted (including by Hank Jones), was disputed on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence. It is arguably unlikely to be correct since it would mean that Johannes Jacob b.1700 did not start a family until he was in his mid-30’s.

The evidence, while circumstantial, nonetheless supports identifying Jacob (Sr) of NY as the father of the Irish immigrants, and as the son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes.

• Jacob (Sr) of NY was probably significantly older than Jacob (Jr), since he was identified by a suffix rather than by a nickname. He was probably the “very old man” named Jacob Dolmage who was recorded in New York in 1781,^[2] and was probably born c.1710.
• The oldest of the Irish immigrants, Jacob (Jr), was probably born c.1736, and his father Jacob would be expected to have been born c.1710.
• The only Dolmage man in Ireland old enough to have children c.1710 was the Palatine immigrant Johannes.

However, the Palatine immigrant Johannes already had a son named Johannes Jacob, born in 1700.

Revised construction (Oct 2024)

The implication of this is that the child Johannes Jacob b.1700 died some time after the family’s arrival in Ireland in 1709, and the Palatine immigrant Johannes had another son born c.1710 in Ireland to whom he again gave the name Jacob. (The name “Jacob” evidently held significance for the Palatine immigrant Johannes, and would be consistent with identifying him as the son of a man named Jacob.)

Another implication is that John and Garrett of Ballyorgan clearly could not have been sons of Johannes Jacob b.1700. It had been assumed that they were his children, with baptisms recorded in the 1740's, and this sat uncomfortably against the fact that they were recorded as freeholders in Ballyorgan in the 1760's. It is far more likely that they were born somewhat earlier (before 1742, the date from which parish registers in Rathkeale are available), and that they were children of Garret (who would be expected to have named a child John, after his father, and Garret, after himself).

A revised family tree construction thus looks like this.

• Johannes Dolmetsch (c.1679 - before 1751)

• • 1. Gerardus / Garrett Dolmage (1697 - 1769)
    • 1.1 Jacob (c.1725 - c.1779) m. Anna Barbara Switzer
      • 1.1.(1-8) eight children born between 1750 and 1777
    • 1.2 John (of Ballyorgan)
    • 1.3 Garret (of Ballyorgan)
    • 1.4 Adam (b.1744) m. Elizabeth Piper
      • 1.4.(1-4) four children born between 1767 and 1783

• • 2. Johannes Jacob (1700 - c.1710)

• • 3. Adam (c.1703 - 1790) m. Maria Dorothea
    • 3.(1-11) eleven children born between 1739 and 1761

• • 4. Jacob (1710 - after 1781) m. Margaret [LNU] - emigrated to America
    • 4.1 Jacob (c.1736 - after 1784)
    • 4.2 Mary b.c.1739
    • 4.3 Garret b.1742
    • 4.4 John (1744 - c.1818)
    • 4.4 David (1746-1824)

• • 5. John (c.1715) m. Anna / Barbara / Anna Barbara
    • 5.(1-7) seven children born between 1744 and 1765

Retaining the 1990 construction : implications

In addition to the difficulties identified with placing John and Garret of Ballyorgan in the family tree, retaining Jones’s original 1990 construction would give rise to the following conclusions :

• Jacob, son of Garret, was the father of the Irish immigrants. He was born when his father was just 19 or 20, and started a family himself when he was aged just 19 or 20.

• Jacob (Sr) of NY, born before c.1736 (because he was older than Jacob Jr), could not have been an uncle of the Irish immigrants (because their father was Jacob), could not have been their 1st cousin (unless he also was born to a father aged just 18 or 19), and so must have been a distant cousin. He must have been a son of either Jacob b.1700, Adam, or another unknown son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes. He must thus have been born c.1720 or later.

• The Irish immigrants to New York emigrated as teenagers in company with a distant cousin named Jacob (Sr), aged about 30, rather than with their father, whose movements in Ireland or New York are not traced.

• The man named Jacob Dolmage who was described as being “very old” in 1781 may have been Jacob (Sr) of NY (who was then aged no more than 60). Alternatively, he may have been yet another man of this name - either the son of yet another unidentified son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes, or else someone who was completely unrelated but who coincidentally settled in the same area.

Summary

The weight of evidence is in favour of the Oct 2024 construction which :

• identifies Jacob (Sr) of NY as (i) the father of the young immigrants Jacob (Jr), John and David, and (ii) a son of the Palatine immigrant Johannes, born in Ireland c.1710 after Johannes’s first child of this name had died.
• places John and Garret of Ballyorgan as children of Garret b.1697.

Sources

1. ↑ Jones, Henry Z. (1990). The Palatine Families of Ireland, 2nd ed., p.40. Camden, MA : Picton. Viewed at https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/62327/images/i1526414-00065 (image 64/196)
2. ↑ Public papers of George Clinton, first Governor of New York, 1777-1795, 1801-1804, see pages 863 and 864