William Duff
(?-?)
Dove, Duffe, Duph
Records Located:
Rent Rolls:
Y
Debt Books:
N
Deeds:
Y
Court:
Y
Tax Lists:
N
Parish Register:
N
Probate for Others:
N
Will:
N
Inventory:
N
Administration Account:
N
Known Kin:
Possible Kin:
Notes:
Well. What to say about the elusive Mr. Duff? The evidence is scant about this man, who may or may not have been a servant of John Kirk. On the one hand, there are references in early patent records and later court testimony to land claimed by William Duph/Duffe/Duff as early as February 1666 — but on the other hand we have John Kirk claiming headrights in November 1669 for transporting William Dove and later testimony that William Duff lived with John Kirk and had dubious dealings with Kirk’s wife. There’s no record of his death but he disappears from the county records after 1693. Prior to his disappearance he was sued in the county court by John Rowell, and multiple writs against him were returned non est inventus (not to be found), which suggests he may have relocated elsewhere on the Eastern Shore by about 1690 — we say on the Eastern Shore because John Rowell did manage to settle the case by June of 1693, which indcates Duff was still in the area.
Here’s a brief summary of the evidence:
PATENT RECORDS
EE:194, 9:200 [SM2-12:200] ~ Survey of WATKINS POINT for John Horsey 20 February 1665 [1666] locates land running easterly by Pocomoke bay side to the mouth of a small creek dividing it from the land of William Duph
FF:16, 10:9 [SM2-13:9] ~ Survey of COLEBURNES PURCHASE for William Coulbourn 1 March 1665 [1666] locates land running southeast to the land of William Duffe
HH:479, 12:392 [SM215-9:479] [SM2-15:392] ~ Headrights for John Kirk 30 November 1669 for transporting himself, his wife Joan, his daughter Sarah, and William Dove [Note: We thought this could be a variant spelling for William Duff, and that still seems like a possibility, but how could John Kirk be claiming headrights in 1669 for a man whose name is associated with land surveyed in 1666? We would reject linking this headright entry to William Duff were it not for the later land commission testimony stating that William Duff lived with John Kirk and raised cattle on Kirk’s land. We can’t quite make the link, and yet it seems unlikely that these were two different men.]
21:249 [SM2-24:249] ~ Survey of DICKENSONS FOLLY for John Kirk 21 April 1680 locates the land on the north side of Pocomoke Bay near Duffs Creek (repeated in the patent CB2:279)
21:233 [SM2-24:233] ~ Survey of WOOVER MARSH for John Kirk 20 April 1680 locates the land on the north side of Pocomoke Bay on the east side of Duffs Creek in marshes adjacent to land where Kirk lives; the description also references the boundary of a parcel formerly surveyed for William Duff where Kirk lives (repeated in the patent CB3:459)
COURT RECORDS
COURT C1774-4:124 ~ Criminal trial of John Garrett suspected of killing his servant Patrick August 1677 with witnesses William Duffe, Richard Wilson, Benjamin Deords, John & Mary Makettrick, George Hasfurt, John Rowell, John Parsons, and William Cheeseman
COURT C1774-6:62 ~ Civil trial of Walter Lane v James & Jane Broughton August 1688 with witnesses Catherine Tully, Sarah Holland, and William Duff for Lane and witnesses Richard Webb, Andrew White, and Hope Taylor the Broughtons
COURT C1774-7:183 ~ Writs returnable November 1690 include return non est inventus of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell about the debt of a cow and calf
COURT C1774-8:26 ~ Writs returnable January 1690 [1691] include return non est inventus of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell
COURT C1774-8:80 ~ Writs returned by the sheriff March 1690 [1691] include return non est inventus of a third capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell
COURT C1774-8:83 ~ Writs returnable June 1691 include a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell with summons to witnesses for the plaintiff Isaac Boston, Esau Boston, and Mary McMillian
COURT C1774-8:146 ~ Writs returnable August 1691 include return non est inventus with a copy of the writ left at John Kirk’s plantation of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell with summons to witnesses for the plaintiff Isaac Boston, Esau Boston, & Marcy Fountain
COURT C1774-9:144 ~ Writs returnable November 1691 include second return non est inventus of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell
COURT C1774-10:preface 2 ~ Writs returnable August 1692 include return non est inventus of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell
COURT C1774-10:95 ~ Writs returnable November 1692 include return cepi of a capias against William Duff to answer John Rowell with summons for witnesses for the plaintiff Isaac Boston, Esau Boston, & Mary Mcmillion
COURT C1774-10:248 ~ Actions agreed, withdrawn, or dismissed June 1693 include John Rowell & William Duff with a notation “Agreed Sa[i]th plts Attorney”
COURT C1774-37:69 ~ Land commission for Stephen Horsey on tract WATKINS POINT 17 July and 12 August 1745 includes testimony about William Duff
- deposition of Kirk Gunby age 42: about 30 yrs ago his father John Gunby told him that John Kirk told him that he [Kirk] bought William Duff’s right of land for a knife and sheath or a dozen pipes
- deposition of William Coulbourn age 66: his father William Coulbourn bought a steer of William Duff and carried it from John Kirk’s plantation
- deposition of Capt. Michael Holland age 84: about 50 odd years ago he frequently used the plantation of John Kirk; at that time William Duff lived with John Kirk and it was in general talked of in the neighborhood that John Kirk bought of William Duff the right of the land where John Kirk lived for a trifle
- deposition of Penelope (Coulbourn) Holland age 74: about 50 odd years ago [as above]; she further says that her mother wanted to buy a cow of William Duff and William Duff did make a present of a cow to her mother and the cow was driven from the plantation where John Kirk lived
- deposition of Charles Cottingham age 70: about 50 years ago it was frequently talked of in the neighborhood that William Duff had been at work in the neck that is commonly called Kirks Neck and John Kirk’s wife was traveling along with William Duff with her hands behind her and William Duff “put his prick into the said Kirks wifes hand” and John Kirk threatened to sue William Duff and for fear of Kirk so doing and for a knife and sheath William Duff did deliver up to John Kirk his right of an entry of a piece of land
- deposition of Ann Ward widow of Stephen Ward age 61: about 45 years ago it was frequently talked of in the neighborhood [as above]
- deposition of Thomas Bell age 52: he never heard of any purchase that John Kirk made of William Duff of the land where John Kirk lived upon Kirk Creek
- deposition of Abigail Bell widow of Anthony Bell age 72: she never heard of any purchase [as above]
- deposition of Joseph Ward age 62: about 50 years ago William Duff lived with John Kirk; he never heard that William Duff had any land or that he had no land
- deposition of Samuel Ward age 60: about 50 years ago his father Cornelius Ward told him to take notice and told him that William Duff never had land and told him that William Duff had a small stock of cattle that ran in the neck commonly called Kirks Neck
And so far as we know, that’s it for evidence about William Duff. So many questions remain unanswered. Could there be a sufficient gap between the time these men migrated to Maryland and the time John Kirk claimed his headrights for William Duff and William Dove to be the same man? Did William Duff have land surveyed for him, and if so did he assign that survey to John Kirk, as was reportedly ‘frequently talked of’ in the 1690s? Did Duff leave Somerset County in 1690, and is there information to be found about him in the neighboring counties? And you might well ask, why on earth have we spent so much time trying to trace the one individual? But conversely, how many people like Duff passed through the area leaving barely a trace?