Edward Doty was a passenger on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower as a servant to Stephen Hopkins, who was making his second journey to the New World. Hopkins served about ten years prior under Capt. John Smith at Jamestown, Virginia Colony
Upon arrival of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, Doty was one of 41 male passengers who signed the Mayflower Compact where his name appears as "Edward Doten".
Doty was one of two indentured servants obligated to Stephen Hopkins, the other one being Edward Leister, and as such accompanied Hopkins and his family aboard the Mayflower. In Plymouth Colony records, Doty's name was also spelled variously as Doten (Mayflower Compact), Dotey (1626 Purchasers and 1643 bear arms lists), Dolton (1627 Division of the Cattle), and Dowty (1633/34 tax lists).
Edward Doty later became a wealthy land owner with servants himself, but his argumentative nature and display of temper caused him to be in the Plymouth court many times over the years. Doty was one of the Mayflower passengers that have left an extensive record of his personality. He had a quick temper that often was out of control and had many business dealings that in some cases bordered on the fraudulent. Other troublemakers were often removed from Plymouth (i.e. Isaac Allerton was forced out) but Doty lived there throughout the rest of his life.
Doty's first problem with the law came just after the Pilgrims had begun constructing their settlement. The early eighteenth century notes of Thomas Prince describe an incident of June 18, 1621 when the first duel (with a sword and dagger) was fought in New, England between two servants of Stephen Hopkins, Edward Doty and Edward Leister. The duel ended with one being wounded in the hand and one in the thigh. Their punishment was to be tied head and feet together for twenty-four hours without meat or drink. But soon their master Stephen Hopkins, apparently taking pity on their "great pains", made a "humble request, upon promise of a better carriage" and they were released by the governor.
The post-1632 records of the Plymouth Court, which has no existing records prior to that year, has twenty-three cases over the 20 years between January 1632 and October 1651 that involve Edward Doty. The records note such as fraud, slander, fighting, suit/countersuit, assault, debt, trespass, theft, etc. But although Doty appeared before the court numerous times, he was never punished for criminal activities beyond small fines. So even though he was charged with fighting and was sued by many persons for trading fraud and goods sales, almost all were civil cases and were not of a criminal nature. And other than his duel in 1621, he never had any physical punishment that was commonly given for crimes such as theft, serious assault and adultery. He was quite fortunate in this regard as punishments in that time were such as whipping, branding, banishment and the stocks.
Even with his periodic court cases, in which he accepted he outcome of all such actions, Edward Doty lived a normal life as a freeman, paying his taxes and all his debts. He periodically received land grants from court as with other residents, and received other property rights and benefits from being classed as a "first comer."
Records do not show that Edward Doty ever served on any juries or held any political office nor was ever appointed to any governmental committees, which was unusual for a Purchaser and early freeman. The only recorded instance of his involvement in anything of a community nature was from a town meeting of February 10, 1643 when he was assigned with George Clark, John Shaw, Francis Billington and others to build a wolf trap in the town of Plain Dealing."
