Fourth Generation


30. Caleb DORSEY Jr was born on 18 July 1710.115 He was baptized on 5 March 1713 in St Ann's Parish, Albemarle, VA.116 On 5 May 1732 he was an ironmaster in Elk-Ridge, Anne Arundel County, MD.117 Caleb died on 26 June 1772 at the age of 61 in "Belmont", Howard Co, MD.115 He has reference number 872. The Methodists, p 101: Priscilla Hill Dorsey, wife of Caleb, the "Iron Master,:" invited Methodist preachers to the Dorsey plantation at Belmont on a regular basis before the war.

p 104-5: The itinerants (Methodist circuit preachers) were also unembarrassed to rely on women for more material support. "Women are weak," Asbury began a letter to wealthy Philadelphia Methodist Martha Haskins, before continuing in a more ingratiating vein: "but remember Eve, and Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Shebah's Qeen, Elizabeth, Anna, Phebe and such like, bring the gifts to enrich the temple of God." Considering the affluence of may of the itinerants' female supporters in and around Baltimore - Rebecca Ridgely, Priscilla Ridgely, and Prudence Gough were each recipients of substantial estates from their fathers and husbands - and of their women followers in Delaware, Philadelphia and the Hudson River Valley, it is hardly surprising that Methodist leaders hoped to reap some advantage from the association. Asbury in particular relied on cash support from prominent Methodists to boster his small stipend after the war. And as he was to write to Rebecca Ridgely, "my Benefactoress," years later, his stipend would not have been sufficient income "if I had not here and there a Friend like Mamma Ridgely."
The wealth of most of these women, however, was tied up in family and dower arrangements, controlled by their male relatives or reserved as bequests for other women in the family. Itinerants seeking cash support from their wealthy patronesses were likely to be disappointed.

Caleb DORSEY Jr and Priscilla HILL were married on 10 February 1735 in Anne Arundel Co, MD.115 Priscilla HILL, daughter of Henry HILL and Mary DENWOOD, was born on 9 May 1718 in West River, MD.115 She died on 8 March 1782 at the age of 63 in Maryland.118 She has reference number 686.

Caleb DORSEY Jr and Priscilla HILL had the following children:

+97

i.

Henry Hill DORSEY.

+98

ii.

Rebecca DORSEY.

+99

iii.

Samuel DORSEY.

+100

iv.

Mary DORSEY.

+101

v.

Milcah DORSEY.

102

vi.

Eleanor DORSEY was born on 28 December 1749 in Anne Arundel Co, MD.119 She died in 1813 at the age of 64 in Baltimore Co, MD.119

+103

vii.

Margaret DORSEY.

104

viii.

Priscilla DORSEY was born on 26 June 1754 in Anne Arundel Co, MD.120 She died in 1756 at the age of 2 in Anne Arundel Co, MD.120

+105

ix.

Edward DORSEY.

+106

x.

Priscilla DORSEY.