The Doherty Family

Our earliest known ancestor is William Doherty. William was born in about 1770, but his parentage is not known at this time. The marriage records of Jefferson County, Tennessee, show the marriage of William Doherty on November 12, 1797. The bride's name is either unreadable or blank. It does list as the BM or witness, the name James Doherty. Luckily, his son, John, wrote of his parent's marriage in their family Bible as follows, "Records of my Father, William Doherty and Nelly his wife were married Nov. 12th ase 1797." Nelly was the daughter of Joseph Bennett Bradford and Margaret Wilson. William and Nelly had ten known children.

No record of William and Nelly Doherty in Jefferson County, Tennessee, after their marriage. Other members of the Bradford families continued to live in that vicinity. It is not known where William and Nelly lived between the years 1797-1812. We do know that in fifteen years, nine children were born to them. The next record I have found of William and Nelly Doherty is in Bedford County, Tennessee, where William Doherty is listed in the tax list in 1812.

Goodspeed's History of Andrew and Dekalb Counties, Missouri, page 360, states that William Doherty was a soldier in the War of 1812, and an early resident of Cumberland County, Kentucky. There was a William Doherty in 2nd Regiment Mounted Gunmen (Williamson's) Tennessee Volunteers who served from September 28, 1814 to April 27, 1815. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in Captain John Hutching's Company. Each non-commissioned officer, musician, artificer and private traveled 25 miles in marching from Shelbyville in Bedford County, place of residence, to Fayetteville in Lincoln County, where mustered into service. Our ancestor, William Doherty is the only person by that name that has been placed in Bedford County, so it is believed at this time that the military records do refer to him.

William Doherty signed an affidavit on December 10, 1815 wherein he stated:

I, W. Doherty do solemnly swear, that the foregoing account is accurate and just: That I actually furnished and kept in the service of the United States the number of horses therein charged; and that I have not received from the United States, or any person whatsoever, any compensation therefor; nor in any manner transferred or alienated my claim by power of attorney, receipt, account, or otherwise. Sworn to before me Wm Doherty

this 10 day of December 1815

T. F. Elliston Justice of the Peace

I DO CERTIFY, That in settling the accounts of against the United States, that I did not allow or pay to him any part of the above claim - Signed duplicates.

RECEIVED OF Robert Brent, Major General this 12th day of February 1817 the sum of Eighty four Dollars, and Eighty Cents, being in full for the services of my horses, at forty cents per day each, for the periods a above stated, - Having signed duplicates hereof.

Wm Doherty Lt

There is a Tyler Daughtry in the 1820 census for Bedford County, who may be our ancestor. (If this is true, William's middle name was Tyler (Taylor), and his second son was named for him.) The "History of Missouri - 1881," relates that William's son, Joseph, " . . came to Missouri, in 1824, but had been in the state previous, temporarily, having attended the first land sales at Franklin, Missouri in 1818." The Doherty family did emigrate to Missouri sometime in the late 1820s.They have not yet been found in the 1830 census, in either Tennessee, or Missouri. Joseph B. Doherty was in Clay County, Missouri, on Friday, December 10, 1830, when he was sworn in as a deputy sheriff.

Some researchers think that Nelly died in about 1817, while the article on "The Bradford Family of Fauquier County, Virginia," published in the "Genealogies of Virginia Families," Volume I, states that William and Nelly Doherty moved to Missouri. It is generally believed that William and Nelly Doherty did come to Missouri with their children, in about 1828. I hope further research will discover when, and where they died, and their burial sites.