John Dorrance

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Husband John Dorrance ¹

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           Born: 12 Jul 1733 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 9 Jan 1804 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. Samuel Dorrance (1685-1775) 1
         Mother: Elizabeth Smith (      -1750) 1

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Wife

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General Notes: Husband - John Dorrance

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"The Wyoming of bloody record was mainly settled by emigrants from Connecticut, and the region known as such constituted a county under home jurisdiction to which the name Westmoreland was given, as describing its relation to the mother Colony; as Connecticut under its charter from King Charles, extended from Narragansett Bay, on the east, to the Pacific Ocean, on the west, this Wyoming region, being embraced within its boundaries, was then considered as being an integral part of its territory. The first attempt of the Connecticut people to establish a permanent settlement was made in 1762, by the holders of what was called shares in the Susquehanna Land Company's purchase from the Six Tribes, or Nations, of the Iroquois." Nothing came of this attempt "as, during the following year, after twenty of their number had been murdered by the savages, the remainder were forced to abandon their rude huts at the mouth of Mill Creek, and return to their friends in the East, baffled but not defeated." In February, 1769, "another advance detachment of forty emigrants from Connecticut, representing the Susquehanna Land Company, arrived in the Valley," and after a bloodless fight with the Pennsylvanian claimants of the lands temporarily abandoned by the first party, settled down to a not altogether peaceful occupation of the lovely and fertile territory. Of this party, or those closely following it, were John and George Dorrance, sons of the Rev. Samuel Dorrance of Voluntown. The first named, in the celebrated test case for the title to lands at Wyoming, between the Pennamites and Yankees (Van Horne's Lessee vs. Dorrance), was the defendant.

1 —, Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889), Pg 253.

2 —, Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889), Pg 254.