John DILL

                   Dill Family information available in "Notes"

MY DILL ANCESTORS
by Ellis Harold Dill
Origin of the Dill name
Hereditary surnames are a comparatively recent development in Europe. Most People had only
one name prior to about 1100. As the population grew, individuals came to be distinguished by
occupation, location, patronymic, or physical characteristics. When William the Conqueror
invaded England he ordered his new subjects who went by only one name to adopt surnames.
The Normans possessed both given names and surnames, and the same system was ordered for
the English so as to keep an accurate record of them.
There are indications that the earliest Dill families are of Danish origin.1 Descendants appear to
have migrated to Germany, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland and America. The name may
come from the herb of the parsley family that is called in old Anglo-Saxon dile, and which would
have the final e sounded. Various spellings have evolved: Dill, Dils, Dills, Dille, Dilly; maybe
Diehl, Deal, Dale, Dell, etc. The final s may have been added to show possession or inclusion
and later retained by the family so recorded. The final e may have been retained in Germany
where all letters are sounded. Diehl or Deal is more the way Dill would be pronounced in much
of Europe. The most common and doubtless basic spelling in English is Dill.
There are early records of the Dill name in Scotland.2 A Thomas Dill witnessed a charter by
John Skinner, Burgess of Inverness, about 1360. A Marjorie Dyll held land in "Invernys" in
1361.
Some Dill names occur early in the history of America. Rachel Dill arrived in Virginia in 1637.3
A Thomas Dill is listed as a resident of Lancaster County, Virginia, in 1665.4 Lawrence Dill
arrived in the Sommers Islands (Bermuda) in 1673,5 Henry Dill arrived in Virginia in 1702.6
Annanias Dill and Wilhelm Dill arrived in New York in 1710.7 Daniel Dill of York was in
America in 1660. Capt. George Dill, mariner, was a proprietor in Salem in 1638. Thomas Dill
of Medford, son of Peter and Thanks Dill of Concord, married Mary Pierce at Woburn in 1705.
Children of George Dill and Elizabeth Dill were baptized in1687.8 No doubt, there were many
others before 1710.
The number of different surnames in the United States is surprisingly large. In 1790, the total
population of the States was 2,505,371 and there were 27,337 different surnames. In 1964, the
social security roles included 152,757,455 account numbers. A machine count covering only the
first six letters discovered 1,091,522 different surnames. Thus, there are probably over
1,500,000 different surnames. The number of names which frequently occur is much smaller;
but even the relatively rare name of Dill has a large number of occurrences. The Dill name ranks
about 1,539th in occurrence with an estimated 17,835 individuals with that name. On the other
hand, Bell ranks number 54 with 248,400 persons.
1NSM, pg. 1. Initials here and following refer to the appended bibliography.
2 MMJ, pg. 287.
3"Accompts of the Tristram and Jane", ed. by Martha W. Hiden. The Virginia Magazine of History and
Biography. 62:3 (July 1954) pp. 424-447.
4 MMJ, pg. 287.
5Original Lists of Persons of Quality. ed. by John C. Hotten. Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1974.
6Cavaliers & Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land. v.3, pg. 64. Nell Marion Nugent abstractor. Virginia
State Library, Richmond, 1979.
7Palatine Heads of Families. Boyd Ehle compiler. Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 1969.
8 JLD, pg
2
The first name can also be a clue about the family. First names are called given or Christian
names because early Christians changed their pagan first names to Christian names at baptism.
In 1545, the Catholic Church made the use of a Saint's name mandatory for baptism, so that for
centuries first names were confined to the John-and-Mary tradition. In all western countries
during the Middle Ages, there were only about 20 common names for infants, and John and
Mary were the most common. About one half of the population of the United States today have
names derived from the New Testament: Elizabeth, Mary, John Joseph, etc. It is little wonder
that one encounters so much trouble sorting out the many people with the name of John or Mary
in the Dill records.
In the 1600s many Protestants rejected anything associated with Catholicism and began to use
names from the Old Testament: Elijah, Rebecca, Joshua, etc. We see a number of such names in
the Dill records.
Middle names weren't used until the 15th Century when a second first name was used as a status
symbol by German nobility. Many years passed before the practice became widespread. Middle
names did not become popular in the United States until after the Revolutionary War when it was
common to use the mother's maiden name.
Titles attached to a name have meanings that have changed over the years. Esquire originally
meant someone much respected, one step away from a knight. Gentleman was one step down
from and Esquire. Esquire and Gentleman were expanded over the years to include someone
with special social standing in the community. Also Senior and Junior appended to names did
not necessarily imply a father son relationship. They could have been an uncle and nephew who
had the same name and lived near each other. The term cousin was widely used to mean an
extended family, not just the child of an aunt or uncle.
Some Dill Family Lines
(i) One line has been spoken of as the Holland line9. A David Dill is supposed to have come
from Holland as a soldier in 1689 with William of Orange. It is not proven whether he was an
Englishman send by James II to Holland, or originated in Holland, or whether the whole
reference to Holland is in error. However, it would be an interesting coincidence in light of the
reference to Holland as the source of the John Dill family of Caswell County, North Carolina.10
(ii) One Dill line descends from George Dill who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1639.
Along with other members of his family, he had survived a Bermuda shipwreck. Some of the
family remained there but George came on to Salem. His descendants moved south to Maryland,
South Carolina, and Alabama. A descendant, Katherine Dill (Mrs. James A. Lee) reported in
1931 that her grandfather was born in Maryland in 1757, and her father was Joseph Dill of
Talladega, Alabama.11
(iii) It is known that Admiral Somers ship, Sea Venture, foundered on the Bermuda Island reefs
in 1609, and the island became know as Somers Island to the English. Some survivors continued
on to Jamestown, Virginia. Lawrence Dill arrived on Somers Island in 1673 with his wife
Elizabeth and several children. He died in 1690. His will dated 16 October 1690 named his wife
and and children: Abraham, Joseph, Samuel, Benjamin, John, Mary (wife of George Plummer),
9 NSM, pg. 1
10HFD, pg. 10.
11NSM, pg. 1.
3
Mariam, and Martha.12 The sloop William and Mary of Bermuda was cleared to use the York
river in Virginia between October 1703 and May 1704, with John Dill the Master and Joseph
Dill the owner.13 Virginia tax records from 1704 indicate that a Benjamin Dill owned 467 acres
of land in Isle of Wight County.14 A South Carolina will15 dated 19 May 1731 and probated 2
Jan 1745 states: "I Joseph Dill of James Island Berkeley County, SC, a Master Mariner . I will
to my son Joseph all my land in BermudaI will to my son John all my land on James Island.
The remainder to be kept for my daughters namely Elizabeth Mary and Ann Dill." These may
have been sons of Lawrence.
(iv) Another line leads from Scotland to Dillsburg, Pennsylvania:16
M1. David Dill, born in Scotland in 1605, had a son
M2. Francis Dill who went to Ireland and there had a son
M3. John Dill., who had a son
M4. Matthew Dill, born in 1698 in Monaghan, County Donegal,
Ireland, who came to America in 1735 and was in York County,
PA, by 1740, and died there in 1750
Matthew became a Captain in the Pennsylvania militia and is know in genealogy as Captain
Matthew Dill. He died in 1750 and is buried in the old cemetery near Dillsburg, PA.
Closely related to this line is Francis Dill, born in Ireland about 1748, who came to America and
settled in Ohio, producing a large number of descendants in that State.
(v) In his book written in 1983, Alonzo Thomas Dill17 cites information provided by Miss Nancy
Kinghan of Belfast, Northern Ireland, about her ancestors, as follows:
A1. John Dill of Tullinadale, Fannet, County Donegal, Ireland18.
A2. John Dill of Corry, Ballynastocker, Fannet, County Donegal, Ireland.
whose sons are "said to have gone to America"
A2. David Dill, b. c1650, of Glenalla, Later Aughadreenagh,
m. Catherine Sheridan (?) of Drogheda.
A3. Francis Dill (1695-1783?) of Aughadreenagh,
m. Rebecca Anderson
A4. John Dill (1726-1804) of Springfield, Fannet.
12 MMJ, pg. 288-289.
13 MMJ, pg. 289.
14 MMJ, pg 290.
15 Book 1740-1747,page 274. Probate judge Office, Charleston, SC. See "A Collection of Upper SC
Genealogical and Family Records", Vol. 11.
16NSM , pg 2.
17ATD, pg. 59.
18 The Ordinance Survey of Ireland, Discovery Series, Map number 2, shows Corry near Ballymastocker
Bay on the Fanad Peninsula in North Central County Donegal. There is also a Tullynadall on the Fanad
Peninsula. I assume that these are the modern spellings of the old place names.
4
m. Susan McClure (1745-1807), oldest daughter of Richard
McClure of Convoy.
A4. Mark Dill (1742-1731) of Springfield
m. Mary McClure (1752-1796), youngest daughter of Richard
McClure of Convoy.
A5. Rev. Richard Dill (1786-1854) of Ballykelly, Co.
Londonderry, m. Jane Gordon (1795-1840) of Carnstroan,
County Antrim.
A6. Jane Gordon Dill (1833-1909)
m. Rev. John Kinghan (1823-1895)
(grandparents of Miss Kinghan).
A3. David Dill
m. Anne Moore
A4. Francis Dill (1755- )
"went to America, probably Ohio, in 1779."
In this kind of descendants chart, A1 is the principal ancestor, A2 denotes his children, A3
denotes the children of A2, etc,
The last Francis may be that one cited in the preceding paragraph. John (A1) may be a
descendant of David (M1 ). John (A1) is listed on the Hearth Money Roll of 1665 for County
Donegal along with a David Dill. Each was charged with one hearth, the number of hearths in a
building being the unit of taxation.
Pioneering in America
The settled area in 1700 stretched inland about 20 miles along the coasts of New Hampshire and
southern Maine and 50 miles along the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
From New York an arc of settled land reached to Albemarle Sound, penetrating inland about 100
miles in south Pennsylvania and in central Virginia. Far to the south an isolated rectangle, with
Charleston as its center, extended 75 miles along the coast of South Carolina and nearly 50
miles into the interior.
The frontier moved slowly westward. Mississippi became a State in 1817. Texas became a State
in 1845. Oklahoma became a State in 1907.
Unorganized individuals and isolated families played a greater part in this frontier advance than
in the settlement of New England, although the Appalachian pioneers cooperated in an informal
way in traveling, clearing land, building cabins, defending their claims, and fighting the Indians.
The Scotch-Irish were effective Indian fighters and usually occupied the farther edge of the
frontier.
The Scotch-Irish
Following 1607, England, making another wrongheaded effort to cope with Ireland, settled
thousands of Lowland Scots Presbyterians in turbulent Ulster to replace the natives. Three
generations later they were a thriving yeoman-craftsman caste, still Presbyterian with Scots
tongues, practicing intensive farming mixed with cottage industry. After William defeated James
at the battle of Boyne in 1690 with the support of the English Protestants and Scottish
5
Presbyterian colonists of the Ulster Plantation, Britain enacted repressive Penal Laws (1695-
1727) designed to suppress the Irish. But these laws were also applied to Ulster. One section of
the Penal Laws caused ruinous restrictions on the industry developing in Northern Ireland and
this, along with the tithes for support of the Anglican Church, sorely chafed the Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian manufacturers of Ulster. The Irish Presbyterians worshipped on suffrance and
were excluded from all posts in the government they had helped to preserve. In addition,
between 1715 and 1720 a series of natural calamities, a series of crop failures and other blows,
intensified the economic problems of northern Ireland. Many of these Scotch-Irish, seeking
political freedom and economic gain, became the earliest wholesale emigration of Irish to
America in the 18th century. Large scale north Irish emigration to the American colonies began
in 1718. Many of them arriving through Philadelphia.
Delaware
In 1682, Wm Penn divided DE into "hundreds" for purposes of taxation. The Hundreds are
thought to have been groups of 10 families, figured at 10 members per family, including
servants. There were originally 5 Hundreds in Kent County: Duck Creek, Little Creek, Saint
Jones (which became Dover in 1823), Motherkill (which became Murderkill), and Mispillion.
Some hundreds were subsequently subdivided and renamed.
In a letter of 1727, the provincial secretary of Pennsylvania, commenting on the influx of
"Presbyterians" from Northern Ireland through the ports of Delaware Bay, stated that "These
immigrants settle generally toward the Maryland line, where no lands can honestly be sold till
the Penn family's dispute with Lord Baltimore is decided."19 By "Presbyterians", he presumably
meant the people whom the British called Ulster Scots and are now referred to as Scotch-Irish.
As early as 1698 Presbyterian congregations had been established at Philadelphia and in the
Delaware Bay ports of Lewes and New Castle.20 The Philadelphia Presbytery, which included
these early congregations, tried to reach out to the settlers of Kent County, noting "the desolate
[religious] condition of the people", and sent ministers to preach among them.21
Early Dill families in Delaware
The is some existing evidence of the original Dill settlers. Pensylvania records of 1713 show
that John Dill owned 200 acres in Kent County near Bear Swamp22 and a Kent County surveyor
reported in 1722 that John Dill had applied for a warrant of 200 acres near Bear Swamp23 on
which he had settled some years earlier24.
William Dill and John Dill are the only Dill families listed in the record of Kent County tax
assessments25 for the Murderkill Hundred from 1726 through 1735. John Dill, Jr., appears in
1736. There are no surviving records for 1745-1747. John, son of William, appears in 1748.
There are no surviving records for 1749-1750. The notation John Dill, Sr., appears for the last
19The Scotch-Irish in America, by Henry Jones Ford. New York, 1969. pg. 264.
20The Scotch-Irish in America, by Henry Jones Ford. New York, 1969. pg. 261-262.
21Presbyterians on Delmarva: The History of the New Castle Presbytery, by James H. Lappen, n.p. 1972, p. 6.
22 Jeter, pg. 290.
23Early Pennsylvania Land Records, Minutes of the Board of Property for the Province of Pennsylvania.
ed. William Henry Egle. Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1976.
24 Margaret McDonald Jeter (MMJ)asserts that this John Dill is a son of Lawrence Dill of Bermuda
(above), the same John Dill who captained the sloop William and Mary in Virginia in 1701.24 This is an
interesting but unproven hypothesis
25State of Delaware, Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, Bureau of Archives and Records
Management, Kent County Assessments 1727-1850. Microfilm by the American. Genealogical Lending
Library. Bountiful, Utah.
6
time in 1751 where his name is written in and then crossed out. Also appearing in 1751 are
Solomon, Job, John (son of William), and William (his brother). The notation John Jr. appears
last in 1754. William, son of William, appears last in 1754. Job is listed and crossed out in
1757. William is listed and crossed out in 1763. From 1764 on, there are several persons named
John Dill. After 1767, the number of Dill families listed in Kent County grows rapidly. In the