Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/18

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4
Virginia Biography

are many, chiefly historical and genealogical. The card index of the Virginia State Library devotes twenty-three cards to the enumeration of his books and pamphlets, while the "Richmond Standard" was enriched by his many contributions during his three years' associate editorship. His library is the envy and delight of historians and students of history, the term "book miser" having been applied to Mr. Brock by a witty friend. He has material, about ready, for a history of Virginia, and should such a history be issued in his thorough painstaking style, it will be of incalculable value. As historian and register of the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution, since its inception in 1880, he is now its secretary. His honorary membership in the William and Mary chapter of the famous Phi Beta Kappa Society was conferred in partial recognition of his abilities and invaluable service to his city and state. His membership in about seventy learned societies of the United States, Canada and Europe have been many of them conferred in recognition of his high standing. He is also a member of the Masonic order and is past worshipful master of his lodge.

Mr. Brock married (first) April 29, 1869, in Richmond, Sallie Kidd Haw, born in Hanover county, Virginia, July 13, 1835, of English descent, died February 6, 1887, leaving two children: Elizabeth Carrington and Ann Beaufort. He married (second) Lucy Ann Peters, born in Richmond, December 15, 1855, daughter of Walter S. Peters, a merchant of Richmond, and his wife, Victoria (Jackson) Peters. Child by second marriage: Robert Alonzo (2), now a law student at Richmond College. The family home is at No. 517 West Marshall street, Richmond.

William de Leftwich-Dodge, a native of Virginia, is descended from one of the oldest American families which located first in New England. This name has been traced to a remote period in England, and has been very widely distributed throughout the United States, beginning with the earliest settlement of the New England colonies. It has been distinguished in law and letters, in divinity, in war, in politics and in every leading activity of the human family, and is still identified with the progress of events in New England and other states. It has turned out from Harvard nineteen graduates, from Yale a dozen, from Dartmouth ten, from the University of Vermont ten, from Columbia College eight. Union College six, Andover Theological Seminary five, Bowdoin College five, University of Wisconsin five. Brown University three, Colby University three, Williams College two, and Middlebury College one. The records of the Colleges of Heraldry in England show that a coat-of-arms was granted to Peter Dodge, of Stockworth, county of Chester, in 1306. and later a patent to John Dodge, of Rotham, in the county of Kent, in 1546. It is declared that he was descended from Peter Dodge, of Stockworth. The name is found frequently in various sections of England, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were Dodges of honorable character and connection in the counties of Cheshire, Kent, Norfolk and Down. On May 11, 1629, there sailed from the harbor of Yarmouth, England, the "Talbot," a vessel of three hundred tons, and the "Lion's Whelp," a neat and nimble ship of one hundred and twenty tons, and they arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, on the June 29 following. This marks the arrival of the first of the name of Dodge in America.

Tristram Dodge, described as "a fisherman formerly of New Foundland," was one of the fifteen heads of families who settled Block Island, politically described as the town of New Shoreham in the state of Rhode Island. He sailed from Taunton, Massachusetts, with the others in April, 1661, and received a grant of three acres of land, southeast of the harbor on Block Island. It is apparent that his occupation was that of a fisherman after his arrival there, as these small grants were made for the purpose of encouraging fisheries. He must have been a native of North England, as it is found that his sons came from that region near the river Tweed in 1667, and settled on Block Island, where they were made freemen, July 2. 1670. Tristram Dodge was made a freeman of the colony, May 4, 1664, and was a sergeant of the local militia in 1676. He was dead in 1720, at which time the records show his estate as intestate.

William Dodge, fourth son of Tristram Dodge, was made a freeman in July, 1670, in New Shoreham. He married