A Noble Birthright
Foibles of youth.
Dorothy Scott was baptized on 30 Jan 1628/9 in the parish church of St. Alphage in Canterbury, daughter of Thomas Scott, the younger, gentleman, and of Judith (Thompson) Scott.1
Her father died when she was a child of but three years, and her grandfather Scott two years later.2
The estate supported the family well, and there is no evidence that her mother remarried.2
She says about her youth, that she was a child when she did “eat of the forbidden fruit and transgress God’s law,”
but it does not appear that she was what we today would call “wild.”3
Before her conversion to Quakerism she had always had a natural desire to search out the truth among the religions of the day.
As an adult Dorothy was heir of a considerable estate bringing her an income of 500£ a year.
Chief among the properties was the manor of Eggarton, Felborough Hundred, County Kent,
which her great-grandfather Charles Scott of Scot’s-Hall had purchased during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.4
Dorothy marries a businessman.
On 24 Jun 1650 Dorothy was married in the parish church of St. Bartholomew-the-less in London by Mr. Tabour to Captain Daniel Gotherson.5
Daniel was the only surviving son of Nicholas and his second wife Joyce (Brooks) Gotherson,
baptized on 22 Nov 1618, so would have been ten years Dorothy’s senior.6
It appears that Daniel had been married before, as two of his children, who were born previous to 1652, figured prominently in his will.7
His father had been a farmer in the parish of St. George-the-Martyr in Southwark, Surrey, who had died in 1636.8
Daniel was a partner with Francis Soane in Newington, doing business as chapmen and coptners, i.e., merchants (traders, even speculators) in Southwark.
Not long after his marriage to Dorothy the firm took out bankruptcy.9
The business goes bankrupt.
When their petition for bankruptcy was granted in 1651, Daniel was called “Captain” and two years later “Major.”
In 1653, during the Commonwealth period (1650-1660) he petitioned the Council of State for some consideration for services rendered.10
It seems likely that his captaincy would have been acquired during the political and social unrest and military activities that resulted in Cromwell’s power.
Daniel was later a Royalist, among those politically inclined to promote the re-establishment of King Charles II to the throne in England.
Dorothy claims to have supported the Royalists’ cause for about ten years most likely counted before her conversion to Quakerism in 1657.
Her husband too may well have not been too supportive of the Protector’s government at this time, but probably not openly,
as he is later able to give information surreptitiously against those opposing King Charles II.
