Dolby, Mary Ann
Mary Ann Dolby (1834-1898)
Chesterfield, NH
Mary Ann Dolby was born in New Hampshire around 1834. While she would later live within the household of Charles Dolby of Winchester and Chesterfield, NH, historical documentation also lists her mother as Ann and her father as Cyrus Dolby of Vermont. Her birth parents’ names still need to be verified. If Charles Dolby was her father, Mary would have been born in Walpole, NH, in 1834.
By the 1840s, Charles Dolby had relocated to Winchester, NH and then to Chesterfield, NH by 1850. Mary Ann Dolby, in her late teens, had found an opportunity to make money in nearby Keene, NH, where she worked as a domestic servant to George A. Balch and family. Her work would have required her to live within the household in Keene rather than commute.
Four years after appearing in the 1850 census, Mary Dolby gave birth to a daughter (father unknown). She named the baby Mary E. Dolby in 1854. Now caring for a child, Mary Ann moved back home to Chesterfield to live with Charles Dolby again. The 1860 census records 72-year old Charles Dolby residing and farming in Chesterfield, NH. Also in the household was 26-year old Mary Ann Dolby and 4-year old Mary E. Dolby.
Mary Ann Dolby eventually went back to work as a housekeeper. In the 1870 census she appeared as a working member of Eli Black’s household in Chesterfield. Conflicting documentation places Mary in Vermont and New Hampshire at the same time. The Rutland, VT, Independent newspaper reported that a woman of color named Mary Dolby married Cyrus Williams in Rutland on January 4, 1870. Details of this marriage are still unknown.
Eight years later, Mary Ann Dolby married for a second time to James H. Williams, possibly a close relative of Cyrus Williams. Mary and James were married in Rutland on November 6, 1878. Mary Ann was 38 years old at the time. Her father was listed on the marriage record as Cyrus Dolby and her mother as Ann. It was a second marriage for James as well. At the time of their marriage he was raising five children: Nancy (b.1864), George (b.1866), Hattie (b.1868), Mary E. (b.1869) and Wallace (b.1871). His former wife, Martha Brooks had died sometime in the early-to-mid 1870s.
Within three years, in 1880, the entire Williams family moved to Westminster, VT. James continued to work as a farm laborer while Mary kept house and the children attended local schools. One year later, a tree fell on James H. Williams and he died at the age of 45 years on December 6, 1881. The Williams children stayed in Vermont where they grew up and were married. One of the Williams daughters, Mary E Williams moved to Chesterfield, NH, in the 1880s before marrying in Concord, NH, and residing there for the duration of her life. James’ wife, Mary Ann (Dolby) Williams, however, moved back to New Hampshire alone.
A warranty deed from Warner, NH, in 1887 indicates that Mary Ann (Dolby) Williams purchased a parcel of 29.5 acres of land, known as the Thomas Hunt place, for $250 from George and Sophronia Savoy. Mary lived on that property for a decade before reselling it to George Savoy in 1898 for the sum of $150. Her health was declining at the time, as noted in the Kearsarge Independent newspaper in January 1898.
Mary Ann (Dolby) Williams passed away in Warner, NH, at the age of 67 from heart disease on January 10, 1898. The newspaper noted that she had died in her home on North Road, which may indicate that the Savoys allowed her to stay in the house until her death.
In her last will and testament, Mary Williams instructed the executor of her will to pay all debts and bills she might have. Of the net proceeds from the sale of her estate, she gave ¼ to the living children and grandchildren of her late husband James H. Williams. One fourth was to go to Wallace Williams. One fourth would go to Harriet Williams who may have been married but Mary Ann was unaware of the name of the husband. One fourth would go to Mary E. Williams who may have been married but Mary Ann Dolby Williams was unaware of the name of the husband. And the remaining ¼ of the estate would go to the minor children of her late husband’s deceased son George Williams, whose names she was not aware of.
See also: Charles Dolby and Mary Isadore Williams
SOURCE MATERIALS
Kearsarge Independent, January 14, 1898; January 21, 1898
New Hampshire Deeds, Warner, 1887, 1898, 1899- Merrimackdeeds.com
New Hampshire Death Records, Warner, 1898- Ancestry.com
New Hampshire Town Reports, Warner, 1898- Ancestry.com
Rutland Independent, January 8, 1870, page 8.- Newspapers.com
U.S. Federal Census, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880- Ancestry.com
Vermont Vital Records, Marriages, Rutland, 1878- Ancestry.com
Vermont Vital Records, Deaths, Westminster, 1881- Ancestry.com
Warner Historical Society, research by Rebecca Courser and Lynn Clark
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
MARY ANN DOLBY (1834-1898) was born in Vermont in 1834 to Cyrus Dolby. She had a daughter in 1854 named MARY E. DOLBY (b.1854, NH). Mary Ann Dolby married JAMES H. WILLIAMS in Rutland, VT in 1878. James had children from his previous marriage to Martha Brooks (d.1870s) including: Nancy Williams (b.1864), George Williams (b.1866), Hattie Williams (b.1868), Mary E. Williams (b.1864) and Wallace Williams (b.1871). Mary Ann Dolby died in Warner, NH, in 1898.