I can remember, even as a young child, opening the local phone book and going down the list of everyone named Dutton, in the area of Decatur, Alabama, and Hartselle, and Danville, and Moulton. My Duttons — the few who were still around — lived in Danville or Massey. But there were a lot I didn’t know in Hartselle and Moulton, and even then, I wondered how they were connected.
William Dutton, my ancestor, only had one son, and his son, James Zachariah Dutton, only had one son who lived to have sons, my great-grandfather, Dan Dutton. By a similar process, of sons dying young, not having children or having only daughters, or moving away from the area, the descendants of Zachariah Dutton in Morgan County, Alabama, named Dutton, have gradually dwindled to only a handful. Duttons were much more prolific in neighboring Lawrence County, with a bumper crop of descendants of Zachariah’s sons Stephen Dutton and Edmond Dutton flourishing to this day. Some of those have overflowed back into Morgan County.
But in large part, the people named Dutton in Morgan County these days are not descended from Zachariah Dutton at all. Many of them trace their ancestry to a man who came here from Georgia just after the Civil War, Henry G. Dutton (born about 1830 in South Carolina, died 19 Jan 1911 in Lacon, Morgan County, Alabama), who was also prolific, having a dozen children.
I knew pretty quickly that Henry G. Dutton didn’t seem to “fit” with the Zachariah Dutton family, who all came to Alabama from North Carolina by way of Tennessee, and most of them before the Civil War. But who he was connected to has been a perplexing question for all the years of my research.
Biography of Henry G. Dutton
Henry G. Dutton was born about 1830 in South Carolina. The various census records in which he appeared throughout his life are not consistent as to either his birthplace or his birthdate — some said he was born in Georgia, and in the last two, 1900 and 1910, he seems to have gained ten years, with both placing his birth about 1820. But the earliest record, 1850, gives his age as 21, born in South Carolina.
In that 1850 record, he appeared with his parents in Floyd County, in northwest Georgia. The record appears to read Henry C., but this is definitely him:
He was the son of Thomas C. Dutton (born about 1797 in Georgia) and Miriam (born about 1809 in South Carolina). Many researchers give Miriam’s maiden name as Brooke or Brooks, but I have seen no verification of this.
Henry married his first wife, Elizabeth Frazier, daughter of Trustum and Nancy Frazier, on 26 Jan 1857 in Floyd County. Elizabeth was born about 1832 in Georgia. I have identified these as Henry’s older set of children:
- Mary Ellen Dutton, born about 1857 in Floyd County, Georgia, died 9 Oct 1929 in Yucca, Jackson County, Alabama; married John L. Jacoups on 17 Nov 1879 in DeKalb County, Alabama.
- Armetha Jane Dutton, born about 1858 in Chattooga County, Georgia; married David R. Garrett on 5 Aug 1884 in Cullman County, Alabama.
- Nancy Miriam Dutton, born 24 Mar 1860 in Georgia, died 6 Sep 1931 in Holliday, Archer County, Texas; married Theodius Walter Graham.
- James Robert Henry Dutton, born 15 Nov 1862 in Floyd County, Georgia, died 6 Jul 1927 in Nauvoo, Walker County, Alabama; married Eliza Ann E. McAnally.
- William B. Dutton, born about 1866 in Chattooga County, Georgia, died 6 Sep 1942 in Los Angeles, California; married Willie Inez Bean on 5 Oct 1896 in Parker County, Texas.
- Rebecca Lucinda Dutton, born about 1869 in Chattooga County, Georgia, died after 1930; married Jonas Earlington Yarbrough on 9 Aug 1888 in Morgan County, Alabama.
- David N. Dutton, born 4 Mar 1871 in Alabama, died 8 Jul 1928 in Lacon, Morgan County, Alabama; married (1) Cassie A. Franklin on 3 Mar 1892 in Morgan County, Alabama, (2) Lee Emma Lawrence, on 3 Apr 1910 in Morgan County, Alabama.
- Joseph Newton Dutton, born 11 Feb 1873 in Georgia, died 11 Jan 1921 in Lacon, Morgan County, Alabama; married Matilda Belle Higdon on 1 Nov 1904 in Morgan County, Alabama.
During the Civil War, Henry Dutton served in Company G, Sixth Georgia Cavalry, Confederate States Army, and was wounded four times, according to his pension application: through the jaw, at Harper’s Ferry in 1863; through the right thigh, breaking the bone, at Chickamauga in 1864; through the side at Cedar Run, Georgia; and through the side at Centreville, Virginia. Apparently he recovered well enough to live another forty-six years and move his family at least twice. There are repeated applications for a disability pension in his pension file, dated 1887, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898, and 1900, when he was apparently finally granted one. His difficulty in acquiring a pension may well be the reason why he added ten years to his age. He applied for an old age pension in 1907, stating then that he was 87 years old (when, if he was born in 1830, he would only have been 77).
Elizabeth (Frazier) Dutton died very soon after the birth of her youngest son, Joseph N. Dutton, in about 1873, possibly dying in childbirth; and the baby Joseph went to live with Elizabeth’s Frazier relatives. Henry married (2) Mrs. Mary Craig (Wilson) Mallett, a recent widow, daughter of John and Miranda (Nelson) Wilson, on 7 Jan 1875 in Chattooga County, Georgia. Mary was born 23 Apr 1836 in Walker County, Georgia. Between 1875 and 1880, the family moved to Alabama permanently.
Mary (Wilson) Dutton had a young son who came to live with the Duttons, and was inadvertently listed as a Dutton on the 1880 census:
- John Samuel Mallett, born about 1871 in Georgia, died after 1920; married Jennie Lee Rutledge on 27 Aug 1899 in Marshall County, Alabama.
Mary brought Henry Dutton a second set of children:
- Theron Allen Dutton, born about 1876 in Chattooga County, Georgia, died 22 Mar 1931 in Morgan County, Alabama.
- Jason Hardy Dutton, born 21 Jun 1878 in Alabama, died 15 Mar 1961 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama; married (1) Mattie Rutledge on 7 Nov 1900 in Morgan County, Alabama; (2) Ada Dessie Wilson on 5 Aug 1912 in Morgan County, Alabama.
- Maden Miranda Lavenia “Venia” Dutton, born 5 May 1880 in Alabama, died 21 Apr 1953 in Jasper, Walker County, Alabama; married John Henry Self on 19 Jan 1902 in Cullman County, Alabama.
- Tamer Elizabeth Dutton, born 23 Oct 1881 in Alabama, died 14 Sep 1927 in Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama; married Johnson S. Suit.
Henry Dutton also had a granddaughter, Bertha May Dutton, who lived with him until his death. Bertha, born 13 Aug 1898, was apparently the daughter of one of Henry’s two younger daughters. Following Henry’s and Mary’s deaths, she moved to Birmingham with her uncle Jason, and on 5 Dec 1919, married Irwin Nelson Stevenson. She moved to California in the 1920s, where she apparently disowned her southern heritage and told people that was she was from Michigan (according to census entries and her obituary).
Henry Dutton died on 19 Jan 1911, near Lacon, Morgan County, Alabama. His widow Mary died about a year later, on 21 Feb 1912, in Decatur. They are believed to be buried in unmarked graves at New Hope North Baptist Church Cemetery.
“Following my Duttons around”
I have often said that Henry G. Dutton and his family “seemed to follow my Duttons around.” I don’t think there was any intention there, but some awfully big coincidences. When Henry Dutton first moved to Alabama in the 1870s, he apparently settled near the Texas community in southeastern Marion County. This would put him within a few miles of the elusive William Dutton (born ca. 1824), son of Gerrard Dutton, who took the opportunity to absent himself from the 1880 census.
Henry apparently didn’t stay very long in Marion County. By 1882, he appears in Morgan County, where his son James was married. In Morgan County, he settled near Lacon, a good ten to fifteen miles away from where Zachariah Dutton’s descendants were living in Massey and Basham’s Gap. James later went to Franklin County, Alabama, and then back to Walker County, where Zachariah’s descendants were.
In Walker County, James Robert Henry Dutton, “a peddler and itinerant preacher” (according to his bio on WikiTree), settled near Nauvoo, where some of Zachariah’s Duttons were. The families no doubt knew each other there, and are even buried in the same cemetery, Liberty Grove. In fact, in at least one case that I know of, their descendants married each other.
Thomas C. Dutton and wider connections
I’ve known Thomas Dutton was the father of Henry Dutton for a long time, but years ago, once I determined that he wasn’t kin to “my” Duttons, I didn’t keep following the trail. But when I took up research of the wider Dutton family, I found new secrets, and mysteries, down that path.
Thomas Dutton evidently married Miriam around 1827–29. They had these known children:
- Martha Dutton, born about 1829 in South Carolina, died 30 Nov 1901 in Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina; married Richard Ingle about 1848 in Georgia.
- Henry G. Dutton, born about 1830 in South Carolina, died 19 Jan 1911 in Morgan County, Alabama; married (1) Elizabeth Frazier on 24 Jan 1857 in Floyd County, Georgia, and (2) Mrs. Mary Craig (Wilson) Mallett, on 24 Jun 1867 in Chattooga County, Georgia.
- Lucinda Dutton, born about 1832 in South Carolina; married William N. Hix on 8 May 1859 in Blount County, Alabama.
- Tamer Dutton, born about 1834 in Georgia; married Daniel Jackson Moody on 16 Nov 1859 in Blount County, Alabama.
- Richard Dutton, born about 1836 in Georgia; served as a private in Company B, 4th Battalion Alabama Volunteers, CSA, later known as the 29th Alabama Infantry Regiment; died 14 Aug 1862 in hospital at Greenville, Alabama, while in the service; married Susan Graves on 19 Sep 1858 in Blount County, Alabama.
- Beverly Allen Dutton, born about 1838 in Georgia; served in Company F, 48th Alabama Infantry, but deserted from Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in February 1865 at the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia; married (1) Mary E. Green on 16 Sep 1860 in Floyd County, Georgia; (2) Mrs. Harriet Eliza (Ethridge) Glenn on 26 Dec 1865 in Chattooga County, Georgia.
- Burton E. Dutton, born about 1840 in Georgia; served as a private in Captain Musgrove’s Company of Partisan Rangers, which became Company D, 12th Alabama Cavalry, CSA, and died of sickness while in the service; married Nancy J. Bentley on 5 May 1859.
- Sarah Elizabeth Dutton, born 28 Jun 1841 in Georgia, died 4 Nov 1914 in Bangor, Blount County, Alabama; married Matthias Madison Pannell on 6 Apr 1861 in Blount County, Alabama. The letter of permission for her marriage is one of the only records naming her father Thomas Dutton as Tom C. Dutton.
- John Andrew J. Dutton, born about 1843 in Georgia; served in Company B, 29th Alabama Infantry, CSA, the same company as his brother Richard; but survived the war and died 14 Aug 1902 in Blount County, Alabama; married Nancy C. (maiden name unknown).
You might have picked up on something from this list. Yes, Blount County, Alabama. Sometime during the 1850s, Thomas Dutton upped and moved to Blount County, the same place as the Hardin Dutton family of last article. In fact, in 1860, he was listed on the very next page of the census after Hardin Dutton, only four households away:
What are the odds that this man would go the same place as this other Dutton family, and not be related? But then again, what are the odds that Henry Dutton would go the same place as my other Dutton family, and not be related? I’ve found no indications that the Thomas Dutton family was kin to the Aaron Dutton or Hardin Dutton family; and as you’ll see below, the DNA does not match. But here is this family again, “following other Duttons around.”
Thomas Dutton Sr.
Where did this family come from? The fact that Henry Dutton was born in South Carolina (though he often switched between between saying he was born in South Carolina and saying he was born in Georgia), but his father Thomas C. Dutton was born in Georgia, turns out to be a clue: the family seems to have come from a place where people moved back and forth between Georgia and South Carolina easily, on the state line.
There were two men named Thomas Dutton on the 1840 census in Elbert County, Georgia, in northeast Georgia on the border with South Carolina: one aged between 30 and 40, and one aged between 70 and 80. They were not listed next to each other, but about ten pages apart. One supposes that the younger Thomas is Thomas C. Dutton.
- Thomas Dutton
- 1 white male between 30 and 40
- 1 white female between 20 and 30
- 1 white female between 10 and 15
- 1 white female between 5 and 10
- 3 white males under 5
- 1 white female under 5
- Thomas Dutton
- 1 white male between 70 and 80
- 1 white female between 60 and 70
- 2 white males between 20 and 30
- 1 white female between 20 and 30
- 2 white males between 15 and 20
- 1 white female between 10 and 15
In 1830, there were again two Thomas Duttons in Elbert County, one aged between 20 and 29, and the other aged between 50 and 60. Again, they were not listed adjacent, but about six pages apart. The younger man was actually labeled Thomas Dutton Junr.
- Thomas Dutton Junr.
- 1 white male between 20 and 30
- 1 white female between 20 and 30
- 1 white male under 5
- 1 white female under 5
- Thomas Dutton
- 1 white male between 50 and 60
- 1 white female between 40 and 50
- 1 white male between 20 and 30
- 1 white female between 15 and 20
- 1 white male between 10 and 15
- 1 white male between 5 and 10
- 1 white female between 5 and 10
- 1 white male under 5
- 1 white female under 5
With a little bit of creative interpretation, one can read these records to fit Thomas C. Dutton, born about 1797 in Georgia, and apparently his father, Thomas Dutton Sr., born about 1770. Thomas Dutton Sr. was also present on the 1820 census in Elbert County:
- Thomas Dutton
- 1 white male 45 or over
- 1 white female between 26 and 44
- 2 white male between 16 and 25
- 4 white males under 10
- 4 white females under 10
(Source: Georgia Historic Newspapers.)
Thomas Dutton Sr. had evidently been in Elbert County since at least the 1790s. He appeared on an 1815 tax digest in Elbert County; drew in the Georgia land lotteries of 1806 and 1827 (the latter could possibly be Thomas C.); and appeared on a list of Elbert County tax defaulters in 1796.
The Official History of Elbert County (Georgia), 1790–1935, contains several references to the Dutton family, including the record of a Nancy Dutton joining Van’s Creek Baptist Church on 6 Sep 1804.
At this point, I left the research here, with Thomas Dutton Sr. in Elbert County. There is a lot more to say about the family he may connect to — but I will save that for the next post.
Connecting Henry G. Dutton
Last year was the year of Y-DNA. I think I conducted seven or eight major Y-DNA tests. After discovering Samuel Dutton, “cordwainer”, and verifying his connection to the Duttons of Pennsylvania, I was excited to follow him up with the pursuit of Henry G. Dutton — especially after I discovered Thomas C. Dutton and his family in Blount County, Alabama, in 1860.
I didn’t have to look very far to find a tester. Shane Dutton was a friend of a friend on Facebook and a fellow alumnus of my high school alma mater. He was very glad to do a Y-DNA test and learn more about his family history. Shane is a great-grandson of David N. Dutton, one of Henry G. Dutton’s older set of children.
I wondered, since Thomas C. Dutton had shown up “next to” Hardin Dutton in Blount County, if his family would prove to be closely connected somehow — but honestly didn’t see how that was possible. Samuel Dutton (b. about 1737), “cordwainer”, was born in Pennsylvania and left for Kentucky in the 1790s. Thomas C. Dutton was born in the 1790s in Georgia, and his father Thomas Dutton Sr. didn’t appear to be connected the Duttons of Pennsylvania. Was it just a coincidence that the families ended up living close to one another in Alabama? Did they know each other and claim kinship?
When Shane’s Y-DNA came back, it was a surprise. He did not match the Pennsylvania-Maryland Dutton line of Samuel Dutton, but instead matched the other major unconnected branch of “Southern Duttons”: the family of John Dutton (b. about 1775 in South Carolina) and his son James Cass Dutton (b. 1808 in Virginia), Duttons who went to Arkansas.
There is so much story to tell here, and it’s difficult to restrain myself from telling it all at once, but — next post. This is the Dutton family of Sue Dutton Rodgers, our friend from the early days of our “Zachariah Dutton Mailing List”. In 2022, Mr. A. W. Dutton, a longtime member of the Dutton Surname DNA Project at Family Tree DNA, upgraded his Y-DNA test to the Big Y-700, the most advanced Y-DNA test available. At the time, he had no advanced matches, but I assured him that it would eventually pay off.
South Carolina Duttons
And now, it paid off. Now we had Shane Dutton, a descendant of Thomas Dutton (born about 1770 in or near South Carolina), as a close Y-DNA match to A. W. Dutton, a descendant of John Dutton, (born about 1775 in South Carolina). At the Y-111 level (111 STRs), M.S.D. (Shane) and A.W.D. were genetic distance (GD) 3 — that is, three STR differences between them. This is quite a close match. According to Family Tree DNA’s STR time predictor report, this would place their most recent common ancestor at being born about 1755. The two have STR matches to three other descendants of the Arkansas Dutton branch.
Both M.S.D. and A.W.D. are members of the Y-DNA haplogroup R-FTC44638. Family Tree DNA’s advanced analysis places the mean estimate of a common ancestor, based on the Big Y analysis, a little more distant than previously, at a mean average date of about 1573 — but the time ranges of the two estimates overlap, allowing the possibility that the c0mmon ancestor between the two men could have been born anytime between about 1000 and about 1800.* This is one case when the Big Y estimate was less than reassuring.
* By the Big Y analysis, with 99% certainty, the common ancestor of R-FTC44638 was born after 989 CE. With 95% certainty, he was born after 1221 CE. And with 68% certainty, he was born after 1415 CE. By contrast, with the STR-only analysis, there was 99% certainty that the common ancestor was born after 1490 CE, 95% certainty that he was born after 1596 CE, and 68% certainty that he was born after 1684 CE. The reason for the extended estimate from the Big Y is because some other neighboring branches — for example, R-FT366931 and R-FTD13301 — have a “long stem” compared to R-FTC44638, meaning that many more SNPs occurred in a time range when this branch, a “short stem”, has fewer. To fit all the SNPs into the tree chronologically, this branch’s TMRCA is extended to fit all the SNPs chronologically. Here is an article that explains the Big Y TMRCA methodology, and this one with more scientific detail.
Thomas Dutton (born about 1770) and John Dutton (born about 1775) could have been brothers, cousins, second cousins, or even more distant. But our paper trail places both in or near South Carolina at around the same early date, when there were not very many Dutton families in South Carolina. So this, at least, is progress. I will have much more to say on this, and a theory, in the next article.
English Duttons
The Y-DNA haplogroup for both M.S.D. and A.W.D. is R-FTC44638, a quite rare subclade of R-L21 > R-DF13.*
* Only 14 modern descendants of R-FTC44638’s ancestral haplogroup R-BY23382, whose common ancestor was born about 1800 BCE, have been tested; as opposed to 615 modern descendants tested of R-S1911, the ancestral haplogroup of R-FGC13478 whose common ancestor was roughly contemporary, born about 1750 BCE.
R-L21 is known as the “Atlantic Celtic” branch of R1b (the “trunk” haplogroup most common among men of Western European descent), and is often associated with the Insular Celts, the Celtic inhabitants of Britain and Ireland before the arrival of the Romans. On the other hand, the Pennsylvania-Maryland Dutton line belongs to haplogroup R-FGC13478, which descends from R-U106, known as the “Proto-Germanic” branch of R1b. While it is a very rough generalization, R-L21 can be considered the “Briton” haplogroup, whereas R-U106 can be regarded as the “Anglo-Saxon” haplogroup.†
† Does that raise a question about the Dutton line’s descent from Odard? Truthfully, there are nothing but questions. I’d like to get into those in another post. But supposing at least that Odard was Norman, even that doesn’t tell us anything definitive about his probable haplogroup. He could have been either R-U106 (which would be my guess; it was a haplogroup common not only among Anglo-Saxons but among all Germanic peoples, including Normans) or R-L21.
It has been a few thousand years since these two Dutton lines shared a common paternal ancestor. So it is not “the same Dutton line.” But despite that, I suspect the two branches might have a closer geographic connection.
Both of these branches almost certainly originated in the north of England. The group has STR matches to other men with names like Marsh, Exley, Calton, and most interestingly, Warburton. The last is too striking to be a mere coincidence. Though I have little firm proof, it appears likely to me that this Dutton line, line the Pennsylvania-Maryland Dutton line, originated centuries ago in the west of Cheshire.
Surnames had habitational as well as patronymical origins. It’s just as likely that a family would have taken the surname Dutton because they lived at Dutton as because they were descended from a family line called Dutton. Having an apparent match with a family that took the surname Warburton, indicates to me that this family was from that same neighborhood.
(Crop from a 1923 Ordnance Survey map, courtesy of National Library of Scotland.)
Family Tree DNA’s Discover Globetrekker tool, which plots the estimated locations of ancestral haplogroups and ancient migrations based on concentrations of matching DNA, archaeological remains, and user-reported ancestral locations, also places this haplogroup’s origins firmly in northern England, if not definitively in Cheshire.
We don’t know how many Dutton paternal lines exist in the England. We have DNA from only a very small sample. But I believe this is one of them, a true English Dutton line — in contrast to the claim by some researchers that this line, possibly the line of Jeremiah Dutton, previously had been Dolton, Dottey, or Doty.
Conclusion
From the beginning all the way to the present, the Dutton line of Henry G. Dutton and his ancestors has been a close neighbor to other Dutton families. Whether this is by coincidence, by kinship, or by some other affinity, it is difficult to say for sure. Henry’s father, Thomas C. Dutton, is the ancestor of several Dutton families in northwest Georgia and north central Alabama. Y-DNA research reveals that his father, Thomas Dutton Sr., has ties to one of the last major southern Dutton families whose origin has not been fully established, the line of John Dutton and James Cass Dutton in northwest Arkansas. Paternally, this family does not match the Pennsylvania-Maryland Dutton line, but shows all the marks of being an old Dutton family with probable roots in Cheshire.
In my next post in this series, I’ll finish tying this family together, with some research from twenty years ago that may be finally coming to fruition, on the family of Jeremiah Dutton and Daniel Dutton of South Carolina.
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