Magdalen West - Daughter of Captain Richard West
Magdalen West whose second husband was Hercules Dobbs, ancestor of Castle Dobbs, Carrickfergus. Their Great Grandson, Arthur Dobbs (pictured right), born in 1689 (a Great Great Grandson of our original Captain Richard West), had a long and distinguished career, becoming mayor of Carrickfergus, a Member of the Irish Parliament and Surveyor General of Ireland. Regarded as an improving landlord, he was fascinated with the New World (America) and with exploration. In 1746, he organised two expeditions to discover the North West Passage. In 1753 he was appointed Governor of North Carolina, where he was respected as a fine administrator who served his new state with great vigour. Dobbs was also instrumental in encouraging the emigration of the Jackson family, whose son was to become one of America’s greatest presidents - Andrew Jackson.
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| Governor Arthur Dobbs |
When war began, North Carolina's unprotected frontier settlements were considered at risk from Indians friendly to the French. In 1755, Governor Arthur Dobbs persuaded the legislature to fund "a Barrack and Fort for the Company on the Western Frontier." Construction was underway by the spring of 1756.
In December 1756, the only known contemporary description of Fort Dobbs was written as:
"A good and Substantial Building of the Dimensions following (that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty four feet and Twenty-two, In height Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls which are made of Oak Logs regularly Diminished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains three floors and there may be discharged from each floor at one and the same time about one hundred Muskets the same is beautifully situated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River."
Fort Dobbs was the only frontier provincial fort in the colony of North Carolina. It served as the military headquarters for the frontier company (approximately fifty men) as well as a safe-haven for settlers.
The fort was attacked on the night of 27th February 1760 when more than seventy Cherokee Indians were repelled. One colonial boy was killed, two soldiers and one volunteer injured and approximately twelve Cherokee were wounded and killed. The encounter was described in a dispatch to Governor Dobbs:
"We had not marched 300 yards from the fort when we were attacked by at least 60 or 70 Indians ... We received the Indian's fire: When I perceived they had almost all fired, I ordered my party to fire which We did not further than 12 Steps each loaded with a Bullet and 7 Buck shot, they had nothing to cover them as they were advancing either to tomahawk or make us prisoners ... the Indians were soon repulsed with I am sure a considerable Loss, from what I myself saw as well as those I can confide in they could not have less that 10 or 12 killed and wounded ... On my side I had 2 Men wounded one of whom I am afraid will die as he is scalped, the other is in a way of Recovery, and one boy killed near the fort."
By the end of 1761, the British had essentially won the war and only thirty troops remained at the fort. Colonial leaders disbanded them as settlement moved far west of the fort. The neglected fort was in ruins by 1766.
Francis Dobbs
Francis Dobbs
A nephew of Arthur Dobbs was Francis Dobbs (1750-1811, 3rd Great Grandson of our Captain Richard West), a member of the Irish House of Commons until its dissolution in 1800, and friend (and some say inspiration) of Thomas Russell - ‘the man from God knows where’. Francis became well known for a speech made in the House of Commons in which he predicted the return of the Messiah - to Ireland no less! Philip Orr in his article on Francis Dobbs, featured in the book ‘A Man Stepped Out for Death’, explains how Dobbs may have arrived at this conclusion. Based on the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel, Dobbs claimed that “Ireland is to have the glorious pre-eminence of being the first kingdom that will receive him...”. Philip Orr explains that ‘it was the final part of Dobbs’ speech that caused real amazement in his hearers’. Referring to the 41st chapter of the Book of Isaiah, he argued that ‘one small nation with a history of struggle against oppression would be chosen to usher in the arrival of the millennial Messiah’. He said that an army of 144,000 strong, described as ‘harping with harps’ and being ‘clothed in fine linen’, whilst they gathered at a place called Armageddon to fight against evil. Ireland is well known for its association with struggle, and to the harp, and to the linen industry, and he further compared the place of Armageddon to the similar sounding Armagh...
