Doeg (tribe)
Encyclopedia
The Doeg were a Native American
tribe who lived in northern Virginia
. They spoke an Algonquian
language and may have been a branch of the Nanticoke
tribe, historically based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
. The Nanticoke considered the Algonquian Lenape
as "grandfathers". The Doeg are known for a raid in July of 1675 that contributed to colonists' arising in Bacon's Rebellion
.
family. They probably spoke Piscataway
or a dialect similar to Nanticoke
.
According to one account, the Doeg had been based in what is now King George County
, but about 50 years before the Jamestown
settlement (ca. 1557), they split into three sections, with groups going to Caroline County
and Prince William County
, and one remaining in King George.
When Captain John Smith visited the upper Potomac River
in 1608, he noted that the Taux lived there above Aquia Creek
, with their capital Tauxenent located on "Doggs Island" (also known as Miompse or May-Umps, now Mason Neck, Virginia
.) They gathered fish and also grew corn. Other hamlets were at Pamacocack (later anglicized to "Quantico"), along Quantico Creek
; Yosococomico (now Powell's Creek); and Niopsco (Neabsco Creek
). Associated with them were neighboring Algonquians
, the Moyauns (Piscataway
) on the Maryland side, and the Nacotchtank
(Anacostan) in what is now the Washington, DC area. Smith's map also shows a settlement called Tauxsnitania, thought to be near present-day Waterloo in Fauquier County
, within the territory of the Siouan-speaking Manahoac
tribe.
John Lederer
, who visited the Piedmont region of Virginia
in 1670, wrote that the entire area had been
frontier, then known as Chicacoan (Secocowon), some Doeg, Patawomeck
and Rappahannock
began moving into the region as well. They joined local tribes in disputing the settlers' claims to land and resources. In July 1666, the colonists declared war on them. By 1669, colonists had patented the land on the west of the Potomac as far north as My Lord's Island. By 1670, they had driven most of the Doeg out of the Virginia colony and into Maryland—apart from those living beside the Nanzattico/Portobago in Caroline County, Virginia
.
The Doeg continued to harass the English on the Northern Neck. In 1675, a Doeg raiding party crossed over the river and stole some hogs from Thomas Mathew, in retaliation for his not paying them for trade goods. Mathew and other colonists pursued them to Maryland and killed a few Doeg, as well as innocent Susquehannock. A Doeg war party retaliated by killing Mathew's son and two servants on his plantation.
A Virginian militia led by Bacon entered Maryland, attacked the Doeg and besieged the Susquehannock. This precipitated the general reaction against natives by the Virginia Colony that resulted in "Bacon's Rebellion
". Following this conflict, the Doeg seem to have become allied with the Nanzatico tribe, who paid for the release of some Doeg jailed for killing livestock in early 1692. The Doeg maintained a presence near Nanzatico at "Doguetown" (around Milford in Caroline County) as late as 1720.
, William Penn
's deputy, that he had been captured in 1669 by a tribe of the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora
in North Carolina
. He claimed they were called the "Doeg". Jones said the chief spared his life when he heard Jones speak Welsh
and further, that the chief understood it. Jones further claimed he stayed with the Doeg and preached to them for months. Returned to the English Colonies, he wrote down his adventure in 1686. His account caused some to speculate that these Doeg were related to the legendary Welsh prince Madoc
; however, historian Gwyn A. Williams
says, "This is a complete farrago and may have been intended as a hoax."
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribe who lived in northern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. They spoke an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
language and may have been a branch of the Nanticoke
Nanticoke Indian Tribe
The Nanticoke people are an indigenous American Algonquian people, whose traditional homelands are in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware. Today they live in the northeast United States, especially Delaware; in Canada; and in Oklahoma.-History:...
tribe, historically based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Eastern Shore of Maryland
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a territorial part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies predominately on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and consists of nine counties. The origin of term Eastern Shore was derived to distinguish a territorial part of the State of Maryland from the Western...
. The Nanticoke considered the Algonquian Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
as "grandfathers". The Doeg are known for a raid in July of 1675 that contributed to colonists' arising in Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony in North America, led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon.About a thousand Virginians rose because they resented Virginia Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Native Americans...
.
Background
The Doeg (or Dogue) tribe of Northern Virginia were part of the coastal Algonquian languageAlgonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
family. They probably spoke Piscataway
Piscataway language
Piscataway is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken by the Piscataway, a dominant chiefdom on the Western Shore of Chesapeake Bay, in present-day Maryland, United States. Piscataway, also known as Conoy , is considered a dialect of Nanticoke.This designation is based on the scant evidence...
or a dialect similar to Nanticoke
Nanticoke language
Nanticoke is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken in Delaware and Maryland, United States. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount chiefdom; the Choptank, the Assateague, and probably also the Piscataway and the...
.
According to one account, the Doeg had been based in what is now King George County
King George County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 23,584 people, 9,411 households, and 4,525 families residing in the county. The population density was 93 people per square mile . There were 6,820 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...
, but about 50 years before the Jamestown
Jamestown
-Saint Kitts and Nevis:*Jamestown, the name of a former town on the edge of Morton Bay on Nevis in the late 17th century-United Kingdom:*Jamestown, Rossshire, Scotland*Jamestown, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland*Jamestown, Fife, Scotland...
settlement (ca. 1557), they split into three sections, with groups going to Caroline County
Caroline County, Virginia
Caroline County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 28,545. Its county seat is Bowling Green. Caroline County is also home to The Meadow stables, the birthplace of the renowned racehorse Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and...
and Prince William County
Prince William County, Virginia
-National protected areas:* Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge* Manassas National Battlefield Park* Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge* Prince William Forest Park-Government and politics:...
, and one remaining in King George.
When Captain John Smith visited the upper Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
in 1608, he noted that the Taux lived there above Aquia Creek
Aquia Creek
Aquia Creek is a tributary of the tidal segment of the Potomac River and is located in northern Virginia. The creek's headwaters lie in southeastern Fauquier County, and it empties into the Potomac at Brent Point in Stafford County, south of Washington, D.C....
, with their capital Tauxenent located on "Doggs Island" (also known as Miompse or May-Umps, now Mason Neck, Virginia
Mason Neck, Virginia
Mason Neck is a peninsula jutting into the Potomac River to the south of Washington, DC. It is surrounded also by Belmont Bay to the west, Gunston Cove to the east, and Pohick Bay to the northeast...
.) They gathered fish and also grew corn. Other hamlets were at Pamacocack (later anglicized to "Quantico"), along Quantico Creek
Quantico Creek
Quantico Creek is a tidal tributary of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. Quantico Creek rises southeast of Independent Hill, flows through Prince William Forest Park and Dumfries and empties into the Potomac at Possum Point....
; Yosococomico (now Powell's Creek); and Niopsco (Neabsco Creek
Neabsco Creek
Neabsco Creek is a tributary of the lower tidal segment of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. The Neabsco Creek watershed covers about...
). Associated with them were neighboring Algonquians
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
, the Moyauns (Piscataway
Piscataway Indian Nation
The Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory is an unrecognized Native American tribe in Maryland that is related to the historic Piscataway tribe. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a...
) on the Maryland side, and the Nacotchtank
Nacotchtank
The Nacotchtank were a native Algonquian people who lived in the area of what is now Washington, D.C. during the 17th century. Their principal village was situated within the modern borders of the District of Columbia, on the eastern bank of a small river that still bears an anglicised variant of...
(Anacostan) in what is now the Washington, DC area. Smith's map also shows a settlement called Tauxsnitania, thought to be near present-day Waterloo in Fauquier County
Waterloo, Fauquier County, Virginia
Waterloo is a village in Fauquier County, Virginia, in the United States. Straddling the Rappahannock River at its confluence with Carter's Run, it is the location of what was, until the 1950s, the only bridge crossing the Rappahannock north of Fredericksburg.-History:The village has existed since...
, within the territory of the Siouan-speaking Manahoac
Manahoac
The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language American Indians in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the fall line, and east of the...
tribe.
John Lederer
John Lederer
John Lederer was a 17th-century German physician and an explorer of the Appalachian Mountains. He and the members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see the Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond...
, who visited the Piedmont region of Virginia
Piedmont, Virginia
The Piedmont region of Virginia is a part of the greater Piedmont region which stretches from the falls of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region is 50 miles wide, more or less, and 100 miles in length...
in 1670, wrote that the entire area had been
"formerly possessed by the Tacci, alias Dogi, but... the Indians now seated here, are distinguished into the several [Siouan] nations of MahocManahoacThe Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language American Indians in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the fall line, and east of the...
, Nuntaneuck alias Nuntaly, Nahyssan, SaponSaponiSaponi is one of the eastern Siouan-language tribes, related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan, Manahoac and other eastern Siouan peoples. Its ancestral homeland was in North Carolina and Virginia. The tribe was long believed extinct, as its members migrated north to merge with other tribes...
, Managog, Mangoack, AkernatatzyOccaneechiThe Occaneechi are Native Americans who lived primarily on a large, long Occoneechee Island and east of the confluence of the Dan and Roanoke Rivers, near current day Clarksville, Virginia in the 17th century...
and Monakin etc." Further, "The Indians now seated in these parts [the Siouans] are none of those whom the English removed from Virginia [the Doeg], but a people driven by the enemy [Erie?] from the northwest, and invited to sit down here by an oracle above four hundred years since, as they pretend for the ancient inhabitants of Virginia were far more rude and barbarous, feeding only upon raw flesh and fish, until they taught them to plant corn..."
The frontier
In the 1650s, as English colonists began to settle the Northern NeckNorthern Neck
The Northern Neck is the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This peninsula is bounded by the Potomac River on the north and the Rappahannock River on the south. It encompasses the following Virginia counties: Lancaster,...
frontier, then known as Chicacoan (Secocowon), some Doeg, Patawomeck
Patawomeck
The Patawomeck tribe of Virginia Indians is based in Stafford County, Virginia, along the Potomac River . It is one of Virginia's 11 recognized American Indian tribes. It is not federally recognized...
and Rappahannock
Rappahannock Tribe
The Rappahannock are one of the eleven state-recognized Native American tribes in Virginia. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the 17th century.-17th century:...
began moving into the region as well. They joined local tribes in disputing the settlers' claims to land and resources. In July 1666, the colonists declared war on them. By 1669, colonists had patented the land on the west of the Potomac as far north as My Lord's Island. By 1670, they had driven most of the Doeg out of the Virginia colony and into Maryland—apart from those living beside the Nanzattico/Portobago in Caroline County, Virginia
Caroline County, Virginia
Caroline County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 28,545. Its county seat is Bowling Green. Caroline County is also home to The Meadow stables, the birthplace of the renowned racehorse Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and...
.
The Doeg continued to harass the English on the Northern Neck. In 1675, a Doeg raiding party crossed over the river and stole some hogs from Thomas Mathew, in retaliation for his not paying them for trade goods. Mathew and other colonists pursued them to Maryland and killed a few Doeg, as well as innocent Susquehannock. A Doeg war party retaliated by killing Mathew's son and two servants on his plantation.
A Virginian militia led by Bacon entered Maryland, attacked the Doeg and besieged the Susquehannock. This precipitated the general reaction against natives by the Virginia Colony that resulted in "Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony in North America, led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon.About a thousand Virginians rose because they resented Virginia Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Native Americans...
". Following this conflict, the Doeg seem to have become allied with the Nanzatico tribe, who paid for the release of some Doeg jailed for killing livestock in early 1692. The Doeg maintained a presence near Nanzatico at "Doguetown" (around Milford in Caroline County) as late as 1720.
Hoax?
The Reverend Morgan Jones reportedly told Thomas LloydThomas Lloyd (lieutenant governor)
Thomas Lloyd was a lieutenant-governor of provincial Pennsylvania.He was born in Dolobran, Montgomeryshire, Wales, and subsequently educated at Ruthin School. He studied law and medicine at Jesus College, Oxford, from which he was graduated in 1661...
, William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
's deputy, that he had been captured in 1669 by a tribe of the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora
Tuscarora (tribe)
The Tuscarora are a Native American people of the Iroquoian-language family, with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. He claimed they were called the "Doeg". Jones said the chief spared his life when he heard Jones speak Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and further, that the chief understood it. Jones further claimed he stayed with the Doeg and preached to them for months. Returned to the English Colonies, he wrote down his adventure in 1686. His account caused some to speculate that these Doeg were related to the legendary Welsh prince Madoc
Madoc
Madoc or Madog ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. According to the story, he was a son of Owain Gwynedd who took to the sea to flee internecine violence at home...
; however, historian Gwyn A. Williams
Gwyn A. Williams
Gwyn Alfred "Alf" Williams was a Welsh historian particularly known for his work on Antonio Gramsci and Francisco Goya as well as on Welsh history.- Life :...
says, "This is a complete farrago and may have been intended as a hoax."