Jane Dods

Jane

• wife of John Dods / Dodson of Jamestown
• no known children
• Perhaps the daughter of William Dier but that age is wrong
• There is no evidence she was the daughter of Chief Eagle Plume, Chief of the Iroquois Indian Nation.
• do not confuse with Jane “White Feather” Dodd, (Fictional)

notes

The Muster of the Inhabitants of the neck-of-land in the corporation of Chares Cittie in Virginia taken the 24th of January 1624" Source: "Adventures of Purse and Person Virginia 1607-1624/5" by Virginia M. Meyer and John Frederick Dorman, 1987, 3rd ed., p. 8-9.

"The Muster of John Dods

John Dods aged 36 yeares in the Susan Constant April 1607 Jane his wife aged 40 yeares

Warning

Williams and Lucas, "The Dodson (Dotson) Family of North Farnham Parish, Richmond County, Virginia", Vol. 1, p. vi, Publisher's Preface:

"A word of warning concerning trying to claim kinship with people with whom we cannot prove a relationship, i.e.: Are we kin to the "John Dodson, 1607 of Jamestown, Virginia, or Benjamin Dodson, c. 1652 of Essex County, Virginia?

Some people would like to say that these men are the direct ancestors of Charles Dodson who died in 1701. They state that a John Dodson came with Captain John Smith in 1607 and the John Dodson had sons Jesse and William Dodson. It is further stated that the aforementioned Jesse Dodson was the father of Charles Dodson, born about 1649 and died about 1701, in Richmond Co., Virginia....(and so on, then)

it must be stated unequivocably that no legal records exist to prove this hypothetical descendancy of Charles Dodson."

Williams and Lucas looked for decades on the Dodsons.

see The Eagle Plume/Dodson Myth

John Dods married Jane (Unknown).

There are two main theories about who was this wife, Jane. One is that she was Jane Dier, the 15 or 16 year-old who arrived aboard the Marmaduke which arrived in November 1621.[9]. This assumption is based on the matching first names. As circumstantial evidence, the name Jane is a small point in favor, but the difference in ages argues strongly in the negative. When the Muster was taken, on 24 January 1624/5, Jane Dods was reported "aged 40 yeares." On that date, Jane Dier (born 1605-1606) was no more than twenty years (half the age of Jane Dods). Twenty years is a large discrepancy, too large it seems to be explained by the tendency to give rough estimates for ages. The unavoidable conclusion is that Jane Dier was not the wife of John Dods.

Other researchers assume that John Dods married an American Indian, usually a Princess, and often called "Princess Niketta," or "Jane Eagle Plume." It is unlikely that John Dods wife was a Native American as there is no notation beside her name in the 1624 Muster and other individuals who were Native American had the notation beside their name "Native". Following is what Nancy Egloff of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation wrote:

Dods was a laborer who, twice, accompanied a group with John Smith to explore the Chesapeake Bay and to meet with Powhatan, leader of more than 30 tribes in Tidewater Virginia at the time. However, we know nothing about his wife Jane. Finally, there is no documentation in any primary sources on the person often called “Princess Niketta,” alias “Jane Eagle Plume.” From documents, we do not know the names of any of Opechancanough’s children.[10]