JOHNSON and SCHAUFELBERGER GENEALOGY
DARE Narrative
Capt. WILLIAM DARE 2
William Dare emigrated to America about 1680 3 where he settled first in Philadelphia, opening the "Blue Anchor" tavern on Dock Creek and maintaining a wharf next door. He sold the building in 1683 and in 1695 he purchased 100 acres at Back Neck, Fairfield Township, Salem County, New Jersey (between the Back and Cohansey Creeks) and removed there. He engaged in a number of real estate transactions in Salem County [Cumberland County after 1748] and was particularly active between 1695 and 1698. He is described in some of these deeds as a "mariner". Eventually he moved, and remained, on 200 acres of land at Nantuxet Neck below Newport.
Captain Dare participated in Queen Anne's War and was active in the military from 1702-1713, being captain of the militia south of the Cohansey River. In December 1703 and again in September 1704, he was appointed Sherriff of Salem County by Lord Cornbury. Also in 1704 he was appointed a Ranger and in 1707, 1708 and 1710 he was a Justice.
He signed his will on March 15, 1719-20 leaving his estate to his wife, Constant, and his 6 children and "my son Jeremiah Nixson"--probably his son-in-law and husband of Hannah Dare who is not named in the will.
BENONI DARE 1
Benoni Dare, a farmer, was active in the community of Cohansey, holding the position of Constable in 1727, Surveyor of Highways in 1730 and Overseer in 1732. He was also Master and part-owner of the sloop Flower (built at Greenwich in 1737) and served as a military Captain, under Nicholas (or Leonard) Gibbon, in 1748 for the North Cohansey River.
On September 10, 1730, he purchased 300 acres in Stow Creek Township (on the northeast side of the road from Jericho to Roadstown) from Nicholas and Leonard Gibbon and remained there for some twenty years before retiring to his 100-acre plantation at Greenwich Township. He also owned 100 acres of marsh that included Tindall Island.
His inventory--taken August 13, 1770--totalled 263 pounds 10 shillings and 9d and his will was signed with a large B. He was predeceased by his sons Elkanah and John, and by his first two wives.
FOOTNOTES
1 Sources are Benoni DARE, Hitchner Temporary Webpage - pafn10 - Generated by Personal Ancestral File from Erichson, Roberta Hitchner, Family lines of Edward Scott Hitchner and Rebecca Cole Bitters (originally compiled 1952, Pitman NJ), Benoni Dare2 Sources are RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project Captain William Dare of Cohansey 6August 2001 from Book of Commissions,Volume AAA PP.6, 11, 53, 181, et Passim; Mark & Sarah Ewing by Sarah Weaver REED; and Dare Family Hist (1939) by Nellie Grosscup LEDDON; also William DARE from The Descendants of Captain William Dare Vol. 3, Compiled by Robert Dallas DARE / Historian- Edward Everett GROSSCUP, Gloucester County Historical Society Woodbury, NJ 1995, and Re.robkelsay from Goldrup, Tom, The Dare Family.
3 However, his emigration is frequently listed as 1669 when he would have been about fourteen years old but is contradicted by his estimated marriage date of 1684 in England. At Seamore About Cumberland - A County Born of Hope, Optimism, it states that "Captain William Dare came from Dorsetshire in 1695 to settle in Fairfield..." The date of 1680 is from Re.robkelsay from Goldrup, Tom, The Dare Family.