SORTING OUT THE CATORS
IN MARYLAND/VIRGINIA/DC:
 
DORCHESTER COUNTY AND 
BALTIMORE MARYLAND CATORS
Cator Generation Section 1

Updated 2016

Cator is an unusual surname...meaning there are limited Cators in any one area.  So, we have started to sort through the Cators in Maryland and surrounding area, hoping to find a way to link these "miscellaneous" Cators to our own District of Columbia and Prince George's County MD Cator line.   Your help will be greatly appreciated.  ANY of these miscellaneous Cators will be treasured by us.  Please help us by sharing new information, corrected information, family stories, photos, whatever, so we can together demystify the Delmarva Cators. We are happy to share what we have.  Please email us (Donna and Patrick Cator) at catorfamily@gmail.com.

SIR ANTHONY LeCOMPTE (From France) and
WIFE, HESTER DOTTANTTE (From Normandy)
Parents of Moses LeCompte  Early 1600s
 French/English emigrants, Monsieur Anthony & Madame Hester LeCompte. 

Anthony LeCompte was born in Picardie, France.  He immigrated with his family between 1650 and 1655 to the Colonies.  Later he returned to London and married Hester Dottanttee (French Normandy) on July 11,1661 in London and returned to America in 1664 with his wife and child/children(?).  Anthony died  in Dorchester County, Maryland Colony on September 9, 1673. 

From  Findagrave/Created by: Sue McDuffe::  "We know from the church register of St. Helen's Chapel Bishopsgate in London that Anthony returned to England in 1661 and married a young French woman, Hester Dottantte (also known as Esther Doatloan) from Dieppe, Normandy. Hester (most likely pronounced 'es-stair') was perhaps 20 years younger than Anthony. We know nothing about Hester's life before marriage, but we presume her family also fled France because of religious persecution.  Note:  St. Helen's Chapel Bishopsgate is the church that Shakespeare attended in the 1590s.

"We don't know how or where Anthony and Hester first met, but the proximity of Dieppe to Calais means the families may have been known to each other previously, or they may have lived in the same section of London along with other French emigrants of that period. Perhaps Anthony returned to England with the intention to secure a wife, gather supplies and start a family. We do know they settled on Anthony's 700 acres, a land grant from Lord Baltimore, which was later patented as 800 acres, on the Choptank River in the New World, a place first known as St. Anthony, and later referred to as Castle Haven Neck.

"Anthony and Hester raised their children along the creek and bay that would later bear their surname, and which become Dorchester County in 1669. Anthony was chosen as one of the county's first justices of the peace a few years before his death in 1673.  (www.lecompte.net)

"Hester and Anthony were the parents of six children:

"John/1662 m. Ann Winsmore
Moses/ m. Mary Skinner
Philip/died unmarried
Anthony/ m. Margaret Beckwith
Hester/ 1)Mrs Henry Fox; 2)Mrs William Skinner
Katherine/ 1)Mrs James Cullins; 2)Mrs Thomas Bruff

"(The LeCompte Family - History of Dorchester Co, MD)"

"Anthony LeCompte, a native of the Province of Picardy in France, left that country about the time of the conflict between Richelieu, the Prime Minister and Dictator of France, and the Huguenots, near the close of the religious wars and persecutions there. He sought refuge in England, family tradition states that while there he served in the English army for eleven years, where he won military distinction and royal titles.

Anthony began a shipping business in the Chesapeake Bay.  He settled on the Potomac River in St. Mary's County.  Learning that the Great Choptank River was being settled by French Huguenots, he journeyed there and established his home/lands, called "LeCompte's Bay."  Later he moved his family to the Potomac and settled upon the northern side of a creek to become known as LeCompte's Creek.  This area was raided by the natives and he had to prepare his own defense against them as the few settlers were still a far distance from one another.  He did fort himself in and did bring white servants with small arms, ammo and cannon weaponry to his home/land, and they did fight the Indians as needed and survived.

CASTLE HAVEN (From Maryland: A Guide to the Old State Line, by Federal Writers' Project 1940)

See Also:  http://www.lecompte.net/famous.htm#immigrant for info on Anthony and Hester

http://www.lecompte.net/places.htm#castlehaven for more info on Castle Haven and its location

http://www.lecompte.net/musings.htm for LeCompte DNA test results information

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/15232473 for History of Dorchester County

LeCompte History Notes by Tallulah LeCompte Reeder

MOSES LeCOMPTE and MARY SKINNER
Parents of Moses LeCompte (Jr.) Mid 1600s

When Moses LeCompte was born in 1664 in Dorchester County, Maryland British Empire Colony, his father was 46 and his mother, 19.

Mary Skinner was born in Dorchester County in 1667 to Thomas Skinner and his wife Elizabeth (Beckwith?).

Moses when about eighteen or nineteen years began to lose his sight, after which he married a lady by the name of Mary Skinner, the daughter of old Skinner from England that took up the land that is now owned by Joseph Byus (Per History of Dorchester County, Maryland by Elias Jones (see Google Books). Wedded in 1687 in Dorchester County, they had 11 children. The eldest was Phillip who lost his sight. Moses that lost his sight. Thomas also. Peter kept his sight. Samuel lost his. Joseph his. Anthony saved his, and William lost his. His daughters, Esther, Nancy and Elizabeth, all lost their sight. Per this same book 9 of the 11 lost their eyesight and 42 of this branch of the family became blind and in 1819 19 of those living were blind.  A possible cause of the blindness in this family is: Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).

Moses died in 1721 in Dorchester County at the age of 57.  Mary died 20 years later in 1741.

http://www.lecompte.net/musings.htm for the tale of an Indian curse; unlikely true.

MOSES LeCOMPTE (Jr.) and LEVINIA PATRICIA PATTISON (WIDOW OF MATTHEW DRIVER)
Parents of Mary LeCompte (Cator) Late 1600s

Moses I. LeCompte married second to Rebecca Stokes, daughter of Peter Stokes. Moses died in 1776 and was  buried at Taylor's Island, Dorchester County, Maryland, Great Britain.  He is not known to have had any children by Rebecca, who may have been a widow.

EDWARD & MARY LeCOMPTE CATOR 
and CHILDREN; Early 1700s

Edward Cator was born in 1711 in either Monmouthshire, Wales, or Dorchester County MD British Empire.  He died in 1747 in Dorchester County, MD.

1711 Dorchester County, MD: Mary LeCompte born as daughter of Moses and Lavinia (above generation) and the granddaughter of Moses LeCompte and Mary Skinner on her father's side, and Thomas & Ann Pattison on her mother's side.   

1744:  Edward wed his bride, MARY LeCOMPTE; they had three children before Edward died in 1747...a too short marriage. 

In 1748, Mary married Marmaduke Dove and they had three children.

In 1752 their third child was born; Marmaduke died this year also.

That same year she married a man named FNU Davey.  They had no children. No other info about him is known. 

Mary's death date is not known to me.  She is buried in Dorchester County. 

Nothing known yet to me about Edward Cator's ancestry!

See also...Note I have not compared this site to mine and do not have any knowledge of the author of the site or the source of his content, but mention it for your review: Dorchester County MD genealogy site by Bill K.

 

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