Joseph Dabbs

Joseph was born in 1700. He died at the age of 49 in 1749.

General Notes
- Children:
  1. William Dabbs (ca 1734 - 1804) + Catherine _?_ ( - 1790/91 or bef 1807)
  2. Richard Dabbs (circa 1735 - 1809) + (1) Elizabeth Foster (1730 – bef 1804), (2) Anne Cunningham
  3. Nathaniel Dabbs (ca 1737-40 - 1800) + Elizabeth Haney (ca 1743 - after 1820)
  4. Joseph Dabbs ( - 1781) + Hannah Kolb (ca 1753 - )
  5. Eleanor Dabbs died in infancy
  6. Mary Dabbs (1743 - 1831) + Patrick Henry Boggan (ca 1725 - 1817)
  
  Joseph was a ‘sub-sheriff’ in Goochland County at the time he married Nanny Hoggatt, according to the court records of Goochland County (1728-1733). In this role, he was paid for carrying out the ancient and gruesome practice of hanging and quartering people convicted of a crime. In this case, it was the execution of two negro slaves, documented in the following court record:
  
  The County Levy Court in October, 1733, allowed Thomas Walker and Joseph Dabbs, Sub-Sheriffs, 4970 pounds of tobacco for their services in connection with the trial and execution of Champion and Valentine, such services including: “executing Champion and Valentine, providing tarr, burying the trunks, cutting out the quarters, a pott, carts and horses, carrying and setting up the heads and quarters of the two Negroes at the places mentioned by Order of Court, for gallows and ropes to hang the said two Negroes, and for ‘jusolvents’ and persons twice lifted.” The lives of Champion and Valentine were valued at thirty and forty pounds current money, respectively.
  
  Typically, this involved a partial strangulation, disembowlment, and finally quartering of the body, not necessarily in four parts. The body parts were drenched with tar, and then hung up in various parts of the realm as a warning. This practice, for cases of treason, was abandoned in England in 1821, and was last performed there in 1746. The English colonists in America evidently applied the practice in their efforts to maintain control over their slaves.

Click here for details of Joseph's family with Nancy (Nanny) Ann Hoggatt