Robert Dodge, author of "Tristram Dodge and His Descendants in America", Press of J. J. Little & Co., New York, 1886, states in his introduction:

"Difficulty of the subject; without record, save the crude coeval entries at Block Island; his adhesion to tolerant Rhode Island with the other settlers, and early founding the Baptist Church -- the only Church on the Island -- show them to have been a company of Baptist Dissenters from England..."

Rhode Island did not have any custom of recording births, deaths, marriages, grants of land, etc. In this way, they differed from the rest of New England. In 1856 records started being kept, but it "was left as an almost voluntary requirement without adequate penalty."

In 1695, a faithful town clerk, Nathaniel Mott, copied from an earlier parchment volume, the fact that Tristram Dodge was one of 16 purchasers and original settlers -- in April, 1661.

There is also given evidence that Tristram attended meetings in Roxbury, Massachusetts, at the house of Dr. Alcock in 1660.This leaves the conclusion, according to Robert Dodge, that Tristram almost certainly knew our ancestors, William and Richard, and must have recently arrived from England with his family of our sons. According to Robert Dodge, "they neither joined the exclusive church in either colony, Salem, Boston, Lynn, or Plymonth, held office, nor received grants of land therein; but exiled by the persecutions of Church and State in England, they sought refuge in their own independent domain of Block Island, where they established a pure democracy of true civil and religious liberty."

"We are able, by the deeds of his sons and of his grandsons at Cow Neck and New London, as well as from other public contemporary events...to fix approximately the time of his death, his own and their probable ages; the names of the first generations; the boundaries of the "Dodge Lands" on the island; their emigration, and settlement of New London and Cow Neck".

According to Robert, Tristram Dodge and his four sons were part of a party of 15 who sailed on board the Shallop from Taunton, Massachusetts for Block Island, April 1661.

"The allotment of land, known for generations as the "Dodges' Lands," was mapped by surveyors; but their map is no longer extant on the island, and we find it described, at the time of the voluntary partition after his death, between his four sons, by their releases of 1720-3." (p. 34)

In 1665, Tristram purchased from "the Province of New York (by the N.Y. -- his license dated April 14, 1665) the island of 500 acres, yet called "No Man's Land," lying two leagues south-west from Martha's Vineyard."

"Of his four sons -- Israel, John, William, and Tristram, Jr. -- Israel is on record as purchaser and settler of land in 1694, in the North Parish of New London, Connecticut (now Montville), where he died in 1745."

The other sons and children, viz., John, Tristram, Jr., and William Dodge, remained on the island and became progenitors of a very numerous race; some of whom emigrated in after generations, and whose descendants are now to be found in almost every State, and frequently in eminent stations."

Theron Royal Woodward built upon the book by Robert Dodge, when he enlarged on the Tristram Dodge Genealogy. "Dodge Genealogy Descendants of Tristram Dodge" published 1904 by Lanward Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois.

The dedication pages consists of the following:

Theron Royal Woodward has printed a statement by the warden, Simon Ray, 81 yrs. old at the time, who testifies that the first purchasers were to accommodate fisherman promoting the fishing trade, and Tristram Dodge Sr., a fisherman came from Newfoundland. (p. 5)

Records that state Tristram came from N.S. which some theorize to be Nova Scotia, could also be New Salem as those letters were designated for that town.

Theron also states that descendants of David Britain Dodge (John2, Tristram 1) have carefully preserved records that say that the sons of Tristram followed him in 1667 and that they came from north of England near the River Tweed. "This statement is corroborated by many families scattered widely over the United States."

The information on Tristram Dodge came from "Dodge Genealogy, Descendants of Tristram Dodge" by Theron Royal Woodward, 1904, reprinted in 1988 by the Dodge Family Association.

Descendents of Tristram Dodge might be interested in viewing a webcam of Block Island at: http://www.blockisland.com/panorama/ and in viewing web page of The Cow Neck Peninsular Historical Society.