Darky Gothrin: A Relationship to Old Peter?

We know Dorcas (Darky) Gothrin was daughter of Ruth Skaggs Bishop, wife of John Bishop from Darky's marriage record:

1796, February 20 – Owen ODonald and Darkey Gothrin, surety Jacob Bishop; consent of parents John and Ruth Bishop; Jacob Bishop made oath that Darky Gothrin, daughter of Ruth Bishop the wife of John Bishop is of full and lawful age.
(source: Early Adventures on the Western Waters, Vol. II, by Mary Kegley.)

It's possible that Darky could be Ruth's daughter by an Indian if the legend of her Indian captivity is true.  Darky could also be an Indian orphan adopted by Ruth after her release from captivity.  These adoptions did happen after battles with the Shawnee and Cherokee during this time period.  Circumstances surrounding Darky Gothrin could provide a clue of a relationship between her mother, Ruth Scaggs Bishop, and Old Peter Scaggs.


Back in the day of widespread illiteracy a name like O'Donald might be spelled O'Daniel, O'Donnell, etc. at different times since the person owning the name couldn't spell it themselves.  This makes looking for an Owen O'Donald quite a challenge.

An Owen O'Daniel is listed in the 1820 Tazewell County, Virginia census:

Owen Odaniel with 2 males and 1 female under 10; 1 male and 2 females 10-16; 1 male 16-18; 1 male 18-26; 1 male and 1 female 45+

Owen O'Daniel is also listed in the 1830 Tazewell County, Virginia census:

Owen ODaniel with 1 male under 5; 1 female 10-15; 1 female 20-30; 1 male 50-60; 1 female 50-60

Living next door to Owen in 1830 was son Isaac O'Daniel:

Isaac ODaniel with 1 male and 1 female under 5; 1 male and 1 female 20-30.

An interesting thing about the 1830 census involved another son of Darky Gothrin and Owen O'Daniel, Thomas O'Daniel, living in Lawrence County, Kentucky in the neighborhood of several members of the Scaggs family, including Old Peter, his son Peter Jr., son John and Miles Terry, Old Peter's son-in-law.  This Thomas O'Daniel was also living here in 1840 according to that census, however, he shows up in the Missouri census of 1850 in Audrain.

The 1840 census shows Owen O'Daniel no longer living in Tazewell County, Virginia but in Greene County, Indiana.  Also, no indication of his wife Darky in 1840.

1840 Census – Greene Indiana Owen Odonald
1 male under 5; 1 male and 1 female 20-30; and 1 male 60-70.

I speculate that Darky died between 1830 and 1840 and Owen moved to Indiana.

Finally, one of Owen and Darky's daughters, Mary (Polly), married Jesse Frasher in Lawrence County, Kentucky on September 7, 1839.  The marriage record reads Polly O'Daniel and Jesse Frazier and may indicate that after Darky's death Owen and the O'Daniel family moved to Lawrence County, Kentucky where son Thomas was living.  After Mary (Polly) got married they then moved on to Indiana where they showed up in the 1840 census.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that there is a lot of circumstantial evidence of a relationship between Darky Gothrin and Old Peter Skaggs.  Perhaps they have Ruth Skaggs Bishop in common, she was both Darky Gothrin's mother (according to Darky's marriage record) and wife of John Scaggs, the father of Zachariah Scaggs.  Was Ruth Scaggs Bishop also Old Peter Scaggs' mother?