Griffin Dobson’s life is unusually well documented for two reasons: he sailed with his enslaver, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, on several naval voyages, and he bought his freedom and that of his family from Jones. Nevertheless, we do not know some basic facts about Dobson’s life, including who his parents were, exactly when or where he was born, or whether he had siblings.
Based on an 1867 San Francisco death record recording his age at death as 49, it appears that Dobson was born c. 1818. However, this birth date is uncertain, since he probably appears, as “Little Griffin,” age 6, on an 1829 agreement in which the adult children of Charles B. Carter, who including Thomas ap Catesby Jones’ wife Mary, divided ownership of the people enslaved by their parents. If “Little Griffin” is, as seems likely, the same person as the Griffin Dobson who died in San Francisco, then his birth date falls somewhere between 1818 (based on the death record) and 1823 (based on the division agreement). It’s possible that the adults around him were uncertain of his age in 1829, and guessed, and/or that he or Jones inflated his age at some point, possibly to comply with Navy requirements.
After some exchanges among the heirs, both “Little Griffin” and a 9 year-old girl named Cynthia ended up being claimed as property by Thomas ap Catesby and Mary Jones. By 1840, Griffin had begun a relationship with an enslaved woman, Cynthia, who may have been the same person listed on the division.* Their relationship resulted in five children born c. 1840-1847.
We know that Dobson accompanied Jones on voyages to the Pacific in 1842-1844 and 1847-1849. During the second voyage, Dobson, with the encouragement and financial support of some of his shipmates, approached Jones with a proposal to buy his freedom. Jones, by his own account, was “astonished” by the request, but agreed, only “stipulating” that Dobson wait until they both returned to Virginia to claim his freedom. In 1849, Jones “yielded to Griffin’s earnest solicitations” to leave the ship and take advantage of the California Gold Rush economy to earn money to buy his wife and children.
A deed recorded at the Fairfax County courthouse on Sept. 22nd, 1852 (and certified by William W Ball, serving as a Justice of the Peace), confirms Dobson’s success. In the deed, Jones, in exchange for $1200, transfers ownership of Cinthia (30), Polly (10), Watt (12), Beverly (9), Henry (7), and Edmund (5) to “Griffin Dobson (a free man of Color) of California.”
In California, Griffin Dobson worked in various capacities, including as a bank porter and a waterman. He also became a Mason, serving as an officer of Hannibal Lodge No. 1, Free and Accepted A. Y. Masons; and was a close associate of Rev. Barney Fletcher, founder of St. Cyprian’s A. M. E. Church (so he, like both his former enslaver and his Carter in-laws, may have played a role in supporting the founding of a church).
While the Dobsons were by many measures successful in building a life in California, they did not entirely escape the dangers of the slave system. In 1859, Henry Dobson, who had been apprenticed to a barber, was kidnapped by Missourians who hoped to sell him back into slavery. Henry was rescued with the help of a Black man on board the steamer on which his kidnappers took him, but Griffin Dobson remained concerned about the safety of his sons as they reached ages at which they would be considered especially valuable property. In 1862 he took out a newspaper advertisement “warn[ing]” “all persons” “against” “harboring, shipping or advising any one of the four boys of the subscriber, against his will or without his consent.”
Griffin Dobson died in 1867, just as the United States was entering the Reconstruction era. His son Beverly (who spelled his last name Dodson) remained in San Francisco, playing an active role in Democratic politics, and working as a coachman and eventually as a grading and sewer contractor. I haven’t fully investigated later generations of this branch of the family, but it appears that Beverly had a son, Beverly George Dodson, who, according to the 1920 census, was the proprietor of a garage and married to Pauline, a naturalized citizen of Mexican descent.
While Griffin Dobson’s life is better-documented than that of many enslaved people, a number of questions remain about him and his family. We do not know who Griffin’s parents were, or whether he had siblings. He is not part of any obvious family grouping in the 1829 division, suggesting that he was separated from family members by death or sale quite early in life. There is, however, an older man named Griffin, age 33, listed in the 1829 agreement. He could be Griffin’s father, but is not identified as such. Alternatively, he could be an uncle or someone else to whom Griffin’s mother felt close enough to choose as her son’s namesake.
It is possible that Griffin Dobson was related in some way to other people named Dobson or Dotson enslaved by members of the Jones family, including Rachel Dotson (mother of William, Robert, and David and nurse to Mark, Mary, and Martha Jones), and Judy Dobson (freed by Elizabeth Lee Jones’ will), but we don’t know exactly how. Given “little Griffin’s” presence in the division agreement, it seems unlikely that Griffin Dobson was, as Frank Gapp hypothesized, a brother of Judy Dobson, and so entitled to freedom under Elizabeth Lee Jones’ will. It’s also possible that Griffin was not related to the other Dobsons or Dotsons he knew but that, when the time came for him to claim or be assigned a last name (possibly in preparation for his being listed on the naval rolls), he chose or received one that was common among African Americans in his community.
*In an earlier version of this account, I wrote, based primarily on both men having the same unusual name, that Griffin Dobson had a second family with a free woman of color named Charity Carter, including a son, Charles, born c. 1834. Knowing that there were at least two people with the first name Griffin living in Fairfax County at the time, I now believe that the Griffin Dobson identified as Charles Dobson’s father on an 1871 marriage record is probably a different man from the Griffin Dobson who sailed with Commodore Jones, freed himself and his family, and died in California. The question of when the Griffin Dobson who married Cynthia was born is crucial here. It’s very unlikely that a boy born in 1823 fathered a son born in 1834, when he would have been 11. While it’s slightly more plausible that someone born in 1818 fathered a son in 1834, he would still be relatively young to be a father. In addition, even given the differing legal status of Cynthia’s and Charity’s children, it seems odd that a man who went to great lengths to preserve one family would abandon another. If the older Griffin, who was 33 in 1829, also used the last name Dobson, then he may have been Charity’s partner, and the father of Charles. It’s also possible that there was another Griffin Dobson living in the area. Investigating both men named Griffin and people using the last name Dobson, Dotson, or Dodson living in Virginia during this period seems likely to yield additional information about the relationships involved.
Updated 3/19/26
Sources not linked above:
Gapp, Frank W. “Griffin Dobson: Servant to a Commodore.” Yearbook: Historical Society of Fairfax County 25 (1995-1996): 45-51.
San Francisco Planning. African American Citywide Historic Context Statement. Prepared for City and Count of San Francisco San Francisco Planning Department, 2024. Retrieved from https://citypln-m-extnl.sfgov.org/SharedLinks.aspx?accesskey=3b2d6641ce20923bc3844c7dff3e448d3eb072f09245081256adcf70ad03d531&VaultGUID=A4A7DACD-B0DC-4322-BD29-F6F07103C6E0 .
