 Dorothea was heir to Scott's Hall in Ashford, Kent, coming from the Scott family of which John Scott had long laid questionable claims of membership.Prior to his return to America, John Scott persuaded the Gothersons to give him thousands of pounds of money and jewelry in return for vast lands near "the Horsenecke in Long Island".In later years it would be found that the sale was a hoax and that no such feature of Long Island existed.