PAMUNKEY KIN & OTHERS INTERESTED: All of what follows is displayed in detail in Part 1, "The Further Chronicles of the Pamunkey Davenports," which goes to Judy for editing tomorrow, but since several of you have elected to post the claim that Richard Davis, Gentleman, was the father of Davis Davenport, without a caveat, on the Web as a part of your Davenport genealogy, let us outline what you are claiming. Such parentage claim is speculative and based on circumstantial evidence and rationalization. Here's the factual basis and the rationalization therefrom: The earliest documentation of Davis Davenport found todate is the survey made for Major John Waller in May1696 which clearly identifies Davis Davenport's plantation as adjoining upriver on the Mattaponi. Further, the written description that accompanied the surveyor's plat starts "[Point] A. The beginning[,] Swamp below davis davenport's landing." By this record, which was preserved in Waller Family archives and now can be found in the Rare Documents Collection at the Library of Virginia, we know that Davis Davenport in 1696 had both a plantation and landing, hence was a man of some substance, for the Plantation was evidence of a mature man of settlement and development, and the Landing was evidence of commercial activity of some degree, further implying Davis' maturity. In Colonial times the Mattaponi was a deep tidewater river, a seagoing ship could sail up the Mattaponi as high as Arnold's Ferry, now Aylett, twenty miles upriver from Davis Davenport's landing, itself seventeen miles upriver from the York River, an arm of Chesapeake Bay. While the Mattaponi has silted in during the past three hundred years, the tidal forces remain. The daily report of High & Low Tides in 2005 includes Aylett on the upper Mattaponi as one of the measuring points. Having established a specific location for Davis, we were able, by tedious patent sorting to surround the Plantation and Landing with land activity from 1608 forward. All of the activity prior to 1650 was Indian-related. In 1696 Davis Davenport's improvements were technically in the Chickahominy Indian reservation, but the Chickahominies, as well as the neighboring Pamunkey Indians, had dwindled to a shadow of what they were in Powhatan days, would soon give up their alleged independence and become subjects of the King. Their two reservations included all of Pamunkey Neck and became King William County in 1701. Backtracking Davis Davenport's land environment and social milieu, we were able to establish that the land across the Mattaponi from where Davis was located in 1696 was patented by Edward Digges, Gentleman, as a 2,350-acre tract in 1653. Digges lived in Jamestown, was a member of Council of State, and was one of the three Governors of the Colony during Commonwealth period (1650-1660). In 1660, Richard Davis patented 660 acres adjoining Digges. In 1662, Davis perfected his patent on Digges Creek and added 40 acres. In 1667, Davis repatented his tract as 700 acres. In 1673, George Morris, County Surveyor, patented 434 acres on Digges Creek, adjoining Richard Davis. In 1674 Richard Davis added to his holding with a 250-acre patent adjoining George Morris. In 1675 Richard Davis patented 370 acres adjoining "land he lives on." In 1677 Richard Davis patented another 370 acres, adjoining two of his neighbors but not himself. In 1685 Davis made his last patent, 166 acres adjoining or near his 1677 land acquisition. Excluding duplicate patentings, Richard Davis, Gentleman, between 1660 and 1685 acquired 1,546 acres on the north side of Mattaponi, back from the River. Because New Kent County deeds for Colonial Times were destroyed by fire, we have no idea of what Richard Davis did with any of his land. The north side of Mattaponi as well as Pamunkey Neck became part of King & Queen County in 1691. No mentions of Richard Davis were found in King & Queen County patents. Colonial deeds of King & Queen have also been destroyed by fire. As to the land holdings directly across the Mattaponi from where Davis Davenport was located in 1696, Edward Digges, Gentleman, lost his title to Digges Creek tract in 1665 when Governor Berkeley declared it "deserted," meaning Digges had abandoned the land, and granted it to Major Thomas Walker of Gloucester County. In 1687 Lt. Colonel Thomas Walker repatented the land as 2,600 in St. Stephen's Parish, which was Edward Digges' patent of 1653 with 300 additional acres found by resurvey. Later in 1687, John Walker, son of Thomas Walker, patented 560 acres adjoining his father. By the bounding land owners described, Richard Davis had possibly sold off some of his land. When the Waller survey was made in 1696, John Walker was identified as the landowner over against [across from] Waller on the Mattaponi River. Because of his broad holdings which by then included those of his father, Walker was also across from Davis Davenport. Waller and Davenport were in Pamunkey Neck. Walker was in King & Queen. The community of Walkerton in King & Queen today is approximately a quarter mile upriver from the Davis Davenport location of 1696. (In 1702, Davis Davenport lived adjacent to the Sheriff of King William John Waller, and lived across the river from King & Queen Sheriff John Walker. He had the right kind of neighbors.) The King & Queen Quit Rent List of 1704 assessed John Walker for 6,000 acres, which appears to have included Richard Davis' lands, Thomas Walker's lands, and his own patent. Three Davises were listed: Nathaniel Davis, 300 acres; John Davis, 90 acres; and Edward Davis, 100 acres. These were small planters, were unlikely to have been sons of a Great Planter such as Richard Davis had been. The fact that the Davis land had been merged into the Walker holdings suggests that Richard Davis had no male issue--which might explain how Davis Davenport came to have his given name. As an illegitimate, Davenport had no standing for inheritance, but considering what he had in 1696 and the fraud that cast an onus on his land, he had to have been taken care by other means, have enjoyed the patronage of wealth and power--being set up with 200 acres and the wherewithal to create a plantation and a landing could have done it. The King William Quit Rent List of 1704 assessed four Davises, all for 200 acres each. Two of those Davises are documented as being English born, were distant from Davis Davenport. William and John Davis, father and son, were located southeast of Davis Davenport diametrically across John Waller's 930-acre survey, but tracking those Davises, before and after, provided no evidence, direct or circumstantial, of association with Davis Davenport or any of his sons. As near as we could determine, Davis Davenport in 1696 was located less than two miles South, across Walker land on the North side of Mattaponi, from where Richard Davis had lived in 1677. Excluding duplicate patentings, Richard Davis, Gentleman, between 1660 and 1677 acquired 1,546 acres on the north side of Mattaponi, back from the River. Davis Davenport had to have had someone of wealth and stature looking out for him, and the only Davis within thirty miles of where Davenport was located in 1696 who was a major land owner, a Great Planter, ipso facto also a Gentleman, was Richard Davis. Davis Davenport's second son was named Richard. Coincidence? There is plausibility and possibility in this scenario, but there is no proof. Likely will never be proved or disproved--unless the answers are buried in private papers, for all of the pertinent public records extant for Colonial Virginia have been searched, page by page. There are fifty-six pages of data in the "Further Chronicles" before a fact concerning Davis Davenport is recorded. So now you know. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ