PAMUNKEYS & OTHERS INTERESTED: No Pamunkey of Colonial Times has been in the spotlight more than Jack Smith Davenport, of Charlotte County, Virginia, who was mortally wounded as a Militia Ensign at the Battle of Guilford Court House (15Mar1781)--likely because of his early identification and certification as a genuine Revolutionary Patriot by the DAR. Jack S. was the second or third son of John the Bankrupt of Hanover-Spotsylvania-Louisa (d. after 1776), and a grandson of Martin, Sr., of Hanover (d. 1735). For many years, Jack S. and his brother John were considered to be one and the same person, for early Pamunkey genealogists assumed that John the Bankrupt would not have had both a Jack and John in the same family, and besides they accepted the claim that John [Jr.], the Spotsylvania tavern keeper and miller, was a son of Richard, Sr., of Caroline. Strong circumstantial evidence now supports the contention that John the Bankrupt did have both a Jack Smith and John among his five sons (no daughters known or suspected), and John, Jr., the Spotsylvania tavern keeper was not the son of Richard, Sr., of Caroline. He was the son of John the Bankrupt, who was a Spotsylvania tavern keeper before and early into his disastrous financial affairs. Continuing the vocation, John, Jr.'s eldest son Richard Davenport, a Colonel of US Volunteers in the War of 1812, breveted a Brigadier General of Kentucky Militia for his heroics at the Revenge of the River Raison Massacre and in the Campaign in Lower Canada, was a famed tavern keeper in Danville, Kentucky. Tedious analysis of Charlotte records now reveal that contrary to the long accepted notion of the second Jack Smith as the eldest son of the Revolutionary martyr, the Jack S./Jack Smith Davenport who appeared in Charlotte and adjoining Campbell records 1791-98 (and later?) was more likely to have been the second son of William, eldest son of John the Bankrupt, and William's wife Elizabeth Rawlings, widow of James Pulliam, all then of Spotsylvania. In Spotsylvania, William of John was invariably William, Jr., because his Uncle William, an elder brother of John the Bankrupt, had the precedence in the given name as well as a reputation for sound financial judgment and for living within his means. Variously escaping Spotsylvania and Louisa (next county south) where John, Sr., fled after he had been picked clean, having lost his land and slaves and reputation, John's sons Jack Smith, Richard, and William, Jr., joined up in the extreme northwest corner of Charlotte County (now mostly in Appomattox County), where they each acquired sizable acreages adjoining and lived out their lives--Jack Smith died in 1781, William in 1802, and Richard in 1832. Richard's Jack Smith, the third of the name, moved to Kentucky in the 1820s. The fourth Jack Smith known was the son of David Davenport of Cumberland, a brother of John the Bankrupt. David's Jack Smith has not been found in Virginia records after being named a codefendant in an Amherst County lawsuit in 1809 relative to land left to him and his brothers Glover and Jesse by their father. The land had been under mortgage since 1767. The horse was long dead, so the Davenport brothers wisely did not try to claim the carcass. Both Jack Smith 3 and 4 were likely namesakes of the Revolutionary martyr. Our concern here is Jack Smith 2, long identified as the eldest son of Jack Smith the Hero. If so, he had to have been the child of a wife before Lucy Barksdale, who Jack Smith the Hero married c1775. Jack Smith 2 was a juror in Campbell County in 1791, meaning he was at least age 21, hence was born c1770 or before. When her father died in 1774, Lucy Barksdale was a minor, but was of at least age 14 because she chose her own guardian. By 1776 she was identifying herself as Lucy Davenport. She was not Jack Smith 2's mother. When Jack Smith the First's five children, having all moved to Hancock County, Georgia, within their stepfather's family, in 1800 sold their father's Virginia land left to all of them, John Davenport, apparently the eldest son and child, was agent for his brothers William and Richard and his two married sisters. Pamunkey genealogists again assumed that Jack Smith and John were one and the same person, but records again refute the assumption. Jack Smith 2 was not the John who sold Jack Smith the Hero's land to Uncle Richard Davenport, Gentleman. Jack Smith 3 was in the same county on an adjacent plantation, but he was in his early to mid-teens. Jack Smith 4 was working as hired man in Powhatan County. The fact is that we have two Jack Smith Davenports yet to be traced--namely (a) Jack Smith 2, who was likely the second son of William and a grandson of John the Bankrupt, and nephew of Jack Smith the Hero, and (b) Jack Smith 4, the son of David of Cumberland and a first cousin to the Hero. William's LW&T named only sons Presley (eldest), and Benjamin (youngest) and makes a residual distribution to "all my children," which could have included a Jack Smith 2. As that Jack Smith, now believed son of William, we are in a quandary as to whether he has last been found on the Charlotte County Personal Property Tax List of 1798 assessed for one tithe (himself) and one horse, or whether he was the Jack Smith Davenport found listed following Elizabeth Davenport, William's widow, on Charlotte Tax Lists in the first two decades of the 19th Century. Jack Smith Davenport 3, clearly the son of Richard Davenport, Gentleman, married in Charlotte in 1813, was clearly much younger than Jack Smith 2. He traces easily in Charlotte and then to Warren County, Kentucky. That's the present state of Jack Smith Davenport identifications. If anyone can clarify or help to clarify our quandary, please do. A bit of Family color as to principals cited here: Both fathers of a Jack Smith Davenport were noteworthy in other regards: William of John the Bankrupt, who died in Charlotte County in 1802, holds the Pamunkey Davenport 18th Century record for the number of time indicted by a Grand Jury for public drunkenness and/or swearing: 3, all in Charlotte. David Davenport, a younger brother of John the Bankrupt, died in Cumberland in 1802, holds the Pamunkey Davenport 18th Century record for number of times confined in Debtors Prison: 1 in Spotsylvania, 4 in Cumberland, 1 in Louisa, and 1 possibly in Orange. Debtors Prisons, a hold over from the days of the King's Justice, were eliminated in Virginia in the 1790s. So David's record is inviolate. William's record has long since been equaled or surpassed. While excessive drink and swearing are no longer worthy of a Grand Jury's attention, more than one Pamunkey plantation or farm in the two centuries since has been lost to alcoholic excess--to cast the matter in dainty terms. Several Pamunkeys, North and South, we have been advised, have held County Cussing Championships, although we have no breakdowns relative to specialties in blasphemy, obscenity, and/or scatological verbiage. Urban Pamunkeys too, we have been told, have neglected neither thirst nor expression excesses, despite the great number of Methodists amongst us. (My revered Grandfather William Asbury Davenport, and a Great-Great Grandfather of Nevada Jack's, despite being a namesake of the Pioneer Methodist Bishop who created the famed Circuit Riding ministry, split with the Methodists over Temperance.) We might also note that John, Jr., Spotsylvania tavern keeper, was indicted at least once a year from 1780 thru 1800 by a Grand Jury for Retailing Spirits without a License, which apparently was John's calendar reminder to renew his Liquor License. For those who have noted that only four sons of John the Bankrupt have been mentioned herein, the fourth son was another Martin Davenport--John, Jr., tavern keeper, having been the fifth. Martin of John the Bankrupt, records indicate, was a man who worked for wages, was an overseer or hired man for various planters in Hanover, Louisa, and Henrico counties for 30 years or so, never owned land--appears to have died in Richmond c1800. By direct identification and circumstantial connection thereto, Martin of John was the father of four daughters, and possibly two sons, one of whom, namely a Thomas Davenport, was a celebrity escapee from Richmond Jail in 1795. We should know more than that, but we have not focused in on Pamunkey urban dwellers, Richmond or elsewhere. There were few prior to 1850. Consider yourselves caught up on family gossip. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ

Mind boggling. My husband, has a daughter, Anne and a daughter, Nancy.The subject of names came uprecently and I asked if he knew "Nancy" was a nickname for Ann (e )and he did not. So a sister of both Anne and Nancy named her only daughter "Nancianne". The latter discussed this with me several years ago and laughingly said her nieces, call her ,"AuntyNanciAnnie". I hope you get this straightened out in my lifetime. I am not kidding. I have my second bout of Chemotherapty on Tuesday. My giblets were all rearraigned in Sept. Is somebody looking at the Barksdales? Seem as if there are family histories from Ky ., at the FHC, SLC which I have not read. Ellen Eanes Bethel

I love family gossip :) Thanks for keeping us up-to-date. Ginger Johnson ~ So. IL/St. Louis -----Original Message----- From: JSDDOC@aol.com To: davenport@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 3:32 PM Subject: [DAVENPORT] Second Jack Smith Davenport in Charlotte was not son of Revolutionary Casualty Consider yourselves caught up on family gossip. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DAVENPORT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.