PAMUNKEY DAVENPORTS & OTHERS INTERESTED: In Pamunkey research, as well as among genealogical buffs of other families, we're sure, we often encounter slavish, uncritical acceptance of memoirs, oral history, and second person recalls of what Aunt Sophie said. The quality of these sources vary widely, so all such should be vetted before taken as Gospel. Over the past eight years of the Pamunkey Davenport project, we have had to challenge two sacred cows (not a good metaphor in this instance, for it has a double entendere nature, i.e., a double meaning, one of them of indecorous connotation), namely the (1) Ann Pemberton Davenport's Bible record of 1840, and (2) Miss Rachel Hendricks Davenport's recall interview of 1892. We addressed Miss Rachel's "facts" and made challenges thereto in the first Pamunkey Chronicles published on CD in 2001. We now find it necessary to nitpick Ann's Bible record, namely an extract of her and Henry Davenport, Sr.'s marriage data and birthdates of their seven children, namely one son, Wilson, and six daughters. The document has survived because it was submitted with Ann's petition for a Revolutionary War widow's pension in 1840, and has ended up in the National Archives. Ann did not get the pension, for she could not prove Henry's military service, (but eligibility for Henry's descendants for the DAR and SAR are easily established--he was a documented provisioner for both Continental and State troops). The pension rejection was moot, for Ann died in her 50th years of widowhood shortly after she filed the petition. Without engaging in a pros and cons as to whether Ann meant King William County or King William Parish (eastern Cumberland County) as the location where her and Henry's bans were read, we note an eyebrow raising situation at the outset of Ann's list of births, to wit: Wilson Davenport, eldest child and only son, recorded as born 26Oct1772. Henry's and Ann;s bans were read on 12Dec1770, so they were likely married shortly thereafter. No eyebrow raising there, 20 months between bans and Wilson's birth. But there are only 6 months and 14 days between Wilson and his sister Mary, who was born on 9May1773. If Wilson's birth year had been 1771, it would have been comfortable gestation-wise for both he and Mary, but it still would not have taken Wilson out of the woods relative to anomalies of age when he was undertaking legal roles in the late 1780s-early 1790s. On 23Feb1789 Henry Davenport, Sr., for 20 Shillings sold his son Wilson all of Henry's personnel property, including 11 slaves, 7 horses, all other livestock and personal property. If the Bible record is correct, Wilson was then 16+-years-old, meaning that he could not have taken legal actions for himself. Such an action put Henry's assets in limbo, did not make sense. The Personal Property Tax List for Cumberland County in 1789 included Wilson, charged with 1 White Tithe, 4 Slaves, and 4 Horses. He was not identified as a "minor" as customarily done when a man of less than legal age was assessed. If Wilson was considered of legal age in 1789, he was born in 1768, which conflicts mightily with the birthyear of Henry Davenport, Jr., Henry, Sr.'s youngest son, likely youngest child, in his first family by Sarah, likely a Terry. But we've got more Wilson anomalies to consider before we get into a wrangle as to which was older, he or Henry, Jr., and the implications thereof. On 27Feb1792 in Cumberland Court, Henry, Sr., having died 9Dec1791 in Buckingham County, Wilson Davenport was appointed guardian to his six orphaned sisters, with Walter Keeble as his security. Two apparent anomalies to rationalize: (1) Henry, Sr., had died in Buckingham County, having created a Life Estate for his Widow Ann, was surely probated in Buckingham--so how, why did the Cumberland Court have jurisdiction over the orphans, all of whom were surely living with their mother in Buckingham? (2) Guardian Wilson, if Ann's Bible was correct, was not yet age 20--so how could he act for his six orphaned sisters when legally he could not yet act for himself? Legal facts and circumstances strongly indicate that Wilson was at least two-to-three years older than his Mother had recorded in the Bible. There are more instances, from Court records in Halifax, Powhatan, and Campbell, where Wilson practiced Law beginning mid-1795, indicating that Wilson was extremely precocious as a lawyer or was older than that Bible record. Without concluding Wilson's story, let's switch to Henry Davenport, Jr., the tail end of Henry, Sr.'s first family. On 26May1784, Henry Davenport, Sr., was indicted by a Cumberland Grand Jury for concealing one Tithe, namely his son Henry. There being no earlier of evidence of Henry, Jr., we conclude that Junior had only recently come of age, i.e., become age 16 and liable for a tithe, i.e., poll tax, and Henry, Sr., had not added him to his list of taxables within the six months grace period allowed by Law. It was a slap on the wrist kind of indictment. Henry, Sr., quickly made it right by putting Junior on the tax rolls. So, Henry, Jr., the last of Henry, Sr.'s brood by first wife Sarah, was born c1767-68. Wilson Davenport, eldest of Henry, Sr.'s brood by second wife Ann, was born in late 1772, according to the Bible, but Court records indicate that Wilson had to have been born at least two-t0-three years earlier, meaning probable birth years of 1768-69, giving us all sorts of complications, not the least of which is Henry, Sr.'s and Ann's bans of Dec1770. Later records indicate that Wilson was the guy who created Henry, Sr.'s life estate for Widow Ann, which engenders an even older age concept for him. Certainly, there was keen legal manipulation whereby Henry, Sr., totally disinherited the children of his first family, two sons and five daughters, at least, surviving when Henry, Sr., died. There's a major story relative to what the children of that first family did, all of which is documented in the Further Chronicles. Wilson died in January 1807 in Richmond, having been elected to the General Assembly from Campbell County. He had a widow, but no children. Henry, Jr., we think, was never more than an overseer or a man who worked for wages. His first wife was Ann Davenport, a first cousin and youngest daughter of James Davenport, Sr., Henry's father's eldest brother. His second wife was Jane Burnley. Both wives were married in Halifax. Henry, Jr., we think (Census enumeration age doesn't jibe with what it should be, for Henry, Jr., could not have been born after 1770), is last found in Halifax in 1830, Census and a niece's marriage bond (sister Drusilla Davenport Donaho's daughter). All of Henry's surviving first family children, except James who had gone off before the Revolution, moved from Cumberland to Halifax after being disinherited. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ