A PAMUNKEY PROBLEM: The Bible record submitted by Nancy Ann Davenport, nee Pemberton, wife of Henry Davenport, Sr., of Cumberland-Buckingham, son of Thomas Davenport, Sr., and grandson of Davis Davenport, in her attempt to qualify for a Revolutionary Widow's pension has long been known and widely circulated. The record, provided the Pension Bureau of Washington City, allegedly consists of the birth record of the seven children, one son and six daughters, that Henry and Nancy Ann had following their marriage in 1770. Wilson Davenport, eldest child and only son, was recorded as having been born on 26Nov1772. Unless Wilson Davenport was allowed legal privileges not available to other young Virginians, there are at least a half dozen record evidences which strongly imply that he was born as much as five years before 1772--not the least of which is the fact that the Cumberland County Court granted him guardianship of his six minor orphaned sisters in 1792 when he was not yet age 20, if the 1772 birthdate was valid. We have the conundrum of Wilson having possibly been born as the eldest child in Henry, Sr.'s second family before the birth of Henry Davenport, Jr., the last son and child in Henry's first family. Would someone undertake to provide a rationale for the situation? Wilson Davenport was a man of uncommon talent, became an attorney quite early with a practice throughout Southwest Virginia east of the Blue Ridge, ultimately hanging out his shingle in Lynchburg, where he was a Captain of Militia and elected to the General Assembly, where he died suddenly in Richmond in the first few days of 1807 session. Although married, he left no issue. Also, legend has it, he had lost an arm in a hunting accident although where and when not stated. Henry Davenport, Jr., disinherited by Henry, Sr., in favor of Wilson, went to Halifax County, where he married Ann Davenport, a first cousin, but seemingly never prospered despite his family connections and prosperous relatives. He was either a tenant or an overseer variously in Halifax until 1811, never being taxed for more than a horse and some years not even that, when he married a second time, then he moved to Buckingham County, then to Prince Edward, and then back to Halifax where he was enumerated in the Census of 1830, and has been pursued no further--he was in his 60s by then. Henry had at least three daughters by Ann, more daughters and at least one son by his second wife. More work needed. But whatever, he was likely born after Wilson, who left an impressive number of record presences in a half dozen Southside counties in the 1790s and the first decade of the 19th Century. Was there mayhap an ulterior motive in the suppression of knowledge concerning Henry, Sr.'s first family among descendants of his second family? Henry, Sr.'s first family was a tangled web with birthdate problems of its own. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ