A PAMUNKEY EXERCISE IN DEDUCING NAMES OF FIRST WIVES & OTHER CONFOUNDINGS Much commentary and discussion has appeared on the DAVENPORT-L-Rootsweb during the past several years about the first family of Henry Davenport, Sr., of Cumberland County, Virginia. The Bible record of Henry's second family by Nancy Ann Pemberton and the 1892 Family Remembrances interview by a nephew of Rachel Hendricks Davenport, spinster, age 82, a granddaughter of Henry, Sr., since transcribed and widely circulated for 120 years, have dominated Southside Virginia Pamunkey Davenport genealogy. Unfortunately, both the Bible record and Miss Rachel's memory omitted the fact that Henry had two families, the first one, surely begun in the 1740s, as large, if not larger, than the one son and six daughters by Nancy Ann Pemberton recorded in the notorious Bible. The second family began with son Wilson in 1771, who was followed by six sisters, all born, we now know, when Henry was in his 60s and 70s. The fact that Nancy Ann Pemberton Davenport, Henry's widow, lived for 50 years beyond his death, given the now proven existence of a first family, surely indicates a November-May, if not April or late March marriage. We note also that the Bible record of that second family, which commenced with the marriage of Henry and Ann in 1770, indicates that there was six months and a few days between the birth of Wilson, eldest and only son, and the eldest daughter Mildred, contrary to the old axiom that the first child could come anytime after the marriage, but all other children required nine months. This is an aside, not germane to the subject at hand, but not hitherto noted publicly to our knowledge. It do raise some questions. We know that Henry Davenport was a married man in 1753 when he sued Zachariah Neal in Cumberland "as much for his wife as for himself" relative to a debt. The wife was not named, nor have we found any other mention of her in Cumberland records. Yet, we now know that Henry's children, not noted in Nancy Ann Pemberton's Bible, were James, Jr., Martin, Patty, Drusilla, Susannah, Mary, Lucy, and Henry, Jr. (order uncertain). James, Jr., disappeared from Cumberland in the mid-1760s, was apparently lost to the family. Recent (2005) DNA findings identify James Davenport of Prince George County as most likely having been the missing James, Jr., of Henry. James, Sr., was James, Jr.'s uncle, subsequently of Halifax County. Naming patterns did not exist among our Eighteenth Century Pamunkeys, beyond the fact that there was no repetition of the given name Davis, the family patriarch. We concern ourselves here specifically with the family of Thomas, Sr., of Cumberland, third son of Davis, and his wife Grace Terry, believed daughter of Captain Thomas Terry, of King William/Caroline, a close neighbor of Davis Davenport in the first decade of the Eighteenth Century. Most Pamunkeys of Thomas, Sr., descent are not aware of how much Terry they have in them. Thomas, Sr., son of Davis, fell within the Terry sphere of influence with his marriage c1710, moved up Pamunkey Neck when Captain Terry did c1714, moved South of the James with Terry brothers-in-law in 1740-41, and largely chose Terry given names for his children (order approximate): James, Thomas, Jr., Henry, Julius, William, Stephen, Joseph, and Philemon as his sons, Drusilla as his only daughter. Compare those given names with those chosen by Martin Davenport, Sr., for his children (order approximate): Mary, Thomas, Dorothy, Glover, William, Martin, John, David, James, Crotia, and Lucy. Compare those given names with those chosen by Richard Davenport, Sr., for his children (order approximate): Richard, Jr., Crotia, Joseph, Mary, David (by his first wife, possibly a Terry); Absolem, Gideon, Reuben, possibly daughters unknown (by second wife Keziah Davis). Some commonality, but no patterns. However, it appears that systematic naming occurred in the family of Permenas Colquitt and wife Lucy Davenport who married in 1794 in Halifax County, with Colonel Thomas Davenport (III) as bondsman. The Colonel was the son of Thomas, Jr., (II), who died as a Captain-Surgeon of the Georgia Continental Line as a British prisoner-of-war. Consider this naming pattern in the issue of Permenas and Lucy: First Child: Christian Colquitt, a female. Likely named after Christian Terry Colquitt, Permenas' mother, wife of Daniel Terry, uncle of Henry Davenport, Sr. Christian, wife of Daniel Terry, was the daughter of Walter Evans, of Caroline. (Permenas had a brother named Walter Evans Colquitt.) Second Child: Sarah Colquitt, a female, a namesake of who? (See below) Third Child: Anthony Colquitt, a son, surely named after Permenas' father Anthony who had married Christian Terry, daughter of Daniel Terry and Christian Evans. Fourth Child: Henry Davenport Colquitt, a son, surely named after Lucy's father, who died in Buckingham County in 1792. Fifth Child: Fanny Colquitt, a daughter, namesake, if any, unknown, but Fanny Davenport Kent, daughter of Lucy's sister Susannah, who married Obediah Kent, was born about the same time on a nearby Halifax plantation. Sixth Child: John Terry Colquitt, a son, likely named after the Rev. John Terry, the minister who married Permenas and Lucy, and likely a cousin to both bride and groom. Daughter Sarah, we submit, was likely a namesake of Lucy's mother who was the first wife of Henry Davenport, Sr., of Buckingham/Cumberland. So, by deduction from the naming pattern, we conclude that the given name of Henry's first wife was Sarah. For reasons which will be spread out later both in exposition on this Rootsweb and in the Further Chronicles, we strongly suspect that Henry, Sr.'s first wife was a Terry, probably a daughter of Daniel Terry. Ipso facto, we conclude that Sarah Terry, daughter of Daniel Terry, was the first wife of Henry Davenport, Sr., of Buckingham/Cumberland. It's tangled web, but any family that got closely involved with the Terrys in Eighteenth Century Virginia suffered entanglement. Thank Providence that Pamunkey interfaces then were limited primarily to the Old Captain and his sons Daniel, James, and Thomas. As to the quest for the surname of Catherine, wife of James Davenport, Sr., eldest son of Thomas, Sr., and elder brother of Henry, Sr., for reasons to come, we strongly suspect that she was either an Evans or a Terry, that James, Sr., of Halifax, eldest son of Thomas, Sr., of Cumberland, was either a brother-in-law to his Uncle Daniel Terry or a son-in-law or twice a cousin, once by blood and once by marriage. You folks have an education coming relative to the propensity of the Virginia Terrys to marry first cousins during the Eighteenth Century. The schism that occurred between the Davenports, in part, and the Terrys after 1750 likely quashed more interminglings, but there were surely a number of cousin marriages involving the two families before 1750. A Terry is the prime candidate for the first wife of Richard Davenport, Sr., of Caroline, elder brother of Thomas, Sr., of Cumberland, and younger brother of Martin, Sr., of Hanover. Thomas Davenport, eldest son of Martin, Sr., of Hanover, is recorded as having sired one son, namely Martin, and seven daughters. Daniel Terry also sired but one son, namely Moses, but possibly had as many as a dozen daughters, and he kept sons-in-law close by giving them land, generally 200 acres, near to or adjoining his manor plantation. Is that why Uncle Daniel conveyed 200 acres in Goochland/Cumberland each to James, Thomas, Jr., and Henry, sons of Thomas Davenport, Sr., in 1741? He made no such conveyances to Thomas, Sr.'s other five sons. Food for thought. Enjoy. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ