Kinfolks and Others Interested: Charles Davenport of Brixey, Missouri, sent me a copy of his recently published hardcover book, "The Ancestors and Descendants of William Davenport, son of Claiborne" (Knoxville, TN: Tennessee Valley Publishing, 1999), a well done, informative, clear genealogy. If you're interested in Pamunkey Davenport Family history, it's an excellent addition to your library. However, some of the data concerning William's ancestors therein will require revision in the next edition in the light of new findings or as the result of a better understanding of old data. Nothing radical, but some sharpening of identification and some family history now clarified or expanded. A case in point to begin: KING WILLIAM PARISH, NOT KING WILLIAM COUNTY Ann Pemberton, second wife and widow of Henry Davenport, son of Thomas, Sr., of Cumberland County, stated in her unsuccessful application for a Revolutionary War widow's pension made in Buckingham County in 1840 that she and Henry were married by the reading of banns in King William. Thereafter, family searchers have declared unequivocally that Henry and Ann were married in King William County. Wrong! Bishop Meade in his semi-authoritative history of the Anglican Church in Virginia (1856) identified the Pembertons as Huguenots. Fact: King William Parish was established for the Huguenots (French Protestants) in 1699, and after 1749 King William Parish was located in part in eastern Cumberland County. Fact: If Henry and Ann's banns, i.e., the announcement from the pulpit of intent to marry on three successive Sundays, were read in King William, it was done in Eastern Cumberland County where there were Pembertons in the land records, and the couple was doubtless married thereafter by the vicar of that parish. That was standard procedure. If Henry and Ann had been married by reading of the banns in King William County, the deed would have been done in either St. David or St. John's parish. Cumberland County included St. James Southam (later just Southam) and the South of the James portion of King William Parish. In 1769 Littleton Parish was created for Western Cumberland where all of the Davenports except Absalom, son of Richard, were located. When Eastern Cumberland was struck off as Powhatan County in 1777, Southam and King William parishes went with the new county. Remaining Cumberland County was identical in bounds with Littleton Parish, wherein most of the Davenports were active Anglicans until the Revolution. Thereafter, only Thomas Davenport, Jr., and William and their families appear to have kept the Faith. The importance of this clarification is that descendants of Henry and Ann seeking maternal ancestral identification should be looking in Eastern Cumberland (since 1777 Powhatan) County for their Pemberton ancestry, not in King William County--which was a wild goose chase. Some of the colonial records of King William Parish, I understand, are available, but the early years are in French. THE DEATH OF PHILEMON DAVENPORT A comprehensive reading of Cumberland County records, deeds and court minutes and orders, indicates that less than 25% of germane Davenport data therein has heretofore been extracted or abstracted. How anyone reading Cumberland Court Orders heretofore could have missed this traumatic item of family history boggles the mind: 28Apr1767 - Caesar, a Negro man slave belonging to William Anglea was tried in Cumberland County Court on suspicion of feloniously murdering Philemon Davenport. Thomas Davenport, Gentleman, one of the presiding justices of the Court, excused himself from the bench. On hearing the various witnesses and from the said Caesar, it was the Judgment of the Court that said Caesar was in no wise guilty of the felony or murder, and that the said Caesar be immediately delivered out of the custody of the Sheriff [and returned to his master.] (Cumberland County, VA, Court Orders, 7:472) The record provides no details as to how Philemon met his death, but if a slave was charged and then completely cleared as specifically and positively as recorded, a lethal mishap apparently had occurred wherein the Slave by proximity or participation was automatically suspected of culpability. Such a scenario might include Philemon having been an overseer supervising a slave who was cutting down a tree, with the falling tree in some manner landing on Philemon. Whatever, Philemon was at least 24-years-old when he died, for he had been sued in Cumberland Court in 1763, and he had to have been age 21 for that to have happened. He was apparently unmarried, not his own master, hence had no estate to probate, for there was no probate for Philemon Davenport, Decd. In 1763 Julius Davenport had been his bail (guarantor of Philemon's appearance in Court to answer the suit), a role often taken by fathers or brothers. Julius was not Philemon's brother, most likely was his father. SORTING OUT THE THOMASES IN COLONIAL CUMBERLAND From the late 1750s through the mid-1780s there were four Thomas Davenports in the Cumberland County records: (1) Thomas, Sr., son of the Davis and the Cumberland patriarch, who died in 1775; (2) Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, Sr., who was high profile in Cumberland affairs until his death in 1780, having been a Constable, Captain of Militia, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Master in Chancery, Coroner, Doctor, a member of the Revolutionary Committee for Correspondence, and always a Gentleman; (3) Thomas, son of Julius and grandson of Thomas, Sr., who was a Deputy Sheriff (but not under his Uncle Thomas, Jr.), and was likely the eldest of Thomas, Sr.'s grandsons. He moved in the 1780s to Buckingham County, next county West from Cumberland, and then to Southwest Virginia in the 1790s; and (4) Thomas, Jr. II, son of Thomas, Jr., who moved to Halifax County by direction of his father's LW&T in the mid-1780s. Claiborne Davenport, b. 1759, was the oldest son of Thomas of Julius and his wife Mary Noell, who was born in Essex County, Virginia, the daughter of John Noell, who moved from Essex to Cumberland in 1754 and bought a tract just west of the Davenport Settlement from John Woodson. Julius Davenport, the closest Davenport neighbor, witnessed the deed. Subsequently, Julius' Thomas and Noell's Mary courted, married, and conceived Claiborne, and others, as Charles' book delineates. I salute Thomas and Mary for getting out of the Davenport rut of male given names--their sons were named Claiborne, Thomas [that had to be], Jonathan Noel, Osborne, and Julius Terry. After 1760, Thomas Davenport, Sr., surely approaching or in his 70s was no factor in Cumberland affairs. Beginning in 1747 Thomas, Jr., started his public career with an appointment as a Constable in Goochland County, forerunner of Cumberland in 1749. By the late 1750s Thomas, Jr., had moved to near the top of the ladder, was regularly listed on the Commission of Peace for Cumberland County, as a Justice of the Peace, twelfth in order (his rank among his peers on the bench), and was one of the movers and shakers of local affairs. Intensive reading of the old records is now only to mid-1767, at which time Thomas, Jr., had become simultaneously a Justice of the Peace, a Master in Chancery, a Militia Captain, the County Coroner (a practicing physician apparently, his bills as such appear in estate settlements), and a Vestryman--all the while his father-in-law Ambrose Ransome was possibly running an Ordinary (a place where food and drink were provided at Court established prices) in his home. But it's not clear whether Ambrose had that Ordinary in Thomas, Jr.'s home, or the home of Thomas of Julius. For Ambrose's license was for Thomas Davenport's home, not the home of Thomas Davenport, Gentleman, who was Thomas, Jr. But the situation of Thomas, Jr.'s father-in-law using Thomas of Julius' home for a tavern has credibility problems. Using his son-in-law's home, particularly one of the stature and activity of Thomas, Gentleman, is credible, but smacks of imposition. What man of Thomas, Jr.'s stature wanted a bunch of drunks singing bawdy songs constantly in his front room (assuming he had at least two rooms.). The license stated that the Ordinary was to be kept in the house of Thomas Davenport. Ambrose Ransome's bond to so do was signed by Thomas Davenport, Gentleman. Go figure. A HARD DATE FOR DAVID AND MOLLY'S MARRIAGE Cumberland Court records are clear that David Davenport, son of Martin of Hanover, married Molly Slaughter Davenport, widow of his cousin Stephen Davenport, son of Thomas, Sr., in Cumberland before 25Jun1765, for on that date the Cumberland Court dismissed a suit Molly had filed three months earlier on the basis that she had since married (meaning she no longer could act for herself, had to be represented by her husband). This date is earlier than heretofore credited, because David, who had land in Hanover, Spotsylvania, Louisa, and Amherst counties, bounced around among those properties in the mid-1760s, staying ahead of creditors and sheriffs who were in hot pursuit. He was finally cornered by the Spotsylvania Sheriff in May1767 and clapped in Prison Bounds as a Debtor. We now add Cumberland to David's list of real property sites, because when he married Molly, he got control of 200 acres in the Davenport settlement, five or six slaves, and divers other assets. Establishment of the 1765 date of David's marriage casts new light on the identity of Joel Davenport who appeared in Cumberland records after David and Molly's marriage was documented. WAS JOEL DAVENPORT OF CUMBERLAND DAVID'S SON Joel Davenport, a yet unidentified Pamunkey, first appeared in Cumberland records in September 1765, four months after David's marriage to Molly, when he and Julius Davenport were garnisheed by a creditor of James Davenport, Jr. James, Jr., is yet unidentified, but his connection to Julius may have been that of son and father, for James, Jr., was in Cumberland records a year before David's marriage, and Julius was his security. James, Jr., we'll consider later, when we have a better handle on all of his records presence. He was the only Davenport debtor who was labeled "an absconder" by the Court, which is why Joel and Julius were summoned to Court and stripped of whatever assets of James, Jr.'s they had. Joel is of interest for two salient points: (1) He did not appear in Cumberland records until after David Davenport had remarried and shifted his base of operations to Cumberland (where his relationship to Thomas Davenport, Gentleman, had its advantages), and (2) Hugh Lennox & Company, Merchants, which sued Joel for Debt in Cumberland did its business principally in Spotsylvania and Caroline, and was suing John Davenport, Tavernkeeper of Spotsyslvania, and his security David Davenport, for Debt at the same time it was suing Joel Davenport for Debt in Cumberland. The implication being that Joel had come from Spotsylvania to Cumberland with David. David was Joel's common bail when Lennox & Company entered its suit with Cumberland Court, but Lennox & Company knew what David's signature as a security was worth, and at the next Court session, Julius Davenport and William Davenport replaced David as bail for Joel. The Joel matter was yet in abeyance, and David was still in Debtor's prison in Spotsylvania when we came to the end of the microfilm roll, and had to order the next rolls from Salt Lake City. We'll get back to Joel and James, Jr., of Cumberland later, but it now looks possible that Joel was a son of David or one of those floating Pamunkey Davenports from the Hanover-Spotsylvania-Louisa triangle yet unidentified. Interestingly, Hugh Lennox & Company was so little known to the Cumberland Court that it required the Plaintiffs, namely Lennox & Company, to post a bond that it could pay the Court costs before it would accept the suit against Joel. Who you knew helped in Cumberland. Clout was clout then too. More family history later. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ Contrary to most