Thank you for the following info. Mary Duncan ----- Original Message ----- From: <JSDDOC@aol.com> To: <DAVENPORT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2000 10:01 AM Subject: [DAVENPORT] Re: Immigrant Ancestor of Prince George Davenports > Mary: > > George Davenport, I suspect, was the immigrant ancestor of the Prince > George Davenports, but you've got a choice. There were two George Davenport > headrights used to pay for land who were regionally associated with Prince > George County: > > (1) George Davenport, whose headright was used, along with others, on > 28Oct1702 for a Patent to William Williams for 600 acres in Isle of Wight > County, on the south side of Blackwater Swamp. (Virginia Patents 9:474) > > (2) George Davenport, whose headright was used, along with others, on > 13Nov1713 for a Patent to Benjamin Evans for 375 acres of New Land in Isle of > Wight County on the south side of the Main Blackwater Swamp, beginning on > the north side of Nottaway River, at the lower end of Black Walnut Tree > field, and down Nottaway Swamp. (Virginia Patents 10:120) > > Both tracts of land were in present-day Southampton County, were some > distance south and a trifle east of where George Davenport, planter, died in > 1739 in Prince George County, having been located there by 1717 at least: > > 14Aug1739 - Probate: Estate of George Davenport, late of Martin's Brandon > Parish, King George County. Thomas Davenport, eldest son of Decedent, > appeared in Court and declared that his father has died without a will, and > petitioned the Court for Letters of Administration. So ordered. Holmes > Boisseau, Richard Warthen, Wm Heath, and John Jones, or any three of them, > appointed to appraise estate. (King George County, VA, Court Minutes > 1733-1792, 311) > > Given the closeness of the two patents as to location of the lands > granted, both headrights were possibly for the same man. Everytime a person > left Virginia for anywhere and returned, a headright could be claimed. Sea > captains who sailed regularly between England and Virginia claimed headright > for themselves and those earned by their crews (50 acres for each head or > person, slaves includes) for every trip, which is why so many ship captains > ultimately left the sea to become Virginia planters. > > Then too, George Davenport may have paid his own passage or passages to > Virginia and sold both of his headrights. There were no Davenports, to my > knowledge in the records of Colonial Isle of Wight or Southampton County (cut > off from Isle of Wight in 1749). > > The patriarch of the Prince George Davenports appeared in Prince George > records as married and of the planter social class as documented by the LW&T > of Matthew Marks (1717), who devised a parcel of land to his daughter Mary > Davenport. Estate papers of Matthew Marks (not seen by me, but researched by > others) included George Davenport among the Settlement distributees. (Prince > George County, VA, Wills 1713-1728, p. 358, 470) > > Whether these George Davenports were one and the same man will required > more depth research than I have done, or know of having been done. > > George Davenport [Jr.?] of Amelia County, obtained land there in 1745 on > waters of Nottaway, which he sold in 1749 and then bought a larger tract > nearby shortly thereafter, the deed for which was witnessed by a Thomas > Davenport (who was not Thomas, Sr., or Thomas, Jr., of Cumberland to the > north and slightly west). George [Jr.?] died in 1773 in Amelia (now Nottaway > County). Prince George Davenport lines from him forward are traceable, but > have not been formally laid out to my knowledge, but are being worked on. > Allen F. Craig of North Carolina is active in this regard. > > There is a great deal of Davenport data in Prince George records which > has not been extracted. I have bits and pieces: George & Mary Marks > Davenport, 1717-1720; George & Thomas, 1739; George [Jr.?], 1745, 1749, 1772, > 1773 [I do not include George's children, their marriages or migrations > here]; George [Jr.?] & Thomas, 1749; Edward, 1759, 1760, 1791; David, Nancy, > 1784; James, 1787; David, 1787; Daniel & Elizabeth Ledbetter Davenport, > David, 1787; David, 1789; Daniel, Betsey (Prince George), Matthew (Charlotte > County), relative to Edward, 1791. > > My correspondents tell me that there is a mass of Davenport data in > Prince George County records yet unmined, for no Davenport family searcher to > my knowledge or theirs has heretofore undertaken the job of extracting and > abstracting a Total Family panorama. Unfortunately for present day needs, > searchers in the past have worn Line Exclusive blinders, did not have a > Family Inclusive perspective, likely because they did not have the luxury of > being able to take a big picture approach. The data now in my files was > given me by searchers working other families who thought that I might be > interested in Davenport data they had encountered in their own quests. I > have had most of it for twenty years or so. > > I have started a Prince George Davenport file, which I work on > sporadically and plan to give to Nevada Jack one of these days so he can > include it as a separate web page in his Virginia Davenport collection. > > There's nothing here to hang your hat on, but it's a beginning of some > sort. > > John Scott Davenport > Holmdel, NJ > > > >