Pamunkeys of Martin of Hanover Descent and Others Interested in the Colonial Virginia Record Problem: Before I begin to relate findings of our recent trip to Virginia, let's take the time to set the scene, explain the search strategy. Billy Bob Davenport and my recent week in Virginia to do Davenport family research centered in Louisa County because it and Spotsylvania County are the only two counties where colonial records (before 1776) are relatively complete. Caroline County has only its Court Orders remaining. With the exception of two books, one for 1733-35, fortuitously containing Martin Davenport's will, and one for 1782-1792, fortuitously containing James Davenport's deed of the Old Martin Davenport plantation out of the family, all Hanover County records prior to 1865 were destroyed in the burning of the Confederate Archives in Richmond in the closing days of the Civil War. Loss of the Hanover records is a major deterrent to proving a great deal of Davenport genealogy involving North Anna River settlement. [The North Anna is the north fork of the Pamunkey River, divides Caroline and Spotsylvania (northeast) from Hanover and Louisa (southwest).] In the mid-1720s, Martin Davenport, son of Davis, moved from King William County in Pamunkey Neck to Hanover County. His patent of 1726 described his tract as being 400 acres of New Land in Hanover County on the southside of North Anna River, beginning at the mouth of Big Rocky Creek. At the time, Louisa County (yet unerected) comprised the upper part of Hanover County, running to the Blue Ridge. When Louisa County was cutoff from Hanover in 1742, the dividing line on the North Anna going south began at the mouth of Little Rocky Creek, apparently dissecting Martin Davenport's plantation, for his plantation house site (still occupied) sets in the extreme northwest corner of Hanover County, above the North Anna River and set back from the Davenport Bridge Road. When James Davenport, son of Martin, sold the plantation and remaining 150 acres out of the family in 1791, he described it as being in Hanover County on the Pamunkey River [North Anna], bounded by James Davenport's Spring branch and the Main Road. The 250 acres sold off by Martin Davenport (he willed only the 150 acres) were apparently in that part of the tract which went into Louisa County in 1742. Certainly we know that Richard Davenport of Albemarle, believe to have been one of Martin's older sons, owned 128 acres adjacent to Louisa-Hanover line, among identifiable Davenport in-laws when he died in 1793. Hence, because of the near void in Hanover records, we are forced to work the edges of the Davenport community on the North Anna (which some continued to call the Pamunkey until the early 1800s), to work Louisa and Spotsylvania. Caroline County, starting three miles downriver from Martin Davenport's plantation, comes into play only regarding marriages and law suits. Only the extreme southeast tip of Spotsylvania (less than two percent of the county) is involved in the Davenport colonial analysis--roughly from the now virtually defunct community of Partlow (site of John Davenport's tavern) south to the North Anna. (The later John Davenport tavern was postcolonial, was located west of Spotsylvania Court House, fifteen miles northwest of Partlow.) I did Spotsylvania records rather extensively back in the early 1970s, had that data available. Louisa then offered the most productive target for collecting Davenport data, working with a larger chunk of the County than existed for Spotsylvania because of the Matthew Jouett connection. In Louisa, we had Davenport involvement from Louisa Court House southeast to the Hanover line. But that's only half of the story. We have the matter of parish records. Because there was an Established (Anglican) Church in the Colony, Virginians were required to pay tithes to support that institution, to attend its services (failure to do so was indictable by the Grand Jury), and to observe its procedures. In a number of instances, it was difficult to tell where the Church left off and the Colonial Government began. The County Court and the Parish Vestry generally had the same constituency. Parish records, by their nature--births, marriages, deaths, baptisms, etc--are better for genealogical purposes than public records. St. Martin's Parish, erected in 1726 for Upper Hanover County, namely all that part of Hanover in the Main Fork of Pamunkey (into the South Anna and North Anna) to the extent of the County (then the Blue Ridge), was the parish of record for the Davenport community. Every single record of St. Martin's has been lost. Records exist for the prior parish of jurisdiction (St. Paul's--too early), for the subsequent parishes of Fredericksville (erected for Louisa County, then moved upcountry to center in Albemarle County), and Trinity (erected for that part of Louisa not remaining in either St. Martin's or Fredricksville). Until its demise following the Revolution, St. Martin's Parish included all of Hanover in the Forks and a slice of Louisa County, roughly from five miles above the Hanover line on the North Anna to three miles above the line at the Goochland County line. The Davenport community was totally within that slice of Louisa that belonged to St. Martin's--hence records, if any, of births, marriages, deaths, etc, are lost. Fate has dictated that we Pamunkey Davenports of Martin not only have to work the edges in the public records of Louisa and Spotsylvania, we have to work the edges in parish records, extracting the slim pickings from St. Paul's, Fredricksville, and Trinity, all below the North Anna, and from Berkeley Parish in Spotsylvania, above the North Anna. St. Margaret's Parish in Caroline likely had some Davenport vital records, but those records are all lost too. Thank goodness for Samuel Ragland--a comment which you will appreciate more fully when we get into the details. Okay, that's why we targeted Louisa. Now, we'll start getting into substance. Next report. John Scott Davenport (aka Jersey Doc)