>From: JSDDOC@aol.com >Reply-To: DAVENPORT-L@rootsweb.com >To: DAVENPORT-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [DAVENPORT] Re: William Davenport, wife Comfort Fisher, of Casey >County, KY >Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 07:43:16 EST > >To Angela, Elaine of Avery, and Any Others Interested: > > My apologies for taking so long to respond relative to the hypothesis >that William Davenport, wife Comfort Fisher, who was in Surry County, NC, >by >1782, was William Davenport, son of Richard Davenport of Albemarle County. >To my mind, William of Surry, later of Casey County, KY, was a done deal >insofar as identification was concerned more than twenty-five years ago. >Before I could respond intelligently to Elaine's suggestion that I address >the subject, I had to go through my files. I have fourteen long file >drawers >stuffed full. Since 1976 and my then move to Virginia, I have had a >systematic filing system--can retrieve by surname and geographical cross >reference. My search did not find a folder for William Davenport of >Surry-Casey, and I know that I had one. But I may have loaned it out or >given it away, having been convinced that it was not a Davenport line of my >interest, and had, therefore, been a blind alley and of no further value. > > I did not become a family wide researcher until the late 1970s when I >was >on the faculty of Brigham Young University and was exposed to the Family >History concept. I then had easy access to the BYU Library, which is >second >only to FHC at Salt Lake City in microfilm resources. Before becoming a >Family History convert, I had occasionally given away data files that were >no >longer of interest. The William Davenport-Comfort Fisher was likely one of >those. I had traced them from Accomack County, VA, to Surry County, NC, to >Casey County, KY, to (one line) Sangamon County, Illinois, before it became >obvious that they were not identifiable kin of mine. My recent search did >not find their data in my North Carolina/Davenport files, but I found >generic >data in my Casey County, KY, file, and eldest or second son George and his >full line in my Sangamon County, IL, file, all of which corroborates which >I >now relate. > > I can dispose of the hypothesis that William of Surry-Casey and >William >of Richard of Albemarle-Kentucky were one and the same person by pointing >out >that William of Surry-Casey was having children 10 to 20 years before >either >of the two Pamunkey William Davenports who were both in Kentucky by 1795. >(William of Surry-Casey was not in Kentucky until after 1800.) George >Davenport of Sangamon County, Illinois, either the first or second of >William >of Surry-Casey, was born in North Carolina in 1781. At that time, based on >their known children, neither William of Fayette County, KY, nor William of >Mercer County, KY, was married. William of Fayette was the son of William >of >Spotsylvania, son of Martin of Hanover (d. 1735). William of Mercer was >allegedly, the identification is vigorously disputed but that's another >discussion for another time, the son of Richard of Albemarle, son of Martin >of Hanover. Whatever, William of Mercer was married in Kentucky in 1795, >did >not start a known family until after that date. William of Fayette, an >officer in the Virginia Continental Line, apparently married in the >mid-to-late 1780s, then took advantage of his generous Revolutionary War >land >bounty and went to Kentucky from Louisa County, VA. He was not on the >Fayette tax list of 1787, but he was on the next extant list of 11Jan1790, >and remained thereon until his death in 1828. Both William of Fayette and >William of Mercer were on Kentucky Tax Lists in 1800. Both were enumerated >in the Census of 1810, with households reflecting children much younger >than >those of William of Casey, who, in the same Census, had four sons with >their >own household living near him in Casey County. > > For those interested in pursuing the William Davenport-Comfort Fisher >line, the records of Accomack County, Virginia, the northernmost county on >Virginia's Eastern Shore, are remarkably complete back to Accomack's >beginnings in the Seventeenth Century. I did not do Accomack, because I >cut >off my work on William and Comfort after identifying and discarding at the >front end. You will also find the couple in the records of Eaton's Baptist >Church, now Davie County, NC, then Rowan County, NC. I stumbled across >William, Comfort and family while I was doing research on the Reverend >Lazarus Whitehead, who was the pioneer Baptist minister of Wayne County, >Indiana Territory, and the pastor of Pamunkey Jesse Davenport, son of >Augustine, Sr., of Rowan County, NC. Jesse moved north of the Ohio River >in >1801, was in Wayne County, IT, by 1806, where he built and operated the >first >mill on Elkhorn Creek. Whitehead came a few years later, established his >church several miles downstream from Davenport's Mill. Whitehead was >pastor >at Eaton's Church twice--both times for a number of years, once in the late >1780s-early1790s and again in the first decade of the 1800s. Willard >Heiss, >the late Indiana Quaker historian-genealogist, had a marvelous collection >of >references and microfilm concerning North Carolina religion in the >Eighteenth >and early Nineteenth centuries, and loaned me a film which contained the >entire minutes of Eaton's Church, from the time of the Revolution, if I >recall correctly, until the time of the Civil War. There are a number of >mentions of William Davenport, his wife Comfort, and their family therein. >I'm going on recall, but William and Comfort were settled on Deep Creek in >Surry County, just above the Rowan-Surry Line and at least twenty miles >north >of Eaton's Church (it was still going strong ESE of Mocksville, Davie >County, >twenty-five years ago--I attended a service and researched its graveyard). >Why the Surry Davenports would affiliate with Eaton's when there were >surely >other organized Baptists nearer, I know not, but during that time there >were >Regular Baptists, Separate Baptists, Particular Baptists, and German >Baptists >(Hard Shells or Anti-Missionary came later), among others, in the North >Carolina Piedmont. Eaton's apparently was in doctrinal and discipline >agreement with the Davenports' beliefs. As I recall they were received by >Letter from an Accomack County church, and along with several others were >constituted as the Arm of Eaton's on Deep Creek. Over the years, the Deep >Creek Arm increased in number by Letter (transfers from other Baptist >churches) and Experience (baptized), and in the mid-to-late 1790s was set >off >as a daughter church of Eaton's. Rev. Whitehead was one of those >constituting the new church. Whether Deep Creek Baptist still thrives, I >know >not, for I had no interest in its cemetery. > > The basic evidence, I suggest, isolates the William and Comfort >Davenports, who I have categorized as EASTERN SHORE Davenports, from the >PAMUNKEY Davenports, and, therefore, excludes the possibility that this >William was the son of Pamunkey Richard Davenport of Albemarle. If someone >wants to do the Southern Davenports a favor, a thorough culling of the >records of Mercer County, Kentucky, would be immensely helpful, for there >were more Davenport households there in the Census of 1810 than in any >other >County in the Commonwealth, and at least two of my correspondents, >descendants of William of Mercer, have declared that none of the other >households were children or kin of his. One of those households was >Richard >Davenport, son of John, grandson of John, Sr., great-grandson of Martin of >Hanover. He was in Danville (now Boyle County), keeping a tavern, and >subsequently was a regimental commander in the War of 1812 who was breveted >a >Brigadier General of Militia for his heroism in the Recapture of Detroit >and >the various battles in Upper Canada; then was dead by 1819, leaving a most >distinguished family. > > Back in the early 1970s, I had a running disagreement with an elderly >lady and her daughter in Southwest Missouri about the identifications of >the >early William Davenport's of Kentucky. They claimed that William of >Fayette >was the son of Richard of Albemarle. I had already placed William of >Fayette >in the Pamunkey file (which I then called "William of Spotsylvania"). >After >much wrangling, I finally made a trip to Lexington, county seat of Fayette, >and searched the original records. I was frustrated on data prior to 1800 >by >a courthouse fire that had destroyed or badly damaged records prior >thereto, >but I found enough in extant records to make a case to my satisfaction--but >I >was unsuccessful in convincing the Missouri ladies, who were largely going >on >gut instinct, speculation, and a desire to get another star on their DAR >ribbons. However, I have not encountered the claim again since. > > Failing to do Mercer County, Kentucky, records when I had the >opportunity >(I lived in Cincinnati for twenty-five years) is one of my lifetime regrets >insofar as Davenport research is concerned. But there's always microfilm >at >an LDS Family History Center. If anyone has the motivation to take on >the >job and be the pathfinder in that area, enjoy. You could prove me wrong. > >John Scott Davenport >Holmdel, NJ >Dear John: You have certainly performed comprehensive research on some of >the Davenports in Virginia. I was wondering if you ever came across My >grgrgr grandfather, Lewis Davenport, in your travels through the records in >Virginia. I believe he was born in Virginia, approx 1795-1810, although it >could have been 5-10 years earlier, but I doubt it. I do know that he >married Mary A. Harris in Sumner County, TN in 1829, and I believe he was >previously married to Cecelia Wheeler, but have no marriage location or >date. The family lived in TN until 1851 when they moved to Crittenden >County, KY. Lewis died sometime between 1842 and 1850. I would appreciate >hearing from you if you have ever come across Lewis. The only lead I have >in Virginia is being told a Lewis Davenport lived as a child in Washington >County, Va, but I am still attempting to verify that information. Thank >you, Steve Siegrist, email: debbyandsteve@hotmail.com. > >==== DAVENPORT Mailing List ==== >Please Help Support RootsWeb! 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