Mabry Benson and Any Others Interested: I don't have much hard data on the Davenport wives you mentioned, but I'll be happy to share what I've gleaned. All of the wives you mention were associated with the family of Thomas Davenport, son of Davis Davenport. [I descend from Thomas and Grace via their eldest son James Davenport, who died in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1780, and James' daughter Rhoda, who married William Boyd, of Boyd's Ferry of Revolutionary fame, with their eldest daughter Sarah Boyd marrying Joel Davenport, son of Augustine Davenport, Sr., of Rowan (now Davidson) County, North Carolina. Augustine, Sr., son of William of Spotsylvania, was a grandson of Martin Davenport, eldest brother of the Thomas Davenport who married Grace Terry. Hence I have a double line from Davis Davenport.] Here's what I have currently: GRACE TERRY DAVENPORT, the primary wife of your search and mother of the sons who married the other wives you desire to know about, has been identified circumstantially by the number of Terry given names among her grandchildren. To my knowledge, other than myself no one has ventured an identification of Grace's father. I have tentatively identified her father as Captain Thomas Terry, a colonial Indian fighter, planter, and public official, who we subsequently have identified as having had a plantation in King William County, Virginia, no more than a half mile south of Davis Davenport's plantation. But there were also in King William at the same time James Terry and Stephen Terry, both of whom were also planters in King William. Both of these Terrys appear to have been sons of Captain Thomas, who in addition to having served as a Justice of the Peace for King William County, was a Churchwarden of St. Margaret's Parish, both appointments of the Royal Governor. The Terry presence in colonial King William, Hanover, Louisa, Cumberland, and Halifax counties, Virginia, was high profile, but is undermined in documentation by the lost records of New Kent, King & Queen, King William, Caroline, and Hanover which discourage making provable identifications. The primary evidence is gone, and we are left with bits and pieces of a confusing jigsaw puzzle. Do not expect definitive answers to your early Terry connection questions, given what exists in extant records and genealogical literature. If you cannot accept identifications based on circumstantial evidence you should look elsewhere for genealogical satisfaction. The Thomas Davenport problem is repeated with Richard Davenport of Caroline, believed to have been a younger brother of Thomas, who, too, likely married a daughter of Captain Thomas Terry. Too much expository space and time are required to go into the rationale, but by a number of circumstantial factors, Thomas Davenport and Richard Davenport both were likely married to daughters of Captain Thomas Terry. When Thomas Davenport moved from Caroline County (cutoff in part from King William in 1728), he migrated in association with Daniel Terry, James Terry, and Joseph Terry, who had Hanover as well as Caroline connections. They were either Thomas' brothers-in-law or nephews or a combination thereof. The Terrys began to take up land south of the James River in now Cumberland (then Goochland) County in 1734. Thomas Davenport and his large family of sons moved there in 1740, obtaining most of their land from Daniel Terry. By 1750, the Terrys had become major frontier political figures and land speculators in South Central Virginia and virtually moved en masse thereafter from Cumberland to join in the erection of Halifax County on the North Carolina border in 1752. Thereafter, the centers of Terry prominence were in Caroline County (Old King William portion), Hanover, and Halifax and Pittsylvania (Pittsylvania was cut off from Halifax in 1768). The Thomas Davenport family assumed the prominent role in Cumberland County that the Terrys had vacated. James Davenport and Thomas Davenport, Jr., sons of Thomas, Sr., and Grace Terry, followed the Terrys to Halifax in the early to mid-1760s. James Davenport appears to have been on Terry land in Prince Edward County in the mid-1750s. ANN PEMBERTON DAVENPORT was the second wife of Henry Davenport, son of Thomas, Sr., and Grace Terry. She married Henry c1770, who had at least three daughters and possibly two or three sons by his first wife, whose name is unknown. Nor are we sure just who his sons were, but one, who died during the Revolution while in the Virginia Continental Line, appears to have been named Martin. What little we know about Ann comes largely from her petition for a Revolutionary War pension, made from Buckingham County in the 1830s, if I recall correctly. Heretofore, it has been accepted that Henry went back to King William County to marry Ann, because in her statement for a pension, she said that she and Henry had been married by having their bans read in King William. However, the Pemberton family, according to Bishop Meade, was a Huguenot family, and eastern Cumberland County in 1770 was in King William Parish, which had been erected by the Established (Anglican) Church especially to serve the French-speaking Huguenots. Whether the King William Parish records survive, I know not, but it is a new direction in which to look, and puts a new perspective on Ann's identification. If Henry and Ann had been married in King William County, their bans would have been read in either St. John's or St. David's parish. MARY ------ DAVENPORT, wife of Julius Davenport, son of Thomas, Sr., and Grace Terry. Julius is the most enigmatic of Thomas, Sr.'s sons, for while he was behind James, Henry, and Thomas in appearing in public records, he surely was the first one married, for he had a son Thomas, who was old enough to be married to Mary Noell, and have a son Claiborne born in 1759. James Davenport, documented as Thomas, Sr.'s eldest son, did not marry until c1747--and his eldest son and child Bedford was born in 1748. Julius' son Thomas was surely born no later than 1743 (making him a tender age 16 when his son Claiborne was born). There were three male Davenports in Cumberland Court records in the mid-1760s--namely Philemon, James, Jr., and Joel, who were variously associated with Julius Davenport and his brother Henry, and were likely their sons in some combinations. All three had financial problems from which they apparently fled--absconded in Court terms. None appeared further in connection with the Cumberland Davenports--are currently still lost to Pamunkey Davenport identification. Julius and Henry Davenport had been variously either a security or a garnishee in Philemon, James, Jr., and Joel's financial problems. Henry managed to survive the debacles. Julius did not. First, he lost the plantation that he had obtained in the 1750s. Then his father gave him 100 acres that was the homeplace, which Julius immediately mortgaged and then lost, selling it to satisfy debts immediately after his father's death in 1775. By 1776, Julius was no longer a freeholder in Cumberland County, was either renting land or was living on one of his brothers tracts by sufferance. In 1779 or 1780, he moved west into adjoining Buckingham County, where his freeholder status is unknown, Buckingham County having had four court house fires. Julius appears on Buckingham Tax Lists, I understand, into the early 1800s. He was subsequently joined in Buckingham by his brother Henry, his son Thomas, and his grandsons Claiborne and Osborne. Henry died within a few years of moving to Buckingham. Thomas and his sons moved shortly thereafter to Washington County, Virginia, but there was back-and-forth traffic between Washington County and Buckingham County for many years thereafter. The only thing we really know about Mary, wife of Julius, is her name, because she had to release her Dower rights on the two tracts that Julius lost in his financial ruin. We do not know whether she was a first or second wife, what her surname was, or when she died. There has been very little analytical research on the Julius Davenport family that has come to my attention--and I have looked. Most who have pursued Julius genealogy are name collectors, are looking only for a name to paste to another name. Few are serious students of the family history--before Thomas, son of Julius, and his wife Mary Noell. Once the family got to Washington County, there is great family history interest thereafter. MARY NOELL DAVENPORT, wife of Thomas Davenport, son of Julius. I am currently researching the Noell family (double 'l' spelling was used by the early Noells) in its South of the James years. The Noells moved to Cumberland County in the mid-1750s from Essex County. Inasmuch as most all of the early Essex records have survived, a Noell descendant should have little difficulty in tracing the family back. In Cumberland County, the Noells owned land in the same Little Guinea-Tear Wallet creek neighborhood where Thomas Davenport, Sr., and all of his sons were located. Because Mary is the easiest to trace, I have done the least on her and backtracking the Noells is not a line of my interest. But I will know more about the Noells as my analytical research in Cumberland after 1780 continues. All in all, I haven't given you much more definitive information on the wives than you already have. If others on the DAVENPORT-L Rootsweb have more, I trust they will share. Perhaps, however, I have put these Davenport wives in a family history context that may be helpful. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ