Surname Saturday ~ Davenport of Massachusetts and Rhode Island

My earliest known Davenport ancestor is Thomas Davenport, who was in Dorchester, Massachusetts, by 1640, when he became a church member. He was married by 1643, as his oldest child was born in December of that year. His wife's name was Mary, but I have not found confirmation of her surname.

According to the Dawes-Gates genealogy, Thomas Davenport appears in plenty of early records, including several land purchases, in 1653, 1659, and 1665. Records also indicate that he served as a fence viewer, assisted in laying out a "highway" in 1677, and served as a constable for a few years.

His property was near Mount Bowdoin, seen in the middle of the map at right (courtesy of Wikipedia).

Thomas Davenport and his wife Mary had ten children: Sarah, Thomas, Mary, Anna, Charles, Abigail, Mehitable, Jonathan, Ebenezer, and John. His oldest son Thomas died on December 19, 1675 fighting in King Philip's War.

He died on November 9, 1685. His will was proved on February 4, 1685/86, but his estate wasn't settled for another 35 years, after the death of his administrator, his son, Charles.

I descend from his eighth child and third son, Jonathan.

Sunday's Obituary ~ Mary Stanton Willet, 1834

In doing additional research on my fourth great-grandfather, Jedidiah Willet, I came across a couple of brief death notices for his second wife, my fourth great-grandmother.

The first is from a newspaper in Georgia:

November 13, 1834, Macon Weekly Telegraph, from GenealogyBank.com

In this county on Thursday the 6th inst. Mrs. Mary
Willet, consort of Jedediah Willet, aged 63 years.
Mrs. Willet was a native of Rhode Island, a member
of the Baptist Church. She died strong in the faith
with assurance of a blessed immortality beyond the
grave.

~~~~~~~

Revolutionary War Veteran Noah Davenport - 52 Ancestors: #5

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "Plowing Through." I decided to use this theme to look for an ancestor who lived through snowy winters in a northern state. I realized that I have never fully explored the life of my 4th great grandfather, Noah Davenport, who lived most of his adult life in upstate New York.

Noah Davenport was born in Little Compton, Rhode Island, on August 17, 1758, to Oliver and Mary (____) Davenport.

He served in the Revolutionary War and there is a wealth of information provided in his Revolutionary War Pension application, which I found at Ancestry.com. He enlisted in May 1778 when he was living in Lebanon, Connecticut. He served as a private in several different enlistments between 1778 and 1780. He applied for his pension from Harpersfield, Delaware County, New York in 1832.

Noah Davenport married Lydia Metcalf in Bozrah-Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, on September 23, 1784.

Noah and Lydia moved to Columbia County, New York soon after their marriage, as their first child was born there in April 1785. They had eight children: Frances (Fanny), William, Lydia, Erastus, Ira, (Henriette) Marie, Charles, and Lucy.

The decennial U.S. Census from 1790 until 1840 only displayed the head of household and I find Noah Davenport in 1790, 1800, 1810, in Hillsdale, Columbia County, N.Y. By 1820, he was in Harpersfield, Delaware County, N.Y. and in 1830, he is in nearby Stamford, Delaware County. In the 1840 census, Noah Davenport is listed as Revolutionary War veteran in the household of son-in-law, Nicholas N. Champlin, in Stamford.

Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services, Included in the Foregoing
Noah Davenport [age] 82

Noah Davenport died later that summer, on August 13, 1840.

I did some searching at the wonderful Fulton History website, hoping to find an obituary, and instead, I found a legal notice (luckily two copies since they're both hard to read) that lists all of the children, which requests that they appear for the reading of the will on November 5, 1840. This legal notice, in the Albany Evening Journal for both October 2 and October 8 is transcribed as follows: