The Swofford Lineage
Jane Stilley was my grandfather Leb’s mother. We met her father’s illustrious Stille family. Jane’s mother was Nancy Swofford. Nancy was the daughter of Sarah Jane Fixes and John Swafford (spellings varied). My father, JD, was very aware of Nancy Swofford. She was born in Franklin County, IL in 1820 and passed away in 1888, a full 35 years before my father was born. So, dad never met her, but had heard of her in the stories that were handed down to him on cold winter nights in Eyota MN.
Pedigree Chart 11: Generations of Quaker Grand Parents (1 of 2)
To the left we have Nancy Swofford (1820-1888), mother of Jane Stilley and wife of William Davis Stilley. The Swofford family exemplifies a point or two: do not overlook any part of a tree when researching family history. Secondly, there is obvious indecision in this family regarding the very spelling of their surname. Swofford, Swafford and Swaffer are but three variations that evolved in just 5 generations. Finally, this branch provides one of several allied families that have been devoted to the Society of Friends over centuries of time. The Swaffords were proud Quakers who faced persecution, imprisonment and death simply because other Christians were intolerant of the way Quakers chose to worship God.
My father referred to the Swofford family in his Chronicles. He thought the Swoffords were from the hill country of Kentucky and Tennessee. He indicated that they were hill country people, simple folk, eking out a living. In fact, the Swoffords followed the same migratory path from North Carolina that George and Peter Smith traveled in a short amount of time.
Nancy Swofford’s father, John Washington Swafford, was born in 1793 in Orange County NC about the time that Peter Smith of Round Hill passed away. He lived near Peter’s Round Hill plantation. As a young man of 20 he belonged to Colonel Cheats 2nd Regiment of the Tennessee Militia in the War of 1812, willing to fight for a cause. He married Sarah Jane Fixes on October 1, 1818, at Robertson, Tennessee. Sarah Jane Fixes was born in South Carolina on January 20, 1797. Sarah and JW were the parents of 11 children. I would list each on of them but rest assured: It would get old fast. For every Swafford I find canoodling in bed, I have found at least ten offspring. We could fill a book with just their names! Within years of his marriage, JW and Sarah were residing in the young state of Illinois (b 1818). I am not certain that he spent any time at all in the hills of Kentucky. JW Swafford died in Leb’s home county of Franklin in Southern Illinois.
John Washington Swafford’s parents were James Swafford (1768-1845) and Miriam Julian also of Orange County NC. They were the parents of 8 children. James’ parents were William Swofford and Ellender Tripp. They were members of the New Garden Meeting of the Quaker Church in North Carolina. The Quakers met monthly in meeting houses. The men would meet separately from the women and this fact is revealed in the careful records maintained online.
William’s Last Will and Testament is found in the North Carolina archives. He left his wife Ellender, “340 acres of land, all the household and kitchen furniture, one cow and calf, and the crop that may be on the said land at my decease.” His two sons Enoch and Joseph divided up land on Bush Creek and with that hint I began looking for the Swofford land to see just how close Bush Creek was to Round Hill. That’s how this game of Family History is played. William identified his remaining 11 children: 6 boys and 5 girls. Among the siblings I found our James (1768-1845).
William’s parents were Thomas Swaffer (1706-1778) and Catherine Johnson, my father’s 5th great grandparents. Thomas and Catherine were also Quakers living in North Carolina. They had migrated to NC from Chester PA. In addition to my father’s 4th great grandfather, William, they also had a son Thomas who died on October 7, 1780 in the Battle on Kings Mountain in Cleveland Co., NC. The battle was all of 65 minutes long and ended with a patriot force of Overmountain Men defeating a force of British soldiers and local citizens (Tories) who had remained loyal to the British. Thomas Swaffer, my father’s 4th great uncle, died as a Tory soldier per several records. He was 1 of 300 of the Tories to die that day while the Overmountain Men lost only 28. For the record then, Thomas Swaffer’s sacrifice of his life made the point that not every Quaker refused to fight for a cause.
On the Kings Mountain battlefield that day we find Davis family members and members of my wife’s Williams family, including her famous 5x great grandfather, Phillip Buckspike Williams. Phillip was joined by his brothers and his father. According to the legend of Buckspike Williams, Buck’s father died in his arms that day on Kings Mountain. The victory turned back the British invasion of North Carolina from the south and historians point to the victory as a turning point in the Revolution and our nation’s history. Had it not been for the Overmountain Men we could all be singing God Save the Queen.
This Tory son Thomas Swaffer, brother of our William, left a family that required financial and emotional support. In April of 1784 the Orphan Court took the daughters of Thomas away from their mother, Sarah Seeley Swaffer, to be raised in the homes of William Gardner, William Whiteside and Nathaniel Clark.
In 1783 a North Carolina court found Thomas Swaffer, husband of Catherine Johnson, and father of the Tory Thomas, guilty of treason, for providing aid and comfort to the British. He died in New Bern NC, a vibrant business community with an artisan population that served as a capital city of North Carolina from 1770 to 1792. There were notable members of the Davis family in the community. In fact, Swaffer was probably well acquainted with James Davis and his son Thomas. These Davis men were responsible for the first printing press in North Carolina, authored the towns first newspaper and published the colonies official records, handbills and other official publications. Thomas Swaffer and his parents and grandparents were Quakers who originally migrated into America by way of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. Thomas was the son of William Swaffer (1661-1730) and Mary Caldwell (1675-1760).
William’s parents were Josiah Swaffer (1634-1689) and Elizabeth Morris (1638-1666) of Newton, Cheshire, England. Josiah was a martyr among Quakers in England. William (b 1661) and brother James fled England in fear for their lives and settled into William Penn’s colony in 1684. Their father, Josiah Swaffer (1634-1689) who lived his entire life in Cheshire England, had been imprisoned in Folkestone for four months in 1684, fined and abused for failure to convert to the Church of England and for holding to his faith as a Quaker. He encouraged his sons to find peace in William Penn’s colony.
The Chester PA Monthly Meeting June 4, 1694 appointed John Sharples and Andrew Job to launch an inquiry concerning William Swaffer (1661-1730), who had declared his intention to marry Mary Caldwell.The Sharples family and Caldwells had been closely related and intermarried over the course of three generations. Rebecca Sharples was the mother of Mary Caldwell and wife of Richard Caldwell. Rebecca Sharples grandfather Richard had married Cicely S. Caldwell.
Found among the Chester County, PA wills is William Swaffer of Nether Providence (southwest of Philadelphia). In Probate Court, March 16, 1720, it was recorded that he left his wife Mary 40 acres of land and to his son Jacob, the remainder of said land in Nether Providence. He Instructed Jacob to pay £50 toward the debts he was leaving behind and told the executors of his will to sell 300 acres of his land in Westtown to further settle his debts. An interesting footnote: Linguists tell us the Swafford name derived from the tribe of Swabia in central and southern Germany. Swabian men were part of the Roman Army serving in fourth century Britain. The presence of the Swabian people led to the founding of Swaffham, Norfolk, England, centuries ago. In 1463 King Edward V made surnames obligatory and people in the area of Swaffham adopted this surname.
Pedigree Chart 12: Generations of Quaker Grand Parents (2 of 2)
More About Our Quaker Cousins
Because North Carolina had established religious freedom as early as 1669, Quakers were some of the first settlers to move into the colony. Although the Church of England was the official religion of North Carolina, there were few attempts to establish Anglican congregations in North Carolina prior to 1700. Persecuted in Virginia and physically abused, Quaker families found their way into the northern “finger counties” of North Carolina that stretched along the border with Virginia: Currituck, Camden, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan.
The first Quaker congregation in Virginia started worshipping together in 1672 after the founder of the faith,George Fox, made his one trip to Virginia to preach his version of true faith. Quakers were not welcomed by the Anglican leaders of Virginia and located their villages out of sight and out of mind at the edge of the Dismal Swamp. Quaker beliefs in equality between races and sexes were non-traditional and threatened the hierarchy of the plantation aristocracy in the colonies that thrived on keeping slaves and women in their place. The first Quaker preachers came to Virginia in the 1650’s, mostly from England via Barbados. Quaker preachers did not need collegiate or seminary training. All one needed to be a preacher was a willingness to share the faith and friendly persuasion. They were what organized religions call lay preachers.
In 1657 Quakers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore concentrated at the mouth of Nassawaddox Creek on the Delmarva Peninsula (Accomack and Norhtumbreland Counties). It was on Nassawaddox Creek that they built their first meeting house. Their neighbors included members of the Whittington, Littleton, Bowman and Scarborough clans, my wife Nancy’s 6x great grandparents. Puritan and Anglican officials in the colony pushed back against the growing number of Quakers. They ordered preachers to leave and threatened to fine ship captains who brought Quakers into Virginia. On October 12, 1663 Colonel Edmund Scarborough led 40 horsemen from Virginia into Maryland and destroyed Quaker settlements at Annemessex and Manokin.
Quaker preachers moved inland along Native pathways into tribal villages, seeking to share their faith. The best Anglican ministers sought parishes near Jamestown and in the tobacco-growing areas where glebe (church) lands would generate more income to support the preacher and his family. They were less inclined to proselytize in the backcountry where Quakers were accepted and income for a preacher non-existent.
In his History of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson noted
“The poor Quakers were flying from persecution in England. They cast their eyes on these new countries as asylums of civilian’s religious freedom, but they found them free only for the reigning sect. Several acts of the Virginia Assembly of 1659, 1662, and 1693 had made it penal to refuse to have their children baptized, had prohibited the unlawful assembly of Quakers, had made it penal for any vessel to bring a Quaker into the state; had ordered those already here, and such as should come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they should abjure the country…..”
Pedigree Chart 14 shows Henry White (b 1615) and his son Henry (b 1642), the father of Elizabeth White (wife of James Davis). James (1668-1716) was the great grandson of James and Rachell Davis, as proven by DNA analysis. He is not to be confused with James Davis (1642-1688). That James was his uncle (and brother to William, b 1643). These tree branches are loaded with guys named James, John and William.
Henry White (1642-1712) and James Davis (1668-1716) were founding fathers of the Quaker church in the Little River area. White and his father, Henry White Sr (1615-1670), purchased land in North Carolina in 1663 and eventually moved to a plantation along the west side of Little River in Perquimans Precinct. In the 1690s Junior served as a justice on the North Carolina Higher Court and precinct county court. It was Henry White Jr who testified in court on behalf of Samuel Davis III in the legal suit brought against Samuel III, by Samuel’s sister Alice Billet nee Davis.
Shortly after the 1672 visit of the Quaker founder, George Fox, in Carolina and Virginia, Henry Jr was converted to Quakerism and was one of the earliest members of the Little River Monthly Meetings. White served as the monthly meeting registrar (recording clerk). Those meetings took place on an alternate basis at his and Caleb Bundy’s homes until 1707, the year in which the first meeting house was built. This structure was erected partly under White’s leadership on land next to his Little River plantation.
Pedigree Chart 13: Quaker Leadership in the Colony of Carolina
Henry White has been recognized as minister and organizer among the North Carolina Friends. His lasting contribution was a 302-line poem in rhymed couplet and doggerel verse, written in 1698. This seventeenth-century poem is the earliest known literary work of its kind produced in North Carolina. It is an account of the fall of man in the garden of Eden, his restoration through Christ, and “some holsom exhortations for everyone to notis of.”
Henry was born in 1642 and died in 1712. His father was the cooper for whom Samuel Davis Jr apprenticed back in Isle of Wight. Henry was husband to 1) Mary Croshaw (1632-1679) and together they had six children. The first child, Ann, was born in 1669. His last child, Naomi, was born in 1704 to his second wife, Demaris. Do the math: Ann Davis (b 1669) was 35 years old when her half-sister Naomi was born (b 1704). Not all that unusual, back in the day. Henry was all of 63 years of age when he fathered Naomi.
Several years after losing his first wife, Mary Croshaw, Henry White married 2) Demaris Page Morison (1659-1722). True to Quaker doctrine, Henry announced his intention to marry Demaris at a Quaker monthly meeting at the house of Henry Prows in 1681 in Little River, Perquimans NC. Per 17th Century Quaker wedding rituals, the congregation appointed several members of the congregation whose job it was to investigate the couple intending to marry. The investigators would consider whether the pair seemed a good fit and report their findings at the next monthly meeting. The “minutes” of Quaker monthly meetings are found online, dating back four centuries. Many investigations ended with a notation ‘ltm’ (liberated to marry). But there were exceptions and some couples were denied marriage by the Monthly Meeting. If the couple married anyway, despite the decision of the church we find various other notations alongside their name: ‘con’ for condemned, ‘dis’ for disowned, ‘mcd’ for married contrary to discipline, ‘mos’ married out of society, ‘mou’ married out of unity, and ‘rem’ for removed. Demaris bore Henry another 8 children included the last of the litter, Naomi.
It was an embarrassment to a loving father to have his son or daughter marry outside of the Quaker faith. But such events did happen several times in our family tree and we do find families torn apart, uprooted from their church and moving to an entirely new location to escape condemnation and the shunning process.
In a book with a very catchy title (Deseased Quaker Ministers from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) the author scoured the Quaker monthly meeting notes of North Carolina. Those same notes can be found archived online. The ‘minutes’ provide an interesting perspective on a Quaker life in America, 1675. The following testimony concerning Henry White, was authored by a Committee of the Yearly Meeting in North Carolina. It has the flavor of an 17th Century obituary.
“He was a minister of the gospel and a faithful friend, whose Christian conduct and loving behavior towards the Indians, who were numerous in these parts at that time, was such, as we have been credibly informed, not only procured him great esteem and respect from them, but for his sake they showed great love and tenderness towards others in the infant settlement of these parts. He dwelt in Pasquotank County, and died the 3rd of the eighth month 1712, aged about seventy-seven years.”
There is no gravesite one can locate for Henry White. No stereotypical gravestone marks his resting place. The Quakers of the time period did not call attention to themselves in death. If a stone marked the spot at all it was unusual and if anything were etched into that rock, it would have been little more than the initials ‘HW.’
Henry White Sr. (b 1615) was an early settler of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, as evidenced by the following:
“Another Isle of Wight county emigrant who came with these settlers was Thomas Stamp who in 1638 patented 200 acres in Isle of Wight, Northwest upon the Nansemond River. He, together with James Noakes obtained a grant in Albemarle to the north of the Albemarle Sound, next to the land of Henry White. Henry White, Jr and Sr., patented 1000 acres next to Thomas Stamp and John Harvey.”
Many of these names belong to cousins, uncles, aunts and in-laws as children and grandchild married and time passed. The Thomas Stamp family contributed an 8th great grandmother, Johanna Stamp, to my lineage and it was Johanna who tied the Wilkinson family together with our Wm Davis Esq (d 1802) family in the early18th Century.
On August 20, 1644, Edward Wilmot assigned “my right to Henry White (Sr) to 100 acres of land beginning at the mill pond…upon the land of Capt. Bernard… which said land is in James City County, bounded in manner following, north upon Thomas Thorpe, east upon Lawne’s Creek. Henry White assigned all his interest in the property to George Stephens on August 27, 1647.” George was the brother of the second Proprietary Governor of Albemarle, Samuel Stephens, who served briefly 1667-1669. Samuel Stephens tenure as governor was the first topic of discussion on the agenda of the Governor’s Council meeting held at the home of Samuel Davis in 1670.
In 1697 the Davis name appeared alongside Henry White (1642-1697) in Pasquotank County court documents. Henry White and Joseph Davis teamed up as witnesses in probate court on behalf of the estate of Matthew Kelly. A flurry of activity at the turn of the century revealed the presence of three Davis men (Thomas, James and Joseph) in Pasquotank County and a tight Davis connection to the Quaker leader, Henry White.
The Davis family tree hosts many examples of Quaker families. I would like to transport you one more time to a family whose name is of paramount importance in the early history of Jamestown Va and in the development of the Quaker faith in Virginia and Carolina. Please join me in my DeLorean time machine with Marty McFly and Dr. Emmet Brown. We are heading back to the front porch of Captain James and Rachel Davis at their Fort Algernon pub on Point Comfort, VA. They lived upstream from the fort, on the south shore of the James River. The Captain gave up his obligation to protect the fort shortly after Governor Percy discovered that he, Davis, survived the Starving Time by chowing down on rich seafoods and a healthy supply of pork while Jamestown died. We met James and Rachell’s son, Thomas Davis (1613-1683) on page 200 or thereabout, if I keep messing with the pages of this text. Thomas married the Bowers girl and acquired land in several locations, creating a network of plantations surrounding Jamestown.
Thomas Davis (1613-1683) and Mary Bowers had the following children:
- Thomas Davis (d. 1705) m Jane
- Mary (1640-1689)
- James Davis (See below) *
- William Davis (1643-1680) m Sary Jarvis (1643-1690)
- Sarah (1660-1712)
- Richard Davis (1645-1697) m Elizabeth Barry (1660-1692)
*James Davis (1642-1688) started life on the Chuckatuck in Nansemond County, Virginia. He was the son of Thomas Davis and Mary Bowers, the grandson of James Davis and Rachell Keyes. James married Margaret Jordan (1643-1694), the grand daughter of a founding father of Jamestown, Samuel Jordan.
Samuel Jordan (1578-1623), my Father’s 8th Great Uncle, was one of the first large plantation owners in the colonies. He owned and operated Beggers Bush, near Jamestown in 1609. Sam Jordan was, like James and Rachel Davis, officially recognized as a card-carrying Ancient Planter entitled to all the rights and benefits (land and livestock). He knew the secret handshake and appeared in all the Ancient Planter team photographs hanging on the wall behind the desk of every governor who ever chewed tobacco in colonial Virginia.
Samuel survived Shakespeare’s Tempest storm, the hurricane that nearly decimated the Third Supply convoy. Samuel Jordan was on the Sea Adventure when the ship collapsed and disintegrated on the coral shoals of Bermuda. He spent a long week in the bowels of that ship trying to bail nine feet of water out of the hull and back into the ocean as the caulk between the planks of the new ship gave way to the corrosive effects of saltwater on caulk. In their haste to make a profit, the investors put the ship out to sea too soon. The caulk had not yet dried and set in place. It needed more time to ‘cure’ before launch. The investors ignored the ship’s builders who told the investors, “She ain’t ready just yet.” It was fortunate for Samuel Jordan and all others on board that the Captain of the ship caught sight of land (Bermuda) and the passengers could bail enough water out to keep the boat upright long enough to survive what would have otherwise been another ship lost to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sam Jordan spent a year on Bermuda island learning various ways to roast pork over an open pit fire. It was the same ill-fated journey that found Captain James Davis lost on the Atlantic trying to hobble home to Jamestown on the small ship Virginia, originally built in Sagadahoc (Maine).
Samuel Jordan survived the ocean. He survived for a year on the ‘Isle of the Devil,’ (Bermuda) and he survived the Massacre of Jamestown. His son Robert did not. Samuel had four children by his first wife Frances Baker (1580-1608): Anna Marie (1596-1630), Robert (1598-1622), Thomas (1600-1684) and Samuel (1608-1644). Frances Baker died in England, shortly after giving birth to her son Samuel. Within the year Samuel Sr was on board the Sea Adventure heading toward his new life in the New World.
It would be another decade before Samuel would marry again. His second wife, Cecily Reynolds, needed that decade to grow from age 8 to 18. She was the daughter of the sea captain, Thomas Reynolds, and Jane Phippen Pierce. Born in 1600, Cecily came to Jamestown on board the Swan, which made numerous voyages bringing immigrants and supplies. She first married Thomas Bailey and by him was the mother of our 1st Cousin, Temperance Bailey, who at age 3, was already identified as an Ancient Planter. In 1620 Temperance was the sole heir of her father Thomas Bailey’s estate.
Within four days of Samuel Jordan’s death, and while still pregnant with Samuel’s child, widow Cecily was betrothed to the Rev Grenville Poole, who performed the marriage ceremony himself in the name of God in the parlor of Mrs. Jordan’s home. Cecily argued in court that the marriage never took place and she did not promise herself to the Reverend. The issue gained importance in very short time, as a better offer came to her from one of England’s wealthiest suitors, William Ferrar, whose father was a major shareholder in the London Company.
The Reverend charged Cecilia with breach of promise and the matter became a court case of such magnitude that local courts shuffled the question off to London with the usual shipments of tobacco, sugar cane and lumber. Reverend Poole testified often, in various court settings, that he conducted the vows per church procedure and that Cecily did repeat the vow, “I Cecily take thee for my spouse….” etc. Cecily denied affirming the vow and a witness, Captain Isack Maddeson, said, “You know… I really don’t know what I heard that afternoon. I think they had slipped out of the room to fetch a dram and I got everything second hand.” True story.
The London Court threw its’ collective hands up in the air and called it all too confusing. They quibbled over the proper jurisdiction for such a question. Was it to be a matter of common law or canon law? 17th Century British courts were in a tizzy about such questions. The Church of England, a device created by King Henry the Eighth to control the church, now seemed in control of the monarch. Cecily was fortunate in several ways: 1) the punishment at the time involved 20 lashings with a whip and a certain amount of public humiliation, 2) Reverend Poole dropped his charges of ‘breach of promise,’ and 3) Ferrar became her husband. She became a wealthy woman and the matriarch in one of the bastions of East Coast wealth.
Her daughter by her first marriage, our first cousin, Temperance Bailey, followed a similar path to wealth and family. One of her several marriages included the illustrious Richard Cocke (1597 – 1665) a prominent colonial Virginia planter and politician. He established a world class dynasty that includes descendants like General Robert E. Lee and U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. I wouldn’t be surprised to find my own Charles Linten Albert Cox descended from Richard and Temperance Bailey Cocke. Although I am told that Cocke was a variation on Cook not Cox.
Thomas Jordan (1600-1644)
Thomas, the third child of Samuel and Frances Baker Jordan was born in Dorsetshire, England, and came to Virginia in 1618 on board the ship Diana. This begs the question: Who had custody of Thomas Jordan during the first 18 years of his life? He was born in 1600. His mother Frances died in 1608. Thomas is all of 8 and his father was off to Jamestown in 1609. Thomas was effectively orphaned at age 9. His father remained a single widower for a decade and then married Cicely and brought Thomas and his siblings to Virginia in 1618. It was a common thread running through colonial life: children in one part of the world, father in another, seldom seen, separated by an ocean and effectively cut off. Where was Skype when people needed it?
There are but a few records regarding Thomas. He was a soldier in the service of General Yardley. The Census of 1624 shows him living at “the Maine” on his father’s estate. Thomas Jordan was a Commissioner in 1627 and a Member of the House of Burgesses from Warrosquoyacke (Isle of Wight County) in 1629, 1631, and 1632.
In 1635 he was granted 900 acres known as the “Great Indian Field Neck” near the head of Pagan River, beginning at the western side of the old Indian town. He was granted this land by Governor West for transporting 18 immigrants.
Thomas Jordan married Lucy Corker, daughter of Captain Corker and they had several children including Thomas (1631-1699). Thomas Jr married Margaret Brasseur, the daughter of Robert Brasseur, a French Huguenot whose plantation in Nansemond County occupied 1200 acres. Margaret was one of the first known converts to the Society of Friends in the Virginia colony. She became a Quaker in 1658 when she was only sixteen years old. Soon after their marriage in 1660, her husband, Thomas, also converted to the faith.
The couple remained devout throughout their lives at the risk of their life, their freedom and possessions. Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy notes, “Thomas Jordan was probably the most influential Quaker in lower Virginia being a man of position and substance.”
In 1661, Thomas Jordan was held, as he writes, “in six weeks imprisonment for being taken at a meeting at my own house and released by the King’s proclamation.” In the same year, Thomas Jordan also “suffered” the following abuses for his Quaker beliefs:
“for being taken at a meeting at Robert Lawrence’s and bound over to the court of Nansemond for refusing to swear according to their wills and against the commands of Christ, was sent up to Jamestown a prisoner for upwards of ten months. Presently John Blake took away my three servants and left my wife in a distressed condition with a young child at her breast . . . which servant was kept nine weeks and released by order of the Governor. There was taken by John Blake, sheriff of Nansemond, two feather beds, two feather bolsters, and furniture which together with other goods amounted to 3,907 lbs. tobacco and also a serving man who had three years to serve. There was taken by Thomas Godwin, sheriff, ten head of cattle amounting to 5,507 lbs.” Signed, “Thomas Jordan, Chuckatuck, 1st month, 1661.”
In addition to their son Thomas (b 1634), Thomas and Lucy Corker Jordan also had sons Samuel and Robert; and daughters Joan, Marie and Margaret. Margaret Jordan (1643-1694) married her 1st Cousin, James Davis (1642-1688), the son of Major Thomas Davis.
James Davis (b 1642) and Margaret Jordan Davis had a daughter Sarah and gravitated into Somerset County, MD, in 1665. They developed 600 acres known as “Davis’s Choice,” at the head of Manokin River. In 1669 James purchased 200 acres known as “Davis’s Change,” part of a 300-acre tract called “Poole’s Hope” which adjoined the land of his brother, Richard Davis (1645-1697) at the head of Back Creek on the Manokin River.
The James Davis family jockeyed back and forth between Maryland and Virginia between the years 1666 and 1675 and added a son Thomas and daughter Rachell. In 1678 James sold the remaining 100 acres of “Davis’s Change” and moved his residence to Nansemond County where, in 1683, he secured 141 acres adjacent to his brother Thomas Davis. The land had been part of the estate of their father, Major Thomas Davis.
On December 9, 1688, James and Margaret Jordan Davis attended the marriage of their nephew John Jordan,son of Thomas Jordan of Nansemond and Margaret Brasseur. The Davises signed the Quaker Register as “Aunt Margaret Davis,” and “Uncle James Davis.” The Davises also signed as witnesses in Quaker Registersat the 1687 and 1688 marriages of two more nephews, Robert and James Jordan (also the sons of Thomas Davis and wife Margaret Brasseur Davis.
James and Margaret Davis were not identified as Quakers, but I do find it interesting that James was moving back and forth from Virginia to Maryland at a time when Edmund Scarborough (of my wife’s family) was uprooting Quaker families, burning their homes and destroying their properties in Accomack, Virginia and chasing Quakers into Maryland. Scarborough’s attacks are just one of many examples in which our ancestors destroyed one another in the name of God. I hope to never meet Scarborough’s god. Mine is a kinder and more loving God. Scarborough’s god seems like a drunken Chelsea football fan carousing through the train terminals of England with a billy club, spiked gloves and chains seeking out the flesh of any Tottenham fan who may be in his way.
Unsolicited Plug
When planning your next vacation consider spending as much time as possible in beautiful Shawano Country in the heart of North Central Wisconsin. Enjoy the deep forests, serene rivers and streams, and a night life that only a coyote could enjoy. Shawano Country offers something for everyone but caters to those who enjoy the wild and scenic outdoors and the many opportunities for boating, fishing, whitewater rafting and biking. Bring your Harley or your hammock. Move quickly or not at all. The choice is yours. The privilege is ours. Bring your friends and relations and bring your wallet!
-Paid for by The Friends of Five Corners, Wisconsin
