Benjamin Davis (abt. 1758 - 1830)

Ancestors

Husband of Lidia (Meador) Davis — married 31 Jan 1800 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, USA

Descendants

Died 5 May 1830 at about age 72 in Pittsylvania, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Benjamin Davis is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A211612.

Private Benjamin Davis served with Pittsylvania County Militia, Virginia Militia during the American Revolution.

Benjamin Davis was born in 1758.^[1]

Marriage to Lydia Meador

According to his Revolutionary pension file, Benjamin Davis married Lydia Meador on May 10, 1778 at Pittsylvania County, Virginia, but there was no existing record of the marriage. According to the 1851 testimony of 89-year-old widow Mary Shelton (who had attended the wedding at the home of Lydia's father Joab "Meadows"), the marriage was performed by a Baptist minister named Hurt. This could only have been the Rev. Philomen Hurt, who was a teenage soldier in 1778 and not yet a minister. For a summary of Rev. Philomen Hurt, see ^[2] For a summary of early Baptists in Pittsylvania County, see ^[3]

In other words, this particular detail appears to have been wrong, unless Philomen Hurt was a very precocious young minister. However, the indication that it was a Baptist wedding fits the fact that Benjamin's father William Davis was a member of the Upper Bannister Baptist Church.

This means that the marriage took place before Baptist ministers were authorized to perform marriages in 1780. So that would be one reason why there wasn't a record of the marriage. This might also be the reason why Benjamin and Lydia decided to get "formally" married in 1801 -- to preserve the "legitimacy" and inheritance of their children. Their marriage bond was dated 31 Jan. 1801, and surety was provided by Benjamin Davis and his first cousin John Davis, Jr. There was also a letter of permission from Joab Meador, father of the bride (dated 24 Jan. 1801). Either this was a second marriage of Benjamin Davis to a woman with the identical name as his first wife, or it was a "repeat" of an original marriage that was "irregular" (performed by a minister who wasn't formally licensed).

Benjamin Davis appears in the 1820 census in Pittsylvania County as follows: 1 male 16-18; 2 males 16-26; 1 male over 45; 1 female 10-16; female 10-16; 1 female over 45. Also 1 male slave under 14; 1 male slave 14-26, 2 male slaves 26-45; 1 female slave under 14; 1 female slave over 45.

Lydia Davis appears in the 1830 census (taken June 1, indicating that Benjamin was dead before then) as follows: 1 female 20-30; 1 female 60-70. There was also a younger Benjamin Davis in Pittsy in 1830 (not on the same page as Lydia), age 20-30, with a wife 20-30, and three males under 5 and one male 5-10. Perhaps this younger Benjamin was the male aged 16-18 in the elder Benjamin's household in the 1820 census.

Benjamin had a son "James Turner Davis" born 16 Mar. 178* (probably 1782). "James Turner" was the name of a Pittsylvania militia captain who was at the Siege of Ninety-Six (in South Carolina) in May and June 1781.^[4][5] married Lydia Meador (presumably a second marriage) 31 Jan. 1800.

Lydia's father Joab Meador made his will on 25 Feb. 1815, naming his "friends" Benjamin Davis and Thomas Davis (together with two others) as executors.^[6]

Benjamin and Lydia had a daughter Nancy who married Samuel Thompson in 1822 in Pittsylvania County^[7] and Benjamin and Lydia's daughter Sarah married her first cousin, Jamison Corbin.

Sources

1. ↑ According to his Revolutionary pension file, online at fold3.com
2. ↑ [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/HURT/2006-09/1159326358 An Intimate History of The American Revolution in Pittsylvania County, Virginia] by Frances Hallam Hurt (1976), pp. 216-17.
3. ↑ [libjournal.uncg.edu/jbc/article/download/20/9 "Samuel Harris: Apostle of Virginia"] by Shelly D. Bailess (2010).
4. ↑ Larry G. Aaron, Pittsylvania County, Virginia: A Brief History (2009), p. 63.
5. ↑ Davis Family History.
6. ↑ Abstracts of Pittsylvania County, Virginia Wills, 1767-1820, p. 214. For Joab Meador's family, see http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=monkeys&id=I14768 and duplicate http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=crystalinda22&id=I121128; see also http://genforum.genealogy.com/meador/messages/495.html with a list of researchers.
7. ↑ http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/o/n/Anna-Toner/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0031.html

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed May 19, 2016), "Record of Benjamin Davis", Ancestor # A211612.