•••twi PuWIc Ufeary BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 1% 30IUT 1597 _ Dlf.D lu"0 HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE DAYEFPOBT FAMILY, in ENGLAND AN'D AMERICA, FROM A.D. 10CG TO 1850. COMPILED AND PREPARED PROM ORMEROd's HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF CHESTER; COLLECTION'S FROM THE HARLEIAN .11SS. | PAROCHIAL AND TOWN RECORDS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA, ETC., ETC. BY A. BENEDICT DAVENPORT, (OF THE TWRXTT-FOrHTH t-KrCLHATIO.X,) (.nRnvifONOiXU MEMBKK or Tilt: !*KW KNULA.VD lilSTOIUtVCEnF.ALOUICAl. SOCirTT. ' Inquire. [ pny thee, of (he former age. and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers."—Job viii. d. NEW YORK: S. W. BENEDICT, 1G SPRUCE STREET. 1851. CSl/ i in Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1B51, by A. BENEDICT DAVENPORT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. TO THE DESCENDANTS OF REV. JOHN DAVENPORT, THE FOUNDER AND PATRIARCH OF NEW HAVEN, CT., WHO CHERISH THE PRINCIPLES, EMULATE THE VIRTUES, AND ILLUSTRATE THE EXAMPLE OF THEIR DISTINGUISHED ANCESTOR, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION. " Not to know what took place before one was born," says Cicero, "is to remain forever a child." History is the herald of the past. To search into that past, to learn the lessons which it teaches, to profit by its experiences, avoiding its errors and cherishing its virtues, is alike the duty of the scholar, the patriot, and the Christian. The history of nations is chiefly that of individuals. It is the individual character that gives shape and color to any age, that effects great moral and political revolutions, that evolves and illustrates great principles or he- roic achievements. Such was that of the Pu- ritan fathers of New England. They were con- structors of society. They laid the foundations of that mighty edifice which they were about to build, upon a broad and imperishable basis. Vi LNTBOmJCl'ION. The vine which God brought out of Egypt has spread its shadows over our land, till mil- lions are now enjoying the rich legacy of their toils, their labors, and their prayers. In the following pages, the author lays no claim to originality. That the long winter of age might not "bury the leaves and fruit of our pious ancestors in America, the pleasing task was undertaken, to collect and preserve, in this simple form, some memorials of their principles and their virtues, for future gene- rations. In commencing the preparation of this work, the writer had no idea of extending it to its present limits, or of going further back than to the original settler of New Haven. But in his researches, he was led backwards by a series of successes, by which he is enabled to present a line of ancestry for nearly eight hundred years, authenticated by the clearest proofs and evidences. Most of the information in regard to the family in this country has been obtained from probate and town records, sepulchral monu- ) INTRODUCTION. VU ments, and local or general histories. To those who have aided him in making these collections, the author would here tender his grateful acknowledgments. After much labor bestowed, in collecting and preparing materials, the work is sent forth as a vade mecum to the Family, with the hope that it may stimulate the present and future generations, to emulate the piety, the love of civil and religious liberty, and that devotion to " the common welfare of all," which charac- terized the Puritan fathers of New England. Brooklyn, N. Y., - January 1, 1851. ) FAMILY OF DAVENPORT Arms of Davenport.—Argent, a chevron sable between three cross crosslctts ritchee of the second. Crest.—On a wreath a felon's head, couped at the neck proper, haltered Or. Office indicated, Magisterial Sergeancy. (See page 15.) FAMILY OF DAVENPORT. HISTOKICAL. The family name of Davenport is of local ori- gin. The township of Davenport is situated in a sequestered part of the Hundred of Northwich, County of Chester, England ; and is about twenty-rive miles from the ancient city of Chester. It stands on high ground above a range of rich meadows, through which the river Dane flow3 rapidly, with a winding and irregular course. The banks on each side are remarkably lofty ; those on the Davenport side are a series of verdant slopes, bearing evident marks of having been covered with timber at some former period ; the opposite ones have been broken by the force of the current, and are more precipitous. These features of the circumjacent landscape constitute some of the most pleasing scenery of the hundred ; and they are backed by what must have had no ordinary charms for the an- cient chiefs of Davenport, the adjoining hills :; 12 FAMILY OF DAVENPORT. of Macclesfield—the scene of their favorite shorts and their feudal power.* The manorial history of this township in- volves a subject of rare occurrence even in England—the descent of a family in one unin- terrupted male line from the .Norman Con- querors of the palatinate, possessing at the pre- sent day the feudal powers with which the lo- cal sovereigns of that palatinate invested it, and preserving in its archives, in 'a series of original documents, the proofs of its ancient history, and its unbroken descent. Davenport occurs in that part of the descrip- tion of the Venables estates, in which the founder of the barony is termed "venator."' Isdem Gislebertus (Venator) tenet Deneport, Godvinus tenuit ; ibi dimidia hida geldabilis terra est una cacura ; ibi est cum uno Radman et EH bovarhs, et 1TI bordariis ; et una acra silvae. Valebat HI solidos ; wasta invenitur. Shortly after this vill was given, either by the Norman grantee or by his grandson (who appears to have succeeded him), to Orme, the ancestor of the Davenports, who assumed the local name, as is proved by his attestation to a charter at that period. •History of Cheshire, by George F. Ormerod, A.M., F.R.S., F.A.S. FAMILY OF DAVENPOBT. 13 Orrae de Davenport appears to have, been born in the 20th year of William the Conquer- or, 1086, and must have been fifty years old at the birth of his son Richard, who married Amabilia, daughter of the second Gilbert Ven- ables, the Gorman grantee of Davenport, t&c, before 108G. Hugh Kevelioc, Earl of Chester, granted by charter to Richard de Davenport, the master forestership of the forests of Leek and Maccles- field, about 11GG, which was an hereditary of- fice, and is nominally held at the present time. This Richard de Davenport had also in marriage with Amabilia, a moiety of the town- ship of Marton, by grant from her brother William de Venables, and the same has con- tinued by hereditary descent in the Davenport family to the present day. This township 'is noticed in the Domesday survey, and was held, together with other estates, by the Saxon thane Goderic. From various coincidences in the Domesday account, it appears that Wulfric, who lived in the time of Edward the Confessor, 1040, and who was grandfather to Margaret Venables, the mother of Amabilia, was heir (probably brother) to Goderic, and that the Norman conquerors who 14 FAMILY OF DAVENrOET. had dispossessed this family in the first in- stance, re-admitted them to Marton, Cranage, &c. Of the Manor, Hall, and Chapel, of Marton, which has passed through successive genera- tions to the late Davies Davenport, Esq., mem- ber of Parliament for the county of Chester, we shall speak hereafter. Thomas de Davenport, son of Richard, lived in the time of Henry H., or before 1189. Vivian de Davenport, son of Richard, and grandson of Thomas, and the fourth in descent from Orme de Davenport, had a grant of the magisterial sergeancy of the hundred of Mac- clesfield, from Randle Blundeville, earl of Chester, by charter made during the justice- ship of Philip de Orreby, between 1209 and 1226. It appears that the grant was made to Vivian Davenport, against Ivis will, as a com- pensation for. the park and vivaries of Mac- clesfield, of which the earl had deprived him, but which Vivian did not consider an ade- quate compensation. The powers of this office were the highest which the earl could bestow, as it placed, in several cases, at the disposal of the sergeant and his itinerant subservients, the lives of his ' subjects, without delay, and without appeal. — FAMILY OF DAVEJirOET. 15 At this period, the illusive crest the Da- of . venports is said to have first heen adopted, and to have been borne upon the helmets of the mas- ter sergeants in their perambulations through the peak hills, and the forests of Leek and Macclesfield, to the terror of the mimermis gangs of banditti ivhich then infested those wild districts. There is now in the possession of the family" at Capesthorne, a long roll (without date, but very ancient), containing the names of the master robbers wlio were taken and beheaded in the times of Vivian, his son Eoger, and grandson Thomas de Davenport, and also of the fees paid to them in right of this ser- geancy. From this, it appears that the fee paid for a master robber was 2a. and one salmon, and for their companions 12 pence each. There is also an account of the master robbers, and their companions slain by the sergeants, and the fees thereon.* * On the roll is a note by the first Davies Davenport, of Woodford, Esq., to wit : ." The numbers are great, and though the roll is very ancient and much defaced, yet several of the names appear." Communicated to Ormerod by the Rev.