Allen line: Samuel Davis 1637-1692

This is a poor excuse for a post.  I admit it, and I write it because of a hope that someone who reads this will have at least one more little tidbit to add to what little I think I know about Samuel.  I also write it because no one in our family should be ignored.

Samuel is traditionally given as the son of Foulk or Fulke Davis and Mary Haynes Dayton, although that may not be correct.  Fulke was the sort of character who had a girl in every port (on Long Island) and I've not found a marriage record for this couple, but Samuel was born possibly about 1637 in Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York.

He married Mary, possibly Mary Mather, about 1671, at Southampton, Suffolk Co, New York (Long Island).  He died in 1692 at Jamaica, Queens County, NY.

That is what I know about Samuel.  I can make a few other guesses.  My guess is as good as yours, unless you've found more information than I have.  Since his father was something of a ne'er do well, we can guess that Samuel had a hard life.  He may have been employed at sea, or he may have worked menial jobs such as his father had.  Perhaps he was lucky and was put out to learn a trade of some sort.

There is a deed from a Samuel Davis to his son Samuel Davis, dated January 14, 1729.  It mentions that the older Samuel Davis was a blacksmith.  If this is the son of our Samuel, then at least he was able to give his oldest son a trade, also.  And if this Samuel is the son of our Samuel, then there were also sons Obadiah, Joseph, and Daniel; those names are mentioned in the deed and the first two were specified to be brothers. But that's a big, unproven if.

Samuel is believed to also have had at least one daughter, Hester, and that is where we connect.

I have no will, no inventory, no hint of anything further at this point. His death is generally given as 1692, which is the same year his father died.  I don't know whether there is any record of Samuel's death, or whether this is an "after 1692" date.   It would probably take a trip to the appropriate towns and courthouses to even have a chance of learning anything new, but new records are coming on line all the time and perhaps next week something new will show up.  Then maybe we'll be able to write more of his story, and find out whether he was able to improve his situation in life or not.

The line of descent is:

Samuel Davis-Mary possibly Mather
Hester Davis- John Finch
John Finch-Sarah
Nathaniel Finch-Hannah Scofield
Jesse Finch-Hannah
Hannah Finch-John Bell
Harriet Bell-Thomas Knott
John Wilson Knott-Harriet Starr
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Allen line: Daniel Finch 1560-1641

Actually, Daniel's birth date and location are still unrecorded, but 1560 is a guess based on his son Abraham's birth, again not found, of about 1585.  If we go with these dates, then Daniel was really quite an old man when he came to New England in an unknown ship in the Winthrop fleet in 1630.  He and several other Finches (brother John and son Abraham, and possibly others), settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.  To remind ourselves of how difficult life was in the beginning, in a new colony, there are notes that "Old Man Finch, of Watertown, had his wigwam burnt and all his goods", noted on October of 1630 by Winthrop himself  This would presumably been a first home, put up until a more suitable but still modest home could be found or built.  At least it was shelter from the rain, if not the cold winter, and the loss of his home and all his personal property would have been devastating.

Nevertheless, he persevered.  He is serving on a jury in May of 1631 and was made a Freeman on May 18.  He left Watertown before land grants were first recorded in 1636, and was the constable of Wethersfield, Connecticut in April of 1636.  This indicates he probably arrived there in 1635.  Again, by now he was 75 years old if we are working from the birthdate of 1560 or so.  I have seen speculation that Abraham was born as late as 1610, so genealogists could be off in thinking that Daniel was as old as I've represented him here.  Perhaps he was born as late as 1585-he was still 50 when he went to Wethersfield and probably feeling his age, whatever it was.

He stayed in Wethersfield only a few years and then moved on with friends to found Stamford in 1641, and finally to Fairfield, Connecticut.  There he married widow Elizabeth Thompson, who died by 1658, and later married Widow Mary Dickerson.  They had a son named Nathaniel.  Daniel died in Fairfield in March 1666/67, "aged about 81"

It looks like there needs to be more done on this Finch family.  My dates don't correspond with the dates I've used in this blog post.  Apparently I have one too many Finch generations, but I haven't figured out which one is incorrect.  I am going to put the line of descent as I have it in my tree, knowing it may be wrong and hoping a reader will be able to correct me, with documentation that seems to be lacking in what I've found so far.  I'm starting to wonder whether I see the hand of Gustave Anjou or one of his sort in this! 

The line of descent is (or might be)

Daniel Finch-first wife
Abraham Finch-Deborah Moulton
John Finch-Hannah Marsh
John Finch-Hester Davis
John Finch-Sarah
Nathaniel Finch-Hannah Scofield
Jesse Finch-Hannah
Hannah Finch-John Bell
Hannah Bell-Thomas Knott
John Wilson Knott-Harriet Starr
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Allen line: Foulk Davis 1615-1687 Immigrant and interesting

It had to happen.  I had to find an immigrant who had real problems in his life.  At first glance, we can't be particularly proud of this ancestor, we may even want to turn away, but nevertheless, he is in our line and he must have been an interesting, if somewhat unsavory, character.

He is another one of our "little is known of" this man, as far as his early life in concerned.  So far I'm not finding a claim of parentage for him, although it appears that he probably came from Glamorganshire, Wales.  He is recognized as a founder of the city of Hartford, Connecticut but by the end of 1639 he was on Gardiner's Island, and working as a gardener for the Gardiner family.  (The Gardiner family was wealthy and became wealthier, and a descendant of that family still owns the island.).  Fulk's status as gardener probably meant that he also farmed for the family, and probably worked to establish whatever fruits and vegetables were grown there. 

Probably sometime about 1639, he married, but the name of his wife has not yet been found.  She was known as "Goody Davis" and at first was known as a serving woman, and also taught neighbors the art of making flax and spinning it into linen.  Perhaps it was one of these neighbors who charged her with witchcraft, which may have been one of the reasons the family left town.  Another reason was that Ffulke himself, along with a son, was convicted of improper behavior with other men (to put it politely).  Still, he was allotted land in East Hampton, so the town may have forgiven both behaviors, if there was anything at all to either charge..  Fulke's first wife must have died in the late 1650's, for in 1660 he married for a second time,to Mary, who was twice a widow.  The couple later lived in Brookhaven, and finally in Jamaica (what was then called Newtown.)

During this time, while Fulke was having a hard time of it, the colony was also suffering.  Although Gardiner's Island had been kept a separate entity, it eventually joined with Connecticut and then when Long Island was made part of New York, the government changed again.  There was also a considerable Dutch influence here, so it wasn't easy, just keeping track of who was in charge on a particular day. 

Fulke must have made some improvements in his economic standing, because in 1671 he allowed his son Joseph the use of his team of six oxen, and in 1670 he had given or sold his dwelling house to Joseph.  No will has been found for Fulke, which is not surprising given the economic class he was in.  He is believed to have died in 1687, with his widow Mary living until 1699.

One interesting part of Fulke's story is that at one time he was appointed to a committee in Southampton.  Their job was to watch the beaches for whales that washed ashore, and to cut them up and presumably dispose of them.  This was not a part of life for most of our ancestors, and emphasizes the differences between towns that were really only a few miles apart.  I wonder how often this occurred, what kind of whales they were, and whether the whale deaths were natural or were part of the whaling industry.

I'd sure like to know more about this family.  As members of the working class, or even lower, their world must have been very difficult.  With sexual and witchcraft charges being whispered about, I wonder how the family was able to go out and about their business, and how they prospered as much as they did.  Maybe there is more to the story...

The line of descent is:

Fulke Davis-first wife
Samuel Davis-Mary Mather
Hester Davis-John Finch
John Finch-Sarah
Nathaniel Finch-Hannah Scofield
Jesse Finch-Hannah
Hannah Finch-John Bell
Hannah Bell-Thomas J Knott
John Wilson Knott-Harriet C Starr
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook (who were married 69 years ago today!)
Their descendants