"...Evan Shelby [Note: Brigadier General Evan Shelby, Jr. father of Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby ] was an immigrant from Wales, and at first settled in Maryland, near Hagerstown. There his son Isaac was born in 1750. In the year 1771 father and son were both in southwestern Virginia, in the neighborhood of Bristol; and there the home of Evan Shelby continued to be during his life. It is natural to suppose that his wife, whose maiden name was Letitia Cox, accompanied them to their new home in the West. Whether she was visiting friends in Albemarle, or was passing through on a journey, at the period of her last sickness, it is perhaps impossible now to ascertain. But the plain, well preserved inscription on her tombstone leaves no doubt that this vicinity was the place of her death. A tradition in the Floyd family states, that about 1680 a Nathaniel Davis, who was also a native of Wales, married a child of Nicketti, a daughter of the Indian Chief, Opechancanough, the brother of Powhatan. Robert Davis was a son of these parents, and an ancestor of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy; and a granddaughter of Robert Davis was the wife of Evan Shelby. Probability is lent in this account by the fact, that Robert Davis had a son named Samuel, who would thus be the uncle of Letitia Shelby; and Samuel Davis was the owner of several tracts of land in Albemarle, on the north fork of Rockfish, on Green Creek, and on both sides of Moore's Creek, adjoining the Carter lands. At the time of her death Mrs. Shelby may have been visiting the family of this friend...."
