Person:Nathaniel Daugherty (3)

Nathaniel Daugherty Fur Trader ^S1

• 13Aug1750 - Granville Land Entry: Nathaniel Daugherty entered 300 acres in Granville County on Island Creek, adjoining Josiah Mitchell's east line near the Main Road. (Pruitt, No. 3095)

Daugherty was surely related to the Davenports, for it was he who obtained the grant for Isaac Davenport's plantation (see next) and then sold it to Francis Davenport, Isaac's second son. After obtaining a patent for this land on Island Creek, Daugherty sold it to Joseph Davenport. The Island Creek community now straddles the line between Granville and Vance counties. Daugherty, possibly married to a daughter of Isaac Davenport, appears in land and court records with both Joseph and Francis Davenport in Granville County, and with Francis in Anson County

• 19Oct1750 - Granville Land Entry: Nathaniel Daugherty entered 300 acres in Granville County near the head of Tar River, including the "plantation where Isaac Davenport, deceased, lived and made [improved]". (Pruitt, No. 3119)

After obtaining a patent for this land, Daugherty sold it to Francis Davenport. Today the land is near the Granville-Person county line west of Oxford, county seat of Granville County.

• 25Mar1752 - Grant: Granville to Nathaniel Daugherty, 270 acres in Granville County on branches of Island Creek and Flat Creek and on both sides of the country road called Daugherty's Lot, joining Josiah Mitchel. Platted 4Apr1751 by William Churton, surveyor, with chains carried by William Boggan, Joseph Davenport. (Hofmann I, No. 2505; North Carolina Grants 11:347)

Flat Creek, a northerly flowing draft of the Roanoke River, was to the east of Island Creek, is in present-day Vance County. The road was likely named after Daugherty, indicating he had been in the neighborhood for sometime. He soon sold this grant to Joseph Davenport.

• 26Apr1753 - Grant: Granville to Nathaniel Daugherty, 374 acres in Granville County on both sides of Tar River, joining Bumpas's line and the side of said river. Platted 14Oct1751 by Dan Weldon, surveyor, with chains carried by James Webb and Samuel Bumpas. (Hofmann I, No. 1477; North Carolina Grants 11:341; Gwynn, E:203)

This was the old Isaac Davenport plantation tract. Daugherty apparently had his own plantation northeastward on Roanoke River waters, for which he perfted his first grant. A little more than a year later, he completed the grant process on the Tar River entry. Five months later Daugherty sold the tract to Francis Davenport (see below). As noted earlier, Joseph Davenport had sold Bumpas the survey for the cited adjoining tract.

• 5Sep1753 - Deed: Nathaniel Daugherty to Francis Davenport, both of Granville County, for L16, 374 acres on both sides of Tar River, adjoining Bumpas' line... /s/ Nathaniel Daugherty. Wit: Josiah Mitchell, Joseph Davenport. (Gwynn, B:289)

Here Daugherty sells the old plantation of Isaac Davenport, Decd., to Francis, apparently second son of Isaac's, with Francis' brother Joseph witnessing the conveyance. The ubiquitous presence of Josiah Mitchell in Davenport affairs in Granville County suggests that he, like Daugherty, may have been a Davenport brother-in-law.

• 30Jan1754 - Warrant: Joseph Glover obtained a warrant directed to Sherwood Haywood, surveyor, for 640 acres in Granville County on his entry of 9July1753, said land to be obtained between Glover's own lines, Josiah Mitchell, and Nathaniel Daugherty. [Endorsed: "Executed 7 November 1757. Caveated by John Hawkins for use of the Parish though not paid for. Deed 26 January 1758."] (Hofmann II, No. 2787.)

Less than a month later, Daugherty's land was sold to Joseph Davenport (see below), but Davenport had surely been settled in the neighborhood for at least five years. After Glover had the land surveyed, Hawkins, likely a churchwarden of the Established (Anglican) Church, claimed the land for a glebe (seat land for the minister) for St. John's Parish. Although the Church of England had the same powers in North Carolina as it did in Virginia, ministers could not be found in England willing to immigrate to the Colony as vicars of the parishes. Hence, with a few exceptions limited to the Tidewater counties, the Anglican church did not become rooted in North Carolina. When Hawkins did not pay for the land caveated (Granville was not beholden to the Church as the King was), the Earl's agents sold the tract to Glover. If St. John's Parish was too poor to pay for a glebe, it was too poor to support a minister. Although a new parish was erected with the creation of each new North Carolina county, there were few, if any, functioning Anglican congregations in the backcountry at any given time. Services were irregular to nonexistent

• 25Feb1754 - Deed: Nathaniel Daugherty to Joseph Davenport, both of Granville County, for L50, 270 acres on branches of Island Creek and Flat Creek, on both sides of the county road called Daugherty Lot, adjoining Josiah Mitchell's line... /s/ Nathaniel Daugherty. Wit: Reuben Searcy, Francis Davenport, John Caven, Josiah Mitchell. (Gwynn, B:290)

Here Daugherty sells his other Granville grant in the same neighborhood to Joseph with brother Francis witnessing the conveyance. Again the participation of Daugherty, Josiah Mitchell, and the two Davenports. Considering the number of association of Daugherty and Josiah Mitchell with the Davenports, some relationship appears probable. With this conveyance, Daugherty no longer had title to any land in Granville County. He apparently moved to Anson County, where he either was joined by Francis Davenport in 1757, or died in 1757 and Francis Davenport went south to help settle Daugherty's estate (see below).

• 6Mar1754- Warrant: Joseph Davenport obtained a warrant for 200 acres in Granville County, directed to Sherwood Haywood, surveyor, "being the vacant land joining Nathaniel Daugherty, Josiah Mitchell, and Davenport's own line next to the Main Road, including a branch of Flat Creek. [Note on back of warrant reads: "Deed13 November 1756"] (Hofmann II, No. 2586)

The land claimed here is in present-day Vance County.

• -----1755- Tax List: Among those assessed on the extant List of Taxables for Granville County for this year: Francis Davenport, Josiah Mitchell. [Ratliff, Clarence E. (comp.), North Carolina Taxpayers, 1701-1786 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1989), 52, 140)

Why Joseph Davenport does not appear on the same tax list with Josiah Mitchell is enigmatic. Nathaniel Daugherty had possibly moved to Anson County by this time. The earliest surviving Anson Tax List (1763), was compiled five years after Nathaniel's death, included no Daughertys.

• 17Jun1755 - Deed: Joseph Davenport, wife Jemima, to Edward Moore, both of Granville County, for L70, 270 acres on Island Creek and Flat Creek, on both sides of the county road called Daugherty Lot, joining Josiah Mitchell's line... /s/ Joseph Davenport, Jemima "X" Davenport. Wit: Reuben Searcy, Josiah Mitchell. (Gwynn, B:485)

Here Joseph Davenport sold the tract that he had bought from Nathaniel Daugherty. By this time, Daugherty had possibly moved to Anson County (see below)

• 13Nov1756 - Grant: Granville to Joseph Davenport, 138 acres in St. John's Parish, Granville, joining Davenport's line and Nathaniel Daugherty's line. Platted 12Dec1754 by Sherwood Haywood, deputy surveyor, with chains carried by Reuben Searcy and John Flanigan. (Hofmann I, No. 1503; North Carolina Grants 11:347)

Surveyors worked off of previous surveys whenever possible. Davenport's line was Davenport's survey. Nathaniel Daugherty's line was Daugherty's survey, but when this survey was done the land belonged to Joseph Davenport. Daugherty had moved to frontier Anson County 110 miles SSW by this time.

• 24May1757 - Warrant: At a meeting of the Executive Council of North Carolina held at New Bern, among the Warrants for Land read and granted was Francis Davenport for 200 acres in Anson County. [The Colonial Records of North Carolina (Second Series) Volume IX: Records of the Executive Council 1755-1775 (Raleigh, NC Department of Cultural Resources, 1994), 40]

Francis Davenport's record association with Anson County lasted less than seven months, from the time of this warrant until he sold the grant obtained by the survey. In the meantime, he had participated in settlement of the Estate of Nathaniel Daugherty. His brother Isaac, who apparently accompanied him south, had witnessed an Anson County deed during the period.

• 28Jul1757 - Probate: Estate of Nathaniel Daugherty, late of Anson County, Decd. Letters of Administration to Phebe Daugherty, bonded by Francis Davenport, Samuel Davis, appearing before John Frohock and William Davies, JPs. [Anson County Administration Bonds from Secretary of States Papers, NC Archives, S.S. 1-20, as appearing in Holcomb, Brent S., Anson County, North Carolina, Deed Abstracts,1749-1766; Abstracts of Wills & Estates, 1749-1795 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), 150. Hereafter Holcomb.]

Nathaniel Daugherty had died sometime prior to this date, perhaps several months earlier, for Anson County had no courthouse at this time, the Clerk of Courts carried the County records around in a saddle bag, and Courts were held quarterly. The most intriguing aspect of this probate was that it was apparently adjudicated in Rowan County although all of the Estate papers were recorded in Anson County. John Frohock and William Davies were magistrates appointed for Rowan. Edmund Cartledge, an adjoining neighbor of Francis Davenport in Anson, was a magistrate for Anson County, surely could have approved the Administrix's Petition and set the Bond. But he was an Indian trader, may have been off in the Indian country and unavailable. Samuel Davis, the other bondsman with Francis Davenport, was a speculator in frontier land mostly in Rowan County, namely north of the Granville Line and west of Orange County. (Western Granville County had been struck off in 1749 as Orange County, and then Western Orange had been struck off in 1752 as Rowan County--the North Carolina Piedmont was being rapidly populated by settlers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.) In 1762, Phebe Daugherty and sons Isaac and William, likely Nathaniel Daugherty's family, were tax listed in Rowan (see below).

There are several scenarios that might be offered relative to Francis Davenport's brief association with Anson County. The most logical scenario, considering the documented association between Nathanial Daugherty and the sons of Isaac Davenport, would seem to be that Daugherty was married to an older daughter of Isaac, namely Phebe, and that as an older, more experienced frontiersman, he had taken the lead in Davenport family affairs after Isaac's death before 1749. As such, he had completed the land acquisition process that Isaac had initiated in 1745 and had obtained a Granville grant for the home plantation--in his own name, to simplify legal problems of inheritance of an intestate's estate. Simultaneously, having his own improvement "Daugherty's Lot" twenty or so miles northeastwards on Island Creek, he had perfected that title too--while assisting Joseph, Isaac's eldest son, in patenting a tract of his own on Island Creek waters.

In late 1753-early 1754 Daugherty had sold the Old Isaac Davenport place to Francis Davenport, and then had sold his Island Creek place to Joseph Davenport. He had no further role in Granville County land matters, other than future references to his grant in surveys and deeds. He had moved southwestward--to the raw frontier that was Anson County, then the westernmost county in North Carolina below the Granville Manor Line with an open boundary to the Cherokee Nation on the West and to the Catawba Indians to the South. Likely it was he who selected and settled the tract Edmund Cartlidge on the Pee Dee River, a few miles above the later boundary between the Carolinas. Possibly Daugherty was engaged in the Indian trade with Cartlidge. (A Cornelius Daugherty had been settled among the Cherokees since 1719 and had become the principal trader there by 1758, but no connection with Nathaniel Daugherty, other than similarity of surnames, has been found. Cornelius Daugherty was a squaw man.) Whatever the circumstances, Nathaniel's death possibly triggered the flurry of activity that his brother-in-law Francis Davenport seemingly engaged in the seven month period--in assisting Daugherty's family in a manner similar to Daugherty's assistance to Isaac Davenport's family a decade earlier.

• cAug1757 - Probate: Estate of Nathaniel Daugherty, late of Anson County, Decd. Return of Inventory of Estate filed with Court and sworn to by appointed appraisers John Morman, Edmund Cartlidge, and James Terry. (Holcomb, 140)

This recording is undated in Anson County records, but normally would have occurred shortly after the estate had been admitted to probate. However, on the Carolina frontier probate matters did not always proceed in an orderly manner. The location of Daugherty's plantation can be inferred from those freeholders appointed to make the inventory. For pragmatic reasons, neighbors were generally assigned the task of inventory and appraisal by a Court. All three appraisers of this estate were Anson frontiersmen of substance and all were settled on the East Side of Pee Dee River within five miles of Cartlidge's Trading Post--adjacent to the 200-acre tract that Francis Davenport was in the process of having surveyed. Evidences, although circumstantial, are suggestive that Davenport was in Anson County to help settle the Daugherty estate, for he sold the land within two months after it was granted, likely as soon as the Surveyor brought the grant back from New Bern.

• 28Nov1757 - Deed: James Terry, of Anson County, to James Downing, for L20, the tract on the north side of Hitchcock's Creek granted to said Terry on 26Nov1757, adjoining John Webb's corner... /s/ James Terry. Wit: M. Brown, Isaac "X" Davenport. (Anson County, NC, Deeds 1:311)

Isaac Davenport, by later evidence in South Carolina, where he was identified as Isaac, Sr., surely was a younger brother of Joseph and Francis Davenport. This document suggests that he had accompanied his brother to Anson County to assist with the Daugherty Estate settlement. James Terry had been one of the appraisers of the Nathaniel Daugherty, Decd., estate. Morgan Brown, the other witness, had land up the Pee Dee from Edmund Cartlidge.

• -----1761 - Tax List: Among those assessed on the extant List of Taxables for Rowan County for this year: Phoebe Daugherty and sons, Isaac Daugherty, William Daugherty. [Ratliff, Clarence E. (comp.), North Carolina Taxpayers, 1679-1790 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1987), 51)

These were possibly the widow and sons of Nathaniel Daugherty who was probated in Anson County in 1757. To be identified as taxables (polls), the sons had to be of age 16 or older. None of these Daughertys had land in Rowan County through 1785, none were mentioned in Rowan County Court Minutes during the same period. If these were Nathaniel's family, their whereabouts after this date is enigmatic.

1.   Davenport, John Scott. The Newberry Davenports: Extracts & Abstracts from Primary Sources, Chronological Compilation and Editing, with Annotations in Italics.