Person:Nicketti Opechan (1)

Princess Nicketti _____
 
m. 1618
  1. Princess Nicketti _____1624 -
  2. Hokolesqua _____1630 - 1681
  • HJohn Hughes1615 - 1720
  • WPrincess Nicketti _____1624 -
  1. Mary Elizabeth Hughes1660 - 1740
Facts and Events
Name[4] Princess Nicketti _____
Gender Female
Birth[5] 1624 Werowocomoco, Virginia, USA
Marriage to John Hughes
Property[6] Amherst County, Virginia, USATrader Hughes and Nicketti had a trading post
References
  1.   Brown, Alexander. The Cabells and their kin: a memorial volume of history, biography, and genealogy. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1895)
    1895.

    Excerpt: Before going on the voyage to England with Dr. Cabell, we will consider another very interesting tradition, which has it that Mrs. Elizabeth Cabell was descended from an Indian princess of the Powhatan tribe (some accounts have it " of the Catawba tribe," but this is not tenable), and that it was the knowledge among the neighboring Indians of this descent which protected her husband while locating these lands, and herself when she was managing them in his absence. It was more probably owing to her relationship to members of the Society of Friends, with whom the Indians were on friendly terms. However, the story is interesting, and "the evidences of its truth" are said to " have been carefully collected" in several branches of the Breckin- ridge, Floyd, and other families. I cannot vouch for it, but I will give it as I find it in the Floyd tradition.

    "Opechancanough, the celebrated chief of the Powhatans, who was brutally murdered, while a prisoner, in 1644, left a lovely young daughter, the child of his old age, the Princess Nicketti — ' she sweeps the dew from the flowers.' Some years after this graceful Indian maiden had reached the years of mature womanhood, a member [the name is not given] of one of the old Cavalier families of Virginia 'fell in love with her and she with him,' and the result was a clandestine marriage, and a half-breed Indian girl who married about the year 1680 a Welshman (others say a native of Devonshire, England,) named Nathaniel Davis, an Indian trader, and, according to some accounts, a Quaker ; and from this alliance many notable people in the East and in the West have descended. Their daughter, Mary Davis (born about 1685), married Samuel Burks of Hanover (the ancestors of the Burks family of Virginia), and their daughter, Elizabeth Burks, married Capt. William Cabell, the ancestor of the Cabells; Martha Davis, another daughter, married Abraham Venable, the ancestor of the Venables. Robert Davis, Sr., a son (the ancestor of ' the black Davises ' of Kentucky, and from whom Jefferson Davis descended), had a daughter, Abadiah (or Abigail) Davis, who married William Floyd, the ancestor of the Floyds of Virginia and of the West. A daughter, or granddaughter, of the Quaker, married Gen'l Evan Shelby of Maryland, the ancestor of the Shelbys of the West. Samuel and Philip Davis of the Blue Mountains were sons, and there may have been other sons and daughters.

    "William Floyd left the eastern shore of Virginia, went up the country as far as the present Amherst County, which was then a very wild region, where he met with this family of Davis, who had traded with the Indians and had gotten much property in that way. [The Quakers were much given to friendly trading with the Indians.]

    "William Floyd and his wife's brother, Robert Davis, Jr., with their families, emigrated to Kentucky with the first settlers, and finally located in the Bear-grass region, near Louisville, where the kinsmen (Floyds and Davises) had a fort, called ' Floyd's Station.'"

    But it is not necessary to follow the Floyd narrative farther. It seems well to say, however, that I have seen a Davis pedigree which asserts that " the Indian blood first entered the family through the marriage of Abby Davis with William Floyd, a half breed Indian." Other Davis pedigrees and traditions do not deny the Indian blood, while every Floyd with whom I have corresponded has asserted positively that " it was through Abby Davis the
    Indian blood came."

    The Princess Nicketti's name (it may be because the marriage was clandestine) has not been popular among her traditional descendants. The first Governor, John Floyd of Virginia, named one of his daughters for her. I know of no other namesake; but if the tradition is true, no more lovely women than some among her descendants ever "swept the dew from the flowers."

  2.   Schutz, Noel, and Don Greene. Shawnee Heritage . (Lulu.com, 2008-2015)
    Vol 2.
  3.   Woods, Rev. Edgar. Albemarle County in Virginia: giving some account of what it was by nature, of what it was made by man, and of some of the men who made it. (Charlottesville VA: The Mickie Company, Printers, 1901)
    Chapter III, 1901.

    "...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...."

  4. Note about title suffix "Princess". This is an English language translation that comes closest to describing her rank in her society. Perhaps a better term can be found in the future or an untranslated word could be used. It is included here because I don't have a better translation and because she is referred to as Princess in the earliest records we have for her including The Cabells and Their Kin. User:cthrnvl
  5. Harold Andrew Porter
  6. Re: Opechancanough-Uncle to Pocahontas Posted by: Leona Latham-Simonini
    Trader Hughes and Nicketti had a trading post in Amherst County, Virginia by Otter Creek. The chimney still stands today. They had a son Hughes and a daughter Elizabeth Mary Hughes b. 1654, she married in 1672 to Nathaniel Davis b. 1650. They had Philip, Samual (my line), Robert (The Black Davis) who married Abadiah Lewis, Mary who married Samuel Burks, and Martha who married Abraham B. Venable.