Person:Samuel Davis (136)

The Rev. Samuel Davis likely came from Ireland to Maryland in 1683 with Rev. Frances Makemie and Rev. William Traille.[1] He first appears of record in Somerset County in 1684, where he conducted a marriage at Snow Hill in February, 1684, and where he granted was a land patent in September, 1684.[2] He helped to establish the Presbyterian church at Snow Hill in or before 1686 and served that congregation many years.[3] In 1689 He was one of the signers of the Address of Loyalty from Somerset County inhabitants to William and Mary.[4]

Rev. Davis moved to Lewes, Delaware around 1691-2, where he established the Lewes Presbyterian Church. [5] In March 1706, he was one of seven ministers who established the First Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America at the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. [6] In 1718, Rev. Davis returned to Snow Hill to replace Rev. John Hampton, who had resigned, and served the Snow Hill Presbyterian Church again until his death there in the summer of 1725.[7]

Rev. Davis married Mary Sympson/Simson, daughter of Robert Sympson/Simson. He was appointed executor and residuary legatee under the will of Robert Simson upon his death in 1700.[8] Rev. and Mary Davis had two children, Samuel and Catherine. Samuel Davis was the father of John Samuel Davis and grandfather of the Col. Samuel Boyer Davis.[9] Catherine Davis married John Donelson. [10]

Notes.

1. Presbyterian Heritage Center, Biographical Index of Ministers ( http://www.phcmontreat.org/bios/Bios-D.htm ); Richard MacMaster, Migration from Ulster: The early migrations, 1649 – 1717, ( http://www.ulstervirginia.com/migrationfromulster.asp).

2. Presbyterian Heritage Center; P.W. Burke, Emily Donelson of Tennessee (1941), page 2.

3. Presbyterian Heritage Center; McMaster.

4. McMaster.

5. Lewes Historical Society - Lewes Timeline ( http://www.historiclewes.org/research/timeline.html ); Rev. Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America (1857), pp. 310-11 (Davis was visited by George Keith in Delaware July, 1692).

6. Presbyterian Heritage Center; Burke.

7. McMaster, Burke; Webster, pp. 310-11.

8. Cotton, The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills from 1685 to 1702, Vol. II, page 222; Burke.

9. Burke; J.M. Runk, Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware (1899), Volume 1, p. 301.

10. Burke.

1. ↑ J.M. Runk, Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware (1899), Volume 1
   301.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Presbyterian Heritage Center, Biographical Index of Ministers.

   http://www.phcmontreat.org/bios/Bios-D.htm

3. ↑ Rev. Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America (1857)
   310-11.