Person:Zechariah Davenport (1)

Whitley County cemetery survey shows no Zechariah

BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS FOR ZECHARIAH DAVENPORT, 1774-1856

KNOWN FACTS:

Born 1774 in North Carolina (Data from Kentucky census).

Parents: Jacob and Elizabeth Davenport (From Kentucky death record in 1856).

A Zachariah Davenport married Precilla Sprouill on March 1, 1794 in Tyrrell County, North Carolina (stated in the North Carolina marriage records for Tyrrell County). However, it is not certain that this is the same Zechariah as in Kentucky, later

Married Jane Douglass on October 10, 1799 in Washington County, Virginia (Washington County marriage records). Washington County, in Southwest Virginia, was a jumping-off place for the Appalachian frontier and the nearest permanently-settled trading area for Southeast Kentucky.

In Whitley County, Kentucky by 1800 (Oldest son William born June 31, 1800 in Kentucky, according to the Kentucky census).

In the 1815 tax list for Washington County, North Carolina, a Zachariah Davinport is listed as having 280 acres valued at $1,200, or about twice the typical worth in the area. However, Zachariah never appears in any census in North Carolina.

Zechariah in the 1820 Kentucky census had one son age 10 or under, two sons 10 to 16 years old, one son 16 to 20 years of age, one daughter 10 or under, and one daughter 10 to 16. Subsequent censuses indicate that this was the extent of his family by Jane Douglass.

There is no will or other document known to this author that explicitly gives the names of Zechariah's children. However, after 1820 the following children come of age and appear in the censuses in Zechariah's neighborhood, plus their ages match those indicated in the 1820 census, and Zechariah is living in a household in 1850 with four of these (see below). Moreover, early Kentucky marriage, birth, death records list Jacob Davenport, born February 15, 1807, parents Zachariah Davenport and Jane Douglas.

    William Davenport, b. June 31, 1800, d. June 13, 1847, buried Wolf 
    Creek Cem.

    Daniel Davenport, b. 1805, d. July 4, 1886, buried Bethel Baptist 

Cem. in McCreary Co. (adjacent to Whitley Co.) Daniel's oldest son George (1827-1894, named for an uncle, below) was born in North Carolina (Kentucky death records).

    George Davenport, b. January 7, 1804, d. November 4, 1868, buried 
    Wolf Creek Cem.

    Jacob Davenport, b. March 13, 1807, d. August 24, 1880, buried Wolf
    Creek Cem.

    Elizabeth Davenport, b. June 12, 1809, d. September 1?, 1887, buried 

Wolf Creek Cem.

    Sarah "Sally" Davenport, b. 1812, d. 1884, buried Wolf Creek Cem.

End of Zechariah's children with Jane Douglass. All of the children's names are commonly-recurring names in the Davenport families of Tyrrell County, North Carolina in the late 1700s.

Zechariah appears in the 1840 Kentucky census as head of a household with a younger family: one male age 10-15, one male age 15-20, one male age 60-70 (Zechariah), two females age 5-10, and one female age 40-50.

Zechariah as an old man appears in the 1850 census living in the home of his son Jacob Davenport. In the Federal Census of Southeastern Kentucky, the following are listed in one household:

    Jacob Davenport     40
    George         45
    Zachariah 77?
    Elizabeth      38
    Sally          36
    Sally          15
    John      11
    Rebecca         9
    Polly           6

These dates are all low by at least two years, compared with headstone dates; the census may have been started in 1848. The children are apparently Jacob's, but Elizabeth or Sally is not the mother, because Jacob remarries (see below) with them in the household (Sarah was nicknamed "Sally"). Elizabeth and Sally must be Jacob's unmarried sisters.

In the 1860 Kentucky census, the following are listed in one household:

    Jacob Davenport     52
    Amy (Cox) 32
    Sarah E.         2
    George         57
    Elizabeth      50
    Sarah          48

These dates agree with headstone dates. From this, Jacob remarried at a late date (he was 49, according to the Whitley County marriage records), George probably never married, and Elizabeth and Sarah almost certainly did not marry. All of the children in the 1850 census were old enough to have left home by 1860 if the earlier census was, in fact, started in 1848.

Zechariah died October 15, 1856 in Whitley County, Kentucky, age 82 years, 4 months, 9 days (stated in Kentucky death records, available for that period].

Zechariah's burial place is not known. It is probably Wolf Creek Cemetery, where all but one of his children are, but there is no marked headstone. This author has examined a headstone survey for all of the cemeteries in Whitley County, and Zechariah is not listed.

Wife Jane Douglass was born between 1760 and 1770 (Kentucky census), place unknown, probably Virginia. Died July 6, 1833; buried in Wolf Creek Cemetery in Whitley County, Kentucky (marked headstone).

Odd fact: Although Zechariah had significant land holdings and a family, the Minutes of the Whitley County Court for 1818-1821 show that he was arrested, tried, and convicted of "vagrancy." The penalty was that the sheriff was to "hire" him for seven months. This meant that he was to be hired out as a laborer to others in the community. This, along with the fact that in the 1840 census he was living with a younger woman and her children, indicates that Zechariah may have been estranged from his own family.

PROBABLE FACTS

Probable first marriage to Precilla Sprouill on March 1, 1794 in Tyrrell County, North Carolina (stated in the North Carolina marriage records for Tyrrell County). However, it is not certain that this is the same Zechariah as in Kentucky, later. There is no other Zechariah of the right age in any old records of the time for the region VA-NC-KY known to the author. This Zechariah did not set up a household in North Carolina, because he did not appear in subsequent censuses. However, a Zachariah Davenport owned land in Washington County, North Carolina in 1815 (tax lists). Precilla's burial place is unknown to this author.

Probable child by Precilla: Joanna Davenport, born October 18, 1793, died August 1843, buried in Wolf Creek Cemetery. Headstone is indistinct: says Joanna Davenport, born October 18, 189? (sic), died August ??, 1843, "49 yrs 299 days". Joanna probably never married. The name Joanna probably comes from Zechariah's (probable) mother, Joanna Garrett (see below). These figures reconcile nicely if Joanna's birth year is 1793, when Zechariah was 19 years of age. Johannah is a common name in the Davenport and allied families going back into the 1600s in Tyrrell County.

If Joanna Davenport was Zechariah's child, she did not live in his household. Possibly, she was raised by one of his siblings or by Precilla Sprouill's family. Remember that Zachariah may have continued to own property in Tyrrell County, in absentia, which could be the means of supporting the child Joanna. In the Tyrrell County census of 1820, a Joanna Davenport appears as head of household for the first time, with age 26-46 (she would have been just over 26) and does not appear thereafter. If the hypothesis is correct, she moved to Kentucky to be near her father, and died there in 1843.

Zechariah's parents, as stated on his death record, were Jacob and Elizabeth Davenport. A Jacob Davenport of about the right age married (1) Joanna Garrett on February 1, 1768 in Tyrrell County (North Carolina marriage records). If this is Zechariah's father, then his mother's name was Joanna. Jacob married (2) Elizabeth Duncan on February 17, 1779 in Tyrrell County (North Carolina marriage records). There is no proof that these two marriage records refer to the same Jacob Davenport, but the fact that Zechariah named his (probable) first child Joanna, yet his death record lists his parents as Jacob and Elizabeth Davenport, is very suggestive. Zechariah would have been raised from age 5 by Elizabeth, and probably could scarcely remember Joanna. Perhaps Jacob's first wife died, which was not uncommon. Moreover, Zechariah named two of his children Jacob and Elizabeth. Confounding this hypothesis is the fact that there were at least three Jacob Davenports in Tyrrell County in the late 1700s. In a court action of 17 Sep 1765, John Davenport was stated to have a son Jacob. In Richard Davenport's will of 22 Nov 1773, he was stated to have a son Jacob. One of these is "our" Jacob. In the Tyrrell County tax list of 1784, there was a Jacob Davenport, Sr. and a Jacob Davenport, Jr. in separate households. The two Jacob Davenport marriages could merely refer to any of the three Jacobs.

If Zechariah is buried at Wolf Creek, one explanation for why he does not have a headstone is community division over the issues that would eventually erupt as the Civil War. Some of Zechariah's sons and nephews spent some time in Arkansas in the 1840s and 1850s, because they had children that are listed as born in Arkansas. Kentucky was bitterly divided, and moving to Arkansas-Missouri territory was one way to escape the conflict and be on the Union side. Moreover, it is known that many headstones in cemeteries all over the South were removed or defaced because of their owner's political views.

The Mormon FamilySearch International Genealogical Record (IGI) Film Number 903571 claims that Jacob was born "ABT 1737" and his father was Richard. The same record claims that Zachariah was born June 6, 1774, with parents Jacob Davenport and Johannah Garrett. FamilySearch Ancestral File record AFN 11BW-B20 claims that William Davenport was born "ABT 1799" in Whitley Co., KY, with parents Zachariah Davenport [AFN 11BW-B0K] and Precilla Spruill [AFN 11BW-B1R]. However, William was actually born on May 31, 1800 (from his headstone] in Kentucky [from the census], and Zechariah had already married Jane Douglass by that time [from the Washington County, VA marriage records].

In roughly the same time frame as the above Zachariah, there was a Zachariah Davenport in the Pendleton District in South Carolina, who moved to Missouri. There is no overlap or confusion in their respective records. He is probably related to James, Francis, and Joseph Davenport who were Revolutionary War soldiers from South Carolina. This Zachariah married Eliza Wittenberg on March 17, 1831 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, and also received a land grant there in 1845.