Surname Saturday ~ Davis of Cambridge, Concord and Barnstable, Massachusetts

DAVIS

Our wedding, First Congregational Church,
Holden, Massachusetts, founded by the
Reverend Joseph Davis (1720 - 1799)
My second cousin, 8 generations removed. 

I’m intrigued with the unusual name Dolor Davis, my 10^th great grandfather.  I've seen it spelled many ways: Dollar, Daller, Dollard, etc.  His name comes from the Latin root word for “sorrow”, hence the popular Spanish name Dolores for girls.  I've only seen it in this particular family, not in any other New England family. He passed the name Dolor on to one of his grandsons.

Dolor Davis first appears in the Cambridge, Massachusetts records in 1634 when he obtained a grant of land, along with Simon Wilard, his brother-in-law.   On 17 April 1635 his family arrived from England aboard the ship Elizabeth  which listed “Margaret Davies, aged 32; John Davies, 9; Marie Davies, 4, and Elizabeth Davies, 1”.  In August 1635 both Simon Willard and Dolor Davis sold their land in Cambridge and went to Concord, where his first wife, Margerie, sister to Simon Willard, died in 1656.  He later removed to Barnstable where he married again after 1660 to Joanna Hull, who is mentioned in his will.  Dolor Davis died in Barnstable in 1673.  He had six children, five who married and left descendants in Massachusetts.

What is interesting to me is that when I was growing up in Holden, Massachusetts, we lived on Davis Hill.  It wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered one of Dolor Davis’s descendants was the Reverend Joseph Davis (1720 - 1799), my second cousin, 8 generations removed.  He was the first minister in Holden, founder of the First Congregational Church where I was married, and where my father had his funeral.  The Davis homestead is now known as The Starbard Building, and is town offices near to the historic old Town Hall in Holden.  His farm and land were on Davis Hill, within walking distance of the church.  It is a small world indeed!

My cousin moved to Northborough, Massachusetts (not far from Holden) in the 1980s and lived on a street called Davis Road. I just recently learned that another early branch of Dolor Davis’s descendants removed to Northborough, and lived on this road in the 1700s. This branch was headed by the Deacon Isaac Davis (1749 – 1826), who was also a member of the Congregational Church.  Isaac Davis is more distantly related, being a third cousin ten generations removed.  There has been much serendipity with my immediate family and our distant Davis cousins!

Some Davis sources:

Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, by Richard Charles Anderson, Volume II, page 292 – 297.

“The First Settlers of Barnstable”, copied by David Hamblen, New England Historic Genealogical Register, Volume II, January 1848, page 64.

Dolor Davis, A Sketch of his Life with a Record of His Earliest Descendants, by Horace Davis, 1881

The First Congregational Church, Holden, Massachusetts, history page http://www.fccholden.org/history.html

A chart of three generations of Northborough, Massachusetts Davises http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~northboro/three_generations.htm

My Davis genealogy:

Generation 1:  Dolor Davis, son of Ichabod Davis, born about 1593 in Kent, England, died on 2 June 1673 in Barnstable, Massachusetts; married first to Margery Willard, daughter of Richard Willard and Margerie Humphrie, on 29 March 1624 in East Farleigh, Kent, England.  She was born on 6 November 1602 in Horsmonden, Kent, England, and died about 1656 in Concord, Massachusetts.  Dolor Davis married second to Joanna Hull, after 1660, in Barnstable.  She was the widow of John Bursley and the daughter of the Reverend Joseph Hull, my 9^th great grandfather in another lineage.

Generation 2: John Davis, son of Dolor Davis and Margery Willard, born about 1626, died in January 1703 in Barnstable; married on 15 March 1649 in Barnstable to Hannah Linnell, daughter of Robert Linnell and Pinninah House.  Eleven children.

Generation 3: John Davis, born 6 January 1650 in Barnstable, died 1729 in Falmouth; married first on 2 February 1675 in Barnstable to Ruth Goodspeed, daughter of Roger Goodspeed and Alice Layton.  She was born 10 April 1652 at Misteake (now Marston’s Mills), Massachusetts, and she died in 1691.  John Davis married second to Mary Hamblin on 22 February 1692 in Barnstable.  He married third on 8 May 1699 in Falmouth to Hannah Lombard.  He had five children with Ruth, three children with Mary, and 1 with Hannah.

Generation 4: Benjamin Davis, born 8 September 1670 in Barnstable, died 1754; married first on 22 November 1704 in Falmouth to Mary Robinson, daughter of John Robinson and Elizabeth Weeks.  She was born 12 December 1683 in Falmouth, and died in November 1721.  He married second on 27 April 1726 in Falmouth to Mary Dimmock, daughter of John Dimmock and Elizabeth Lumbert.  He had nine children with his first wife and three children with his second wife.

Generation 5: Ruth Davis, born 5 July 1705 in Falmouth, died 16 January 1790 in Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard; she married on 29 October 1730 at Falmouth to John Mayhew, son of John Mayhew and Mehitable Higgins.  He was born in 1701 and died on 16 January 1790.  Five children.

Generation 6:  Mary Mayhew m. Caleb Rand

Generation 7: Mary Rand m. Asahel Bill

Generation 8:  Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill m. Isabella Lyons

Generation 9: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 10: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 11: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo