The Will of Richard Davis of Charleston, Montgomery County, New York

Richard Davis was one of the sons of Loyalist Thadeus Davis, who moved to Niagara towards the end of his life with many of his adult children.  I  believe that Richard moved to Ontario briefly and then returned to the United States, where he lived in Charleston, Montgomery County, NY.  He was the husband of Mabel Mann and the father of Deacon William Davis, one of our Baptist ancestors who moved to the Aylmer area as a young man.  Here is his will, which names his wife Mabel and all of his children then living.  It was written January 2, 1823 and registered June 2, 1823.  Richard was 61 years old at the time of his death.

Highlights:

• he identifies himself as being of Charleston, Montgomery, NY and says that he is "weak in body but of sound and perfect mind and memory"
• he leaves  his "beloved wife Mabel Davis" all his personal property and the interest and profit of it "to be under her control as long as she remains my widow for the bringing up and educating of my son Henry Davis and my son Joel Davis and my son Hosea Davis"
• he gives two hundred dollars each to his younger sons Lyman, Henry, Joel and Hosea, with the caveat that if his estate is not sufficient to cover the amount they are to get the equivalent in real estate after the death of his wife
• he leaves to his children William (whom he names as his eldest son), Joseph, Simeon, Andrew, David, Mary, Sally, Lyman, Hannah, Henry, Joel and Hosea all his property to be divided equally between them
• his daughter Sally's share he gives to his sons William, David and Lyman to control,  and instructs them to give her the interest from it and upon her death to give the principal from the property to her children.  Why is her share treated differently than the others?  
• he names William, David and Lyman as executors of the will
• witnesses are Francis Carey, Wright Davis (Richard's brother), and (Wesn?)  Gage. 

Finding the Davis Family in America

I've always found it curious that so many Davis siblings immigrated from New York to Elgin, Ontario at the same time, leaving their parents behind in America.  There must have been a reason, but was it economic or political?  Where did they come from, and why?

Sims History of Elgin County, Volume II talks briefly about William Davis and his beginnings:

"Catfish Corners [an early name for Orwell] was just a stake in the earth when Deacon William Davis and his wife settled there after a lengthy journey from his home on Schohario, New York, in 1809...William Davis was followed by his brothers Andrus, Daniel, Simeon, and Joel, and his sisters Hannah, Polly and the one that became Mrs. Brown in 1811."

That means that altogether nine Davis siblings came to Canada.  Corroborating the data in Sims History, William Davis, on the 1851 census, stated that he was born in the state of New York, and in the 1861 census stated that he was born in the United States. Now, if you google "Schohario, New York" you won't find anything, but you will discover that "Schoharie, New York" is both a county, a town and a village. I wasted a lot of time looking for the Davis roots there.  It turns out that they come from Charleston, Montgomery County, New York. (It's pretty close to Schoharie--the south town line of Charleston is the border of Schoharie County, and the east town line runs along the Schoharie creek.)  There is even a hamlet in Charleston called Davis Corners.  And I have found a marriage record for William Davis and his first wife, Temperance Leek, in a list of marriages performed by Elijah Herrick,  the first Baptist minister in the town of Charleston.

"Davis, William & Temperance Leak--September 14, 1803."

Original site of Charleston Baptist Church: "Baptist Church, Erected 1793, Elijah Herrick 1st Pastor".

Temperance Leek was the mother of William Davis' first five children;  we descend from his second wife, Mary Sibley of Nova Scotia.

I haven't seen the original records yet, but there appears to be consensus among genealogists that William Davis and his siblings were the children of Richard Davis and Mabel Mann, who were born in Connecticut, and that Richard was the son of Thaddeus Davis and Deborah Hall.  I have been able to find gravestones for Richard and Mabel in a small Davis family cemetery in Charleston, "3/4 miles north of Oak Ridge".   Richard's is somewhat damaged, but still readable.

"Richard Da...Died March 8, 1823, aged 61 years, 11 mo, & 19 days".

Mabel Mann, Richard's wife, has a grave marker which is barely legible now.  Mabel died September 23, 1846.

She is located on the right side of the tree, Richard on the left:

The sign in the middle says "Davis Cemetery".  It seems to be a real pioneer-type cemetery, all small and surrounded by woods, but someone is obviously keeping the grass cut.  I wonder if the Ontario Davis clan travelled back to New York to see either of their parents buried?

Here is a view of the whole graveyard:

Two of Richard and Mabel's children are buried in this cemetery as well:  Henry Davis (July 2, 1806-April 3, 1876) and Lyman Davis (September 2, 1798-May 12, 1878).

The History of Montgomery County  by Washington Frothingham, published in 1892 by D. Mason of Syracuse, New York,  has a chapter on the town of Charleston.

"Many of Charleston's early settlers, some who came prior to the revolution, were undoubtedly attracted to the locality by the availability of Schoharie Creek as a source of mill power, and at an early day along the banks of this stream were erected numerous grist and saw-mills....After the revolution the immigration was more rapid and included many thrifty New Englanders...Among these later settlers were...Abram Davis...Thomas Leek...[and] Richard Davis...

These early pioneers found a country covered with a hardy growth of timber, and traversed by few and laborious trails.  Many of the first comers, particularly those who came from adjoining counties, left their families behind for a time, until they could clear sufficient land to build a log dwelling and sow the first crop.  They generally went back to their old home during the intervening winters..." 

Now, when we go back to Richard's parents generation, things get really interesting.  Thaddeus Davis, Richard's father and William's grandfather, was born in Connecticut in 1738 and fought on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War.  He came to Canada in 1798 with his wife and 11 children, including Richard, and settled in Allenburg, in the Niagara area.  Richard was one of the few children who eventually returned to the United States;  most of the family stayed in Canada.  So it turns out that Richard's children moving to Ontario in 1810 was not so strange;  they had plenty of family here already and had probably travelled back and forth at some point in their lives.