"Human and divine nature were blended in the person of Christ - like wine and water in a glass." from "Langfitt & Davis, Bristish and Colonial Ancestry" by Margaret Parks Ewing
Death
1745 (Age 81) Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey
Corliss Fitz Randolph asserts that William was born in Glamorganshire, Wales. Ref. 40 (p. 98). Attended Oxford Univ., England, matriculating at St. Mary Hall (now Oriel College) on 30 June 1682. See Alumni Oxonienses 1550-1714. Became a Quaker at Oxford by 1684; emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1684; separated from Quakers in 1691; was baptized and became a Baptist in 1696. Ref. 40 (p. 98). Expelled from Pennepek Baptist Church in 1698 for asserting that Christ was neither God nor man, but a mixture. In reply to his ouster he wrote "Jesus the Crucified and Eternal Son of God". The new minister of the Pennepek wrote a rejoinder "Davis Disabled". Ref. 40 (p. 98). Became a Sabbatarian late in 1698. Organized an SDB church in Pennepek in 1699, but community disfavor forced him to leave in 1706. He moved to Newport RI, hoping to join the SDB church there; because of his reputation, they refused. In 1711, the SDB church in Westerly admitted him to membership and allowed him the right to preach and baptize. Ref. 40 (p. 98). In 1714 he planned to return to England to claim his inheritance after his father's death, but his Westerly supporters persuaded him to remain, and raised L 150 to compensate him for the loss of his inheritance. But when he did return to Westerly, rumors had circulated that all this was a charade to gain money; his support evaporated and he never got the money. He was dismissed from the congregation, ostensibly for failing to attended a church meeting to which he had been requested to attend. Ref. 40 (p. 99). He moved to Pennsylvania in 1717, but difficulties from this episode followed him. In 1724, he suffered a major fire loss, which the colony promised to compensate him for, but his enemies from Westerly intervened, and the compensation order was not carried out. Ref. 40 (p. 99). He was allowed to rejoin the Westerly church in 1734, after a written apology, and things went well thereafter. He joined the group of Westerly parishioners who were migrating to Shrewsbury NJ in 1745, and died soon after he got there. Ref. 40 (p. 99-100). Ref.: 13, 25, 40.
Email from Elizabeth (Betsy) Frost Davis Davids to Timothy (T) White Davis:
Hi, T. (and Davises all).
A few thoughts about our ancestor William Davis (1663-1745). From the specific language and details of the reference you sent, I suspect the records G. Maria Davis-Johnson consulted at the Bodleian were nearly identical to the records cited in Connie Schey's Elieonai and Lewis Alexander Davis Genealogies family history book that we have, except that our family history also specifies he enrolled in St. Mary Hall, now Oriel College. Didn't Meghan walk to Oriel College when we were in Oxford in 2006?
I got the same information (matriculation date, age, father's name and origin) from Oxford records I looked at in the British Library in 1990, when the BL was still in the Round Reading Room in the British Museum building. I just happened to sit down next to a shelf of old Oxford records, so I pulled out the relevant volume, and sure enough, there was our immigrant ancestor.
A few days before that, I'd been travelling in Wales, where I visited two Llanstephans, one in Glamorgan (Dylan Thomas country, on the southern shore) and one in Powys County (near Brecon and the legendary bookselling town Hay-on-Wye). I visited both because I wasn't sure which Llanstephan William Davis came from. I was actually hoping it would be the Glamorgan Llanstephan, which has a beach and a castle. But the BL's Oxford records told me he came from the one in Powys (present-day Powys includes the old County Radnor), and that conclusion was confirmed by the Connie Schey history when I hunted it up at home.
In 1990, the place was very rustic indeed. I turned off the two-lane main road, and boom, I was on an old old one-lane wooden bridge, I mean tires on planks and heart in throat as the little red rental car drum-rolled its way across. On the other side, dirt road along river bank. Had to stop and sit to regain my cool. Wildflowers. Water murmur. Then I drove every little dirt road I could find until I was satisfied there was no village, barely even farmhouses, mainly a one-room parish church, open but unoccupied, with a very old graveyard full of Davises. A schedule on the door indicated that the minister was there every third Sunday. I sat in a pew for a while, browsed the graveyard, re-entered the church and wrote something in the visitors book. Forgot my umbrella. Then it was time to get back to the M4 and get back to London to turn in the car.
If William Davis grew up there, he must've been a country boy. Minister's son, perhaps? Oxford must have been very heady.
Thanks for sending that reference. I'm glad you're back on the genealogy stuff.
-5 years