PAMUNKEY DAVENPORT LANDMARKS

In Virginia, Pamunkey Davenports left their surname for a time on a number of landmarks such as:

Davenport Landing, now called Horse Landing, and Davenport Plantation adjoining, both on the south side of Mattaponi River next above Major John Waller's "Endfield" plantation, King & Queen (now King William) County, 1696.

Davenport Path, apparently a well-known trail in King William County at the turn of the Eighteenth Century, partially crossing Pamunkey Neck from Martin Davenport's Plantation on the waters of Upper Herring Creek to Richard Yarbrough's Ferry on the Mattaponi River (approximately a mile and a half northwest of present-day King William Court House)--cited as a benchmark in three survey descriptions immediately after Pamunkey Neck ceased to be an Indian reservation in 1701. (Yarbrough's Ferry was a mile and a half upriver from Davis Davenport's Plantation.)

Davenport Ford across the North Anna River between Hanover and Spotsylvania counties. (The Spotsylvania side was in Upper Pamunkey Neck.) Martin Davenport [of Davis] owned the land on the Hanover (south) side by 1726. His son William Davenport took title to the land on the Spotsylvania (north) side in 1736. Both sides were sold out of the family in 1791.

Davenport Bridge across Davenport Ford, off and on from 1765 until now--depending in earlier days on whether it was taken out by the spring freshets--but in 1974 built of reinforced concrete and well known as a historical landmark which in its old wooden character was the site of several skirmishes in both the Revolutionary and Civil wars. (In the late 1990s, the two-lane concrete bridge was replaced by a one-lane structural steel bridge with a wood flooring, passable only by light trucks of the pickup variety. Apparently Spotsylvania and Hanover County officials decided to discourage the bridge use by logging trucks. Besides, the structure is now back in largely uninhabited second growth woods, remote, and is surely intended to serve only light local traffic.)

Davenport Branch, a fork of Tear Wallet Creek, a fork of Big Guinea Creek of the Appamattox River in Cumberland County, before 1750, likely so named because Thomas Davenport [of Martin of Davis] and his sons James Davenport, Thomas Davenport, Jr., Henry Davenport, Julius Davenport, William Davenport, Stephen Davenport, Joseph Davenport, and Philemon Davenport all held land in the area. In mid-1765, David Davenport, son of Martin Davenport [of Davis], joined the group when he married Stephen Davenport's widow and took over her deceased husband's plantation.

Davenport Road between the Appamattox and Willis rivers in Cumberland County, 1750 to the present, but now shortened to 4.5 miles--named for Thomas Davenport [of Davis]; and--

Davenport Bend on the Holston River in Washington County, 1795--named for Thomas Davenport [of Julius of Thomas of Davis].

In North Carolina, Davenport Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains on the North Carolina-Tennessee border was named in honor of Colonel William Davenport, son of Martin Davenport [of Thomas of Martin of Davis], who led the survey crew that established the State boundary in 1821. Colonel Davenport, for many years the highly respected Clerk of Courts of Wilkes County, was badly abused as a 10-year-old boy by marauding Tories (Americans actively loyal to the King) in 1780 during the Revolutionary War. Coming upon Martin Davenport's mountain homestead while Martin was away, Tories seeking to capture him took out their frustration on young William, his eldest son.

According to Professor Lyman C. Draper, the noted Frontier historian, in his authoritative book Kings Mountain and Its Heroes (1881), William's beating was one of the incidents that so enraged the Over-the-Mountain Men (Westernmost North Carolina, now East Tennessee, and now Southwest Virginia), who had spent five years in constant warfare with the Cherokees and Shawnees sent by the British to attack the Frontier Settlements. Learning of Lord Cornwallis' sending a reinforced battalion to put down rebellion in the Carolina Backcountry, the Mountaineers gathered together and marched southeast over the mountains to surround and totally defeat Lieutenant Colonel Ferguson, the only Englishman in the Battle and his Americans in British uniforms at Kings Mountain (8Oct1780). The year had been a desperate one for the Cause of Independence. The Continental Congress had lost most of its Southern Army at the Surrender of Charleston (19May1780), then had lost most of what was left--as well as bottom-of-the-barrel replacements scraped from the North--at Gates' disgraceful Defeat at Camden (16Aug1780). The Kings Mountain victory restored flagging Patriot spirits and marked a turning point in the Revolution. William's father Martin Davenport, a grandson of Martin Davenport of Hanover [of Davis] and a Captain of North Carolina Militia, was one of those Patriots who distinguished himself at Kings Mountain, and in its aftermath is credited for assuring that those Tories who had mistreated his son were properly punished. At a quickly convened drumhead court martial held within twenty-four hours of the Battle, the Tory culprits were convicted--and summarily hung.

Also in North Carolina, Davenport Mountain in Henderson County stands between Johnson's Mill Creek and Shaw Creek. Likely was named for Captain Martin Davenport.