William and Mary Quarterly sources for Edward Davis and Mary Reade

[Nick93]

Hello there. I am still looking for information on Edward Davis, from King and Queen county. There seems to be almost no information on him. The William & Mary college quarterly historical papers vol. 3 1894-95 (page 40) state that he married Mary Reade, the daughter of Francis Reade and Jane Chisman. Francis Reade, of Gloucester county is supposed to have died around 1694, to give a relative time frame. I saw no source for this information in the WMQ article, but presumably there must have been some sort of will, or deed, or register where they obtained that information.

https://archive.org/details/williammarycolle18941895tyle/page/n87/mode/2up

The only other information I managed to find on this Edward Davis was in the book Some Yancey, Hicks, and Medearis Descendants, written in the 1970s, which seems to be quite a well researched book, giving lots of sources, that mentions a deed from April 7th, 1749 in which Edward Davis of Essex county, schoolmaster, buys a tract of land for 30 pounds, part in Essex county, part in King and Queen, from a tailor named William Tywman. That seems to be all there is.

Both "Some Yancey, Hicks, and Medearis Descendants" and "Genealogy of Yancey, Medearis, and Related Lines," both focused on the family of Captain/Brevet Major John Medearis, when speculating about the parents of Captain John's mother, a certain Rachel Davis, mention that Edward Davis and Mary Reade had a daughter named Rachel, though they aren't certain that this is the same woman. Rachel seems to be quite a common name among the Davis family in the region. I have encountered several in my research all around the same time and I believe it may have to do with Captain James Davis and his wife Rachel (possibly Keyes?) who settled in the region, and died in the 1620s.

I have contacted two libraries, one in K&Q and one in Gloucester County, but they've said these are burned regions and wills and other such records are nearly all gone now. But seeing as the WMQ article that mentions the marriage of Edward Davis and Mary Reade was written in 1894/5, there must have been some post-bellum sources they were using. I would greatly appreciate any information on the Davis family, and particularly if there is any list of children for Edward and Mary Davis. I have written to the William and Mary Quarterly to see if they might have some information, but given the situation right now with the lockdown, I'm not sure they're operational at the moment.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[oldohiohome]

I don't think I can add much, you know what you are doing.

Googling one of the names - I think it was "Mary Reade" - and "Essex County" eventually brought me to

https://www.geni.com/discussions/174606#

The 3rd occurrence of "Erica Howton" has some pointers on researching the area. She refers to
https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/index.php as the online site to consult on the region.

her link to the vahistorical.org collections comes back "Not Found" but the information might still be on the site, just moved from that exact location. If you Google "site:vahistorical.org" (no quotes, and no space after the colon) and the key words in the tail end of the html she points to, you might find the new location.

The 3rd through 6th occurrence of "Blejer" on that page on the geni.com page talks about the difficulties researching Davis families in the area.

There are mentions of the Wm and Mary Quarterly on that page also, so you are looking in the right places.

The Davises might be your only hope, if you can find the right Edward. It looks to me like the Reades have been done, and the line you are looking for stops right where you are stuck, with Edward Davis and Mary Reade's daughter. Some say she married John Medearis' father, but as you point out, without sources. And a site I never heard of (xpda.com) said she died in Tennessee (no source). That is apparently where Capt Medearis went to. Did his parents go there as well? I doubt it, just based on common sense and research in other areas, but who knows.

[Nick93]

Thank you very much, OHO! I'll keep trying with those links. I managed to find one book about King and Queen County genealogy by Alfred Bagby but unfortunately the section on the Davis family was limited to the civil war era.

[Genealiza]

posted on wrong query.