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 Abt 1749 - 1852 (~ 103 years)
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| Name |
Meshack DAVIS |
| Born |
Abt 1749 |
Maryland  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| _UID |
114AEE1346FD4AC1B429CAF7D47C371CEBD1 |
| Died |
15 Oct 1852 |
Fannin Co. GA [1] |
| Notes |
- The Rowan County court minutes dated 8 August 1778 lists those persons who "refused or neglected" to take the Oath of Allegiance to the Sate. Included in the list for Capt. Lyon's District is the name of Daniel Bentley, and the names of Bentley neighbors: Mesheck Davis, John Willcockson, Snr., Mark Whitacre, Adam Hall Snr., Samuel Willcoxson and Israel Willcoxson being also on the list. Evidently Daniel Bentley and his future brother-in-law, Meshack Davis, neglected to take the oath for they both would later apply for Revolutionary War pensions.
Meshack Davis, who witnessed the 17 April 1795 deed wherein Daniel Bentley and Benjamin Bentley sold land to Jacob Bullinger, applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Haywood County, North Carolina, at that county's January 1841 session of court. In his pension application (number 2747), transcribed from microfilm in the Birmingham Public Library by Mrs. Joanne Smith Pirkle Wright, Mesheck Davis gave the following information in his declaration:
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated to wit.
He was drafted and served a three months tour against the Cherokee Indians under Capt. Elijah Lyons, Colonel Locke and General Rutherford being his field officers. Some years after he turned out as volunteer and served three months in Capt. Jesse Knighton's company in the vicinity of Wilminghton [sic] on the sea board and was at the skirmish of the Brick House. General Rutherford being the commanding officers of the campaign. That during both terms of service his place of residence was near Salisbury in Rowan County, N. C., that some three or four years after the close of the Revolutionary War, he removed to Lincoln County, N. C. [ca 1782], where he lived about fourteen years [ca 1796]. That he then removed to Wilkes County [NC] where he lived about eight years [ca 1804], then to Buncombe County where he lived at different places in that county until about three years ago when he became and yet is a citizen of Haywood County. That he has no record of his age to be relied on, but thinks from the best of means of reckon in his power he is about ninety two years of age [born 1749]. That he has no distinct recollection of his age when he first entered the service but thinks he was between twenty five and twenty six years of age having married at twenty five [ca 1774] and entered the service the same years [sic] about four months afterwards. That he was born in the state of Maryland and moved to North Carolina at the age of fifteen [ca 1764] being an orphan.
â?¦He further states that the reason he has not heretofore made any application for a pension is that he has been sick and confined for nearly eight years and lives some seventeen or twenty miles from town in a remote part of Haywood County on Pines Creek and have not been enabled to to since his first application to counsel, some sic months ago until this week to obtain the testimony of Simion Lewis whose affidavit is hereunto annexed.
Also offered as evidence was a letter addressed to Cpt. Richmond Person [Pearson] living at the Fourth Yadkin from Jesse Knighten.
December 25th 1781
Dear Sir
Meshack Davis was at my house after his Tickett of fifteen pounds fifteen shilling and likewise Daniel Bentleys Tickett that he is to receive for D. Bentley You remember I left a passel of Tickett with you after I moved a way to give to the men that was with me at the Wilmington Expodition and I left them with you please to pay to the men I left for you and you will oblidge your Friend [Signed] Jesse Knighten
Simion Lewis gave his deposition to the court on the behalf of Meshack Davis in the form of an affidavit taken by Samuel Pagdett, justice of the peace. Lewis, a very aged individual living in Burke County, North Carolina, had also been proved in open court to have been a soldier of the Revolution. In his affidavit Lewis gave oath to the following:
Simion Lewis age 72 years swears that he was well acquainted with Meshack Davis the applicate. That Deponentâ??s [Simion Lewis] brother intermarried with the sister of said applicant's wife Patience Bentley. Deponent further states that he was in the tour secondly spoken of by applicant from Salisbury to the sea shore near Wilmington and had a skirmish at what was called the Brick House. Jesse Knighten was our Capt. Applicant states he belonged to the same mess as Meshack Davis during the said tour. Sworn before me this 26 day of January, 1841. Simeon (his X mark) Lewis, Samuel Padgett, Jp.
As of 11 June 1851 Meshack Davis, aged "about 101," still had not been able to obtain a pension from the government beauracracy. Isaac Davis, son of Meshack, of Union County, Georgia, entered a claim for his deceased father's pension on 6 August 1853, stating that Meshack died â??on or about the 15th day of Oct. A.D. 1852 and that his mother Lidia Davis died on or about the 15th day of July, A.D. 1847, and that they were married on the 7th of May in the A.D. 1870 [sic]. Isaac Davis also named the other children and surviving heirs of Meshack Davis as follows: Aaron, William, Rutha, and John Davis.
Meshack Davis, named in the 1790 Lincoln County, North Carolina, census as "Mish Davis" and listed immediately after the household of Hana Bentley, had living in his household one white male above the age of sixteen, four white males below sixteen, and four white females.
On 9 November 1906 Mary "Polly" Caroline [Davis] Garland, daughter of Isaac Davis, entered a claim for a share of the money appropriated for the Eastern Cherokee Indians by the Act of Congress approved 30 June 1906, in accordance with the decree of the Court of Claims of 18 May 1905 and 28 May 1906. In her claim she stated the following:
Father's name was Isaac Davis his father's name was Meshack Davis who married Lydia Bentley her mother's name was Easter Downing a full blooded Cherokee Indian from whom we claim.
If interpretation of the above information is correct, it is doubtful as far as Lydia's mother being Easter Downing. Prior research shows Lydia to be the daughter of Thomas Bentley's wife, Hannah, and that Hannah and Thomas married in Maryland, she probably being born in Maryland or England to one of the families of Quakers or Brethren who settled in the Frederick County, Maryland, area.
Polly Garland stated she was born 11 March 1821 in Buncombe County, North Carolina, a daughter of Isaac Davis, born in Buncombe County, and Rhoda (James) Davis, born "don't know." Polly named her husband as Ezekiel Garland, aged ninety-three years and deceased. Here parents were living in Fannin County, Georgia, in 1851. Polly named here brothers and sisters as follows: William Davis, born about 1819, died about 1862; John Davis, born about 1823, died "unknown"; Adline Davis, born about 1825, died 1905; Lizzie Davis, born about 1827, died "unknown"; Nancy Davis, born about 1829, died "unknown"; James Davis, born about 1831, died "unknown"; Sarah Davis, born 1833, living; and George Davis, born 1835, living. Paternal grandparents named were Meshack Davis, born in England [sic], and Lydia Davis, born in North Carolina. Her maternal grandparents were named as William James and Polly James, birthplaces unknown. Polly named the children of Meshack and Lydia Davis as follows: Elijah Davis, dead; Benjamin Davis, dead; Aaron Davis, dead; Isaac Davis, dead; James Davis, dead; Sarah Davis, dead; Elizabeth Davis, dead; and Ruth Davis, dead.
Polly C. (Davis) Garland died before a ruling was made on her claim. John Davis, age sixty-three, and Isaac L. Garland, age forty-four, both of Wilscot, Fannin County, Georgia, entered a claim 22 August 1907 for their share of any monies due them as heirs-at-law of Polly Garland. Both gave oath that Polly C. Garland died 17 May 1907. Isaac L. Garland stated he saw her buried on 18 May 1907 at Mt. Pleasant grave yard in Fannin County, Georgia. [1]
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| Person ID |
I8044 |
Master File |
| Last Modified |
6 Apr 2010 |
| Family |
Lydia BENTLEY, b. Abt 1755, Frederick Co. MD , d. 15 Jul 1847, Fannin Co. GA (Age ~ 92 years) |
| Married |
Abt 1774 |
Rowan County, NC [1] |
| Children |
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| Family ID |
F5922 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Sources |
- [S27] Thomas Bentley of Frederick County Maryland and Old Rowan County, NC. and His Descendants, James W. Miller, Jr., (Self published, web 2006).
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