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Esther (Fitz Randolph) Davis (1810 - 1894)

Esther "Hester" Davis formerly Fitz Randolph aka Kennedy
Born in Salem, Harrison, Virginia, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Daughter of and
Sister of , , , , , , , and
Wife of — married 26 Apr 1827 (to 5 Jul 1855) in Harrison, Virginia, United Statesmap
Wife of — married 26 Feb 1873 (to 1 Sep 1876) in Doddridge, West Virginia, United Statesmap
Mother of , , , , , , , , and
Died at age 83 in United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 6 Apr 2013
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Contents

Biography

Esther was born in 1810 in Salem in Harrison County in Virginia, which in 1863 would become part of the new state of West Virginia. She was the daughter of Jonathan Fitz Randolph and Mary Elizabeth Davis. She grew up within the large Seventh Day Baptist community there and at age 16 in 1827, she married John S. Davis from another important S.D.B. family there in Harrison County. The couple settled to farm near West Union and had at least ten children there together. At least six of the children died during an epidemic of scarlet fever in the early 1850s and one (possibly two) died young at other times. John had been doing well as a farmer, with the family sending four of their children to the first subscription high school established in West Union in the early 1850s. After the deaths of their children to scarlet fever, the family moved in 1854 to settle in Saint Francisville in Clark County, Missouri, together with their daughter Bee's family. Her husband John died there of cholera the following year in 1855. After her husband's death, Esther and her family moved back to the West Union area. In 1873, Esther married the widower William Kennedy in Doddridge County. William died only three years later in 1876 and Esther went back to using Davis as her surname. Esther then went to join her daughter's family in Moberly, Missouri. She died at age 83 in 1894 either in Moberly or in West Union. She is buried in the Old Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in West Union, West Virginia.

Children:

  1. Mary Jane, 1829-1903; m. Josiah H. D. Bee, 1845
  2. Lewis Townsend, 1833-1922; m. Atha Burnworth, c. 1861
  3. Caroline, 1835-1853 [scarlet fever]
  4. Elizabeth, 1838-1852
  5. Emily, 1841-1896; m. Hiram Jennings, 1860
  6. Sophronia, 1844-1852
  7. Artilia, 1846-1852
  8. Francis Grafton, 1848-1852
  9. Harriet Virginia, 1851-1852
  10. Lucy Maria, 1854-1857

Do you have information about Esther Fitz Randolph? Please contribute to his biography. Everything on WikiTree is a collaborative work-in-progress.

Surname Note

In this Fitz Randolph family, Fitz appears to have been used by all family members as part of their surname: the Oris H.F. Randolph genealogy[1] assumes this to be the case when listing the children in the family in which Esther is a child. Her marriage contract clearly records her as Esther Fitz Randolph, and on her gravestone, her middle initial is F representing Fitz Randolph. The current consensus is therefore to use the surname Fitz Randolph. (Need to confirm how Fitz Randolph was used in legal documents and when births were recorded documents.) Please don't hesitate to contact the profile manager if you think this decision should be reviewed!

Research notes

  • Some Ancestry.com family trees also report a daughter Harriet born in 1831, died in 1837, but with no source to support it.

Sources

  1. ↑ Oris H. F. Randolph. 1976. Edward Fitz Randolph Branch Lines, Allied Families and English and Norman Ancestry: A Family Genealogy 860-1976. Printed by Edwards Brothers Inc., Ann Arbor, MI.

Louise Aymar Christian and Howard Stelle Fitz Randolph. (1950). Fitz Randolph Genealogy: The Descendants of Edward Fitz Randolph and Elizabeth Blossom: 1630-1950. 222 pp. Entry 174 (vi.), p. 49.

Name: Hester Fitz Randolph
Parents: Jonathan Fitz Randolph; Mary Davis
Birth: 31 Oct 1810, Salem, W. Va.
Death: 5 Feb 1894
Marriage: 12 Apr 1827
Spouse: John S. Davis
Spouse birth: 10 Feb 1804
Spouse death: 5 Jul 1885, Clark Co., Mo.
Number of children: 9

Oris H. F. Randolph. 1976. Edward Fitz Randolph Branch Lines, Allied Families and English and Norman Ancestry: A Family Genealogy 860-1976, Second edition, 1980. Printed by Edwards Brothers Inc., Ann Arbor, MI; Entry no. 21 (vi); pages 8-9

Name: Hester Fitz Randolph
Parents: Jonathan Fitz Randolph; Mary Davis
Birth: 10 Oct 1810, Salem, W. Va.
Marriage: 1827
Spouse: John S. Davis

Corliss Fitz Randolph. (1905). A History of the Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury church in New Jersey. The American Sabbath Tract Society, Planfield, NJ. This book can be viewed online or downloaded at Archive.org, accessed 30 Oct 2014.

p. 316: Students attending West Union Academy, Parents: John S and Esther F. Randolph
Lewis Townsend, residing in West Union, W.V.
Caroline (deceased), lived in West Union, W.V.
Elizabeth (deceased), lived in West Union, W.V.
Emily (deceased), m. Hiram Jennings, lived in Moberly, Mo.
p. 445: Tombstone Inscriptions: West Virginia: West Union: "Our mother, Esther F. Davis, wife of J. S. Davis, born Oct 31, 1810; died Feb. 7, 1894"

Maria Davis Johnson, Descendants of Seventh Day Baptist William Davis,1663-1745 Rootweb; accessed 25 May 2020.

Name: John S. Davis
Birth: 1804 in Virginia
Death: 7 Jul 1855, Saint Francisville, Clark Co., MO
Spouse: Esther Fitz-Randolph
Parents: Nathan Davis, Jane Sutton
Cause of Death: Cholera
Note: In the spring of 1854 he sold the farm adjoining West Union to Israel Duckworth. Seven of his children had died of scarlet fever. He decided to go to Missouri with his remaining family, along with the Henderson family and the J. H. Bee family. There were about twenty persons in all. They went by way of Dayton, Ohio where the Hendersons decided to stay. Then the group went on to Terra Haute, Indiana and to Springfield, Illinois where property was cheap. The Mississippi river was crossed five miles below Keokuck, Iowa. There was no bridge at the time. The party arrived in Missouri, where they settled in Francisville in the Month of October. Both Mr Davis and Mr Bee purchased land there. The following summer, he died, along with two of the Bee family, of Cholera. Source: Gregg Dulaney Smith. Maplewood Farm, Box 26, Smithburg, WV 26436, Date 11 Jan 2000.

Marriages

"West Virginia Marriages, 1854-1932", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRZ1-JPY : 30 January 2020), Esther Fitz Randolph in entry for John S. Davis, 1827. Name: John S. Davis Event Type: Marriage Event Date: 1 Apr 1827 Event Place: Harrison, Virginia, United States Event Place (Original): Harrison, West Virginia, United States Gender: Male Spouse's Name: Esther Fitz Randolph Spouse's Gender: Female

"West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FR6S-J55 : 11 February 2018), John S. Davis and Esther Fitzrandolph, 06 Apr 1827; citing Harrison, West Virginia, v 4 p 251, county clerks, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 847,275.

Name: John S. Davis
Spouse's Name: Esther Fitz Randolph
Event Type: Marriage Contract
Event Date: 06 Apr 1827
Event Place: Harrison, West Virginia
Signatories: John S. Davis, Jonathan Fitz Randolph
Affiliate Repository Type: County Records

"West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FR6C-99D : 11 February 2018), John Davis and Esther F. Randolph, 26 Apr 1827; citing Harrison, West Virginia, v 3 p 42, county clerks, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 847,273.

Name: John Davis
Spouse's Name: Esther F. Randolph
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 26 Apr 1827
Event Place: Harrison, West Virginia
Performed by: John Davis
Affiliate Repository Type: County Records

"West Virginia Marriages, 1780-1970," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NMJG-C6P : 11 February 2018), William Kennedy and Esther F Davis, 26 Feb 1873; citing Doddridge, West Virginia, v1a 194, county clerks, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 838,210.

Name: William Kennedy
Age (Expanded): 68 years
Birth Year (Estimated): 1805
Marital status: widowed
Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Residence: Harrison, WV
Occupation: Farmer
Spouse's Name: Esther F Davis
Spouse's Age (Expanded): 62 years
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1811
Spouse Marital status: widowed
Spouse Birthplace: Harrison, Va
Residence: Doddridge, WV
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 26 Feb 1873
Event Place: Doddridge, West Virginia
Performed by: Henry J. Boatman
Father's Name: James Kennedy
Mother's Name: Iqura Kennedy
Spouse's Father's Name: Jonathan Randolph
Spouse's Mother's Name: Mary F Randolph
Affiliate Repository Type: County Records

Residence in Virginia (becoming West Virginia in 1863)

Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Name: John S Davis
Home in 1840 (City, County, State): Harrison, Virginia
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9: 1 [Lewis]
Free White Persons - Males - 30 thru 39: 1 [John]
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5: 2 [Caroline, Elizabeth]
Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14: 1 [Mary]
Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39: 1 [Esther]
Persons Employed in Agriculture: 1
Free White Persons - Under 20: 4
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49: 2
Total Free White Persons: 6
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves: 6
Source Citation: Year: 1840; Census Place: Harrison, Virginia; Roll: 562; :Page: 82; Family History Library Film: 0029687

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M881-64J : 4 April 2020), Hester Davis in household of John S Davis, Doddridge county, Doddridge, Virginia, United States; citing family 30, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

Name: Hester Davis
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 17 Jul 1850
Event Place: Doddridge county, Doddridge, Virginia, United States
Event Place (Original): Doddridge county, Doddridge, Virginia
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Race: White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1810
Birthplace: Virginia
Schedule Type: 1850 Population
House Number: 30
Digital Folder Number: 004206196
Record Number: 188

Household (Role Sex Age Birthplace):

John S Davis, M, 46, Farmer, real estate value: 3000; Virginia;
Hester Davis, F, 40, Virginia;
Lewis T Davis, M, 17, Virginia;
Caroline Davis, F, 15, Virginia; attended school
Elizabeth Davis, F, 12, Virginia;
Emily Davis, F, 9, Virginia; attended school
Sophronia Davis, F, 6, Virginia; attended school
Articy Davis, F, 3, Virginia;
Frances G Davis, F, 1, Virginia;
Note: living near Joseph Jeffrey, Alfred N. Davis, Dotson households

"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M41K-MVY : 19 March 2020), E F Davis in entry for L T Davis, 1860.

Name: E F Davis
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 16 Jul 1860
Event Place: Doddridge, Virginia, United States
Event Place (Original): [Blank], Doddridge, Virginia, United States
Post office: West Union
Gender: Female
Age: 49
Race: White
Race (Original): [Blank]
Birth Year (Estimated): 1811
Birthplace: Virginia
Page: 101
Record Number: 21768

Household (Role Sex Age Birthplace):

L T Davis, M, 26, Sheriff; real estate value: 4000; personal estate: 500; Virginia;
E F Davis, F, 49, Virginia;
Note: living next to [Samuel Preston] P. F. Randolph; B. Jeffrey households

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZH7-6BW : 19 March 2020), Esther Davis in entry for Hiram Jennings, 1870.

Name: Esther Davis
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 7 Jun 1870
Event Place: West Union, Doddridge, West Virginia, United States
Event Place (Original): West Union Township, West Union, Doddridge, West Virginia, United States
Post office: West Union, WV
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Race: White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1810
Birthplace: Virginia
Page Number: 1
Record Number: 6319

Household (Role Sex Age Birthplace):

Hiram Jennings, M, 30, Agent for dry goods; real estate value: 2000; personal estate: 600; Pennsylvania; adult male citizen
Emily Jennings, F, 29, keeping house, Virginia;
John B Jennings, M, 7, Virginia; attended school
Clary Jennings, F, 5, West Virginia; attended school
Edward Jennings, M, 1, West Virginia
Esther Davis, F, 60, at home, Virginia;
Living near Charles C. Davis, Sullivan, Cheuvront households

Residence in Missouri

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6F4-HDT : 14 August 2017), Esta Davis in household of Hiram Jennings, Moberly, Randolph, Missouri, United States; citing enumeration district ED 108, sheet 90B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,712.

Name: Esta Davis
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 2 Jun 1880
Event Place: Moberly, Randolph, Missouri, United States
Event Place (Original): Moberly, Randolph, Missouri, United States
Gender: Female
Age: 69
Marital Status: Widowed
Race: White
Race (Original): W
Occupation: At Home
Birth Year (Estimated): 1811
Birthplace: Virginia, United States
Father's Birthplace: New Jersey, United States
Mother's Birthplace: New Jersey, United States
Relationship to Head of Household: Mother-in-law
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): MotherL
Sheet Letter: B
Sheet Number: 90
Person Number: 4
Volume: 1
Record Number: 7252533

Household (Role Sex Age Birthplace):

Hiram Jennings, Self, M, 39, married, Lumber dealer, Pennsylvania, United States; Parents' birthplace: Penn
Emie Jennings, Wife, F, 37, married, Keeping house, Virginia, United States; Parents' birthplace: Vir
John B Jennings, Son, M, 17, single, at school, attended school, Virginia, United States; Parents' birthplace: f:Penn; m:Vir
Clara Jennings, Daughter, F, 15, at school; attended school; Virginia, United States; Parents' birthplace: f:Penn; m:Vir
Esta Davis, Mother-in-law, F, 69, widow, at home, Virginia, United States; Parents' birthplace: NJ
Ida Tetter, Other [Servant], F, 22, single, Labor house; cannot read or write; Pennsylvania, United States; Parents' birthplace: Penn

Children

"West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F1LL-PYF : 11 February 2018), Hester Davis in entry for Mary J Robinson, 03 Mar 1888; citing Harrison, West Virginia, County Records, v 1 p 149, county courthouses, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 847,170. Name: Mary J Robinson Event Date: 03 Mar 1888 Event Place: Harrison, West Virginia Gender: Female Age (Expanded): 35 years Birth Date: 1853 Marital Status: Married Spouse's Name: Jno Robinson Father's Name: John Davis Mother's Name: Hester Davis Affiliate Repository Type: County Records

"West Virginia Deaths, 1804-1999," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F1R5-WD6 : 10 March 2018), Esther Randolph in entry for Lewis Lowrence Davis, 08 Dec 1922; citing Doddridge, West Virginia, County Records, 14097, county courthouses, West Virginia; FHL microfilm 1,953,051. Name: Lewis Lowrence Davis Event Date: 08 Dec 1922 Event Place: Doddridge, West Virginia Gender: Male Father's Name: John S. Davis Mother's Name: Esther Randolph Affiliate Repository Type: County Records

Death

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 May 2020), memorial page for Esther Fitz Randolph Davis (31 Oct 1810–7 Feb 1894), Find a Grave Memorial no. 147536215, citing Old Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery, West Union, Doddridge County, West Virginia, USA ; Maintained by Jennifer Wilt (contributor 47498841) .

Name: Esther Fitz Randolph Davis
Birth: 31 Oct 1810 Harrison County, West Virginia, USA
Death: 7 Feb 1894 (aged 83)
Burial: Old Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery, West Union, Doddridge County, West Virginia, USA
Memorial #: 147536215
Bio: Esther was the daughter of Johnathan Fitz Randolph and Mary Davis. Her first husband was John S Davis and in 1873 she married William Kennedy.
Family Members
Spouse: John S Davis Unknown-1855
Children: Mary Jane Davis Bee 1829-1903, Lewis Townsend Davis 1833-1922, Caroline Davis 1835-1853, Elizabeth Davis 1838-1852, Emily Davis Jennings 1841-1896, Francis Grafton Davis 1848-1852, Saphronia Davis 1850-1852, Harriet Virginia Davis 1851-1852, Lucy Maria Davis 1854-1857
Created by: Jennifer Wilt (47498841)
Added: 7 Jun 2015
Photo?: no
[Note: a photo of Esther's gravestone is posted on various Ancestry family trees; Inscription: "Esther F.; Wife of; J. S. Davis; Born; Oct. 21, 1810; Died; Feb. 7. 1894; (verse below difficult to read)"]

Acknowledgments





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Esther by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Esther:

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