Please help reexamine the life and parentage of Charles Davies of Philly and NC [closed]

Question

This G2G thread is being started to reexamine the life and parents of Charles Neeley Davies (Davis) currently listed as born London 1706 and d North Carolina abt 1801. Sourcing on him has always been thin (the marriage record exists) to non-existent, comprised of "family tradition" stories and undocumented user submitted info at every internet genealogy service. I believe with some effort and critical examination of facts we can get a better and more accurate profile of his life.

His place of birth has been stated as Blockley, London. Is this to mean Blockley Road area of North Wembley? This is clearly a misreading of his Quaker marriage document which states he was "of Blockley in the County of Philadelphia." Blockley was a township in Philadelphia County from 1704 until the 1854 Act of Consolidation. The misinterpretation of the birth location probably requires a reexamination of the parentage as parentage remains undocumented and appears speculative.

Quaker records are frequently referenced however none other than his marriage document seem to ever be cited.

Is it certain he moved to North Carolina and this is the same Charles Davies? There are multiple children with multiple birth locations and none seem to be recorded in Quaker records (or the locations are wrong).

The middle name "Neeley" appears to be an internet genealogy construct without basis in known records.

Let's see if we can uncover the real Charles Davies (Davis) while sorting fact from fiction.

Comments

Just an update for those who participated in this thread. Have gone ahead and marked the current parents Uncertain (zero documentation) and changed place of birth to simply England (Blockley meant Blockley, Pennsylvania his residence at time of marriage not Blockley in England). Additional research may be impossible without access to as yet untranscribed Quaker meeting minutes and the suggestion that his surname was one he adopted remains significant.

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Just a notice that on behalf of Quakers Project will be disconnecting (with notations and links) the undocumented parentage and moving any undocumented biographical content to Research Notes as well as removing the many profile citations which are from user submitted content and databases. There has been no new substantive information in the last three years to justify retaining the current Uncertain parentage.

Answer 1

A lot of the bio is quoted verbatim from FaG user generated input. Not exactly firm source. Will be interesting to see the outcome of this.

Findmypast has about 6 Charles Davis born 1706-1711 but none have parents to match that on profile.

Comments

There is a Blockley village, in the Cotswolds,Gloucestershire, England.

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Finding some things to start piecing together. Charles was disowned 1766. I now recall a lot of the Philadephia area Quaker meeting minutes of the period he was there are not transcribed. May have to hunt quite a bit to find anything. The childrens births only seem recorded in NC meeting minutes decades later.

Can you send me the parent potentials you found? I'm guessing what is on his profile isn't based in reality but rather something that looked like it fit on Ancestry, etc.

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This is amusing...

From the book "Davis: A Quaker Family" by Eleanor M Davis (Gateway, 1985). The current information that circulates on Charles Davies' origins was started in 1845 by a fraudulent attorney and 'Quaker minister' hawking unclaimed fortunes to heirs of those originally in England. At that time Quaker genealogist Gilbert Cope was consulted and found only a few references to a Charles Davis in Pennsylvania and believed the entire thing false. Various members of the family pursued these claims as late as 1915. Eleanor Davis goes on to say that the birth year of 1706 is purely an estimate based on the date of marriage and an average length of indenture. A set of names that could be Charles and parents were found in LDS records for Luton, Bedfordshire long ago. There is nothing to prove (or disprove) that there is any connection at all with that Charles Davis of Luton, Bedfordshire. It is also unknown to whom Charles might have been indenture...if he was in fact indentured. There are a few possibilities listed but there is no evidence to support any of those theories. Davis' book is available https://books.google.com/books?id=R1gZAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=Charles+Davies+indenture+1727&source=bl&ots=wUlNFwVimQ&sig=IIGSp3OY5V0NYDAh8z5lxOblufw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCi_K2vM_eAhUGWK0KHe_QBWwQ6AEwAXoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Davies%20indenture%201727&f=false

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Charles
Last name	Davis
Gender	Male
Birth year	1710
Birth place	-
Baptism year	1710
Baptism date	30 Apr 1710
Residence	St. Sepulchre, London, England
Place	St Sepulchre
County	London
Country	England
Father's first name(s)	Isaac
Father's last name	Davis
Mother's first name(s)	Mary
Mother's last name	-
Record set	England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975
Category	Life Events (BDMs)
Subcategory	Parish Baptisms
Collections from	England, Great Britain

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CharlesLast nameDavisGenderMaleBirth year-Birth place-Baptism year1706Baptism date14 Oct 1706PlaceWestminsterCountyLondonCountryEnglandFather's first name(s)CharlesFather's last nameDavisMother's first name(s)ElizabethMother's last name-Record setEngland Births & Baptisms 1538-1975CategoryLife Events (BDMs)SubcategoryParish BaptismsCollections fromEngland, Great Britain

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CharlesLast nameDavisGenderMaleBirth year-Birth place-Baptism year1707Baptism date21 Sep 1707PlaceStepneyCountyLondonCountryEnglandFather's first name(s)JohnFather's last nameDavisMother's first name(s)SarahMother's last name-Record setEngland Births & Baptisms 1538-1975CategoryLife Events (BDMs)SubcategoryParish BaptismsCollections fromEngland, Great Britain

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CharlesLast nameDavisGenderMaleBirth year-Birth place-Baptism year1711Baptism date25 Dec 1711ResidenceSt. Bride Fleet Street, London, EnglandPlaceSt Bride Fleet StreetCountyLondonCountryEnglandFather's first name(s)ThoFather's last nameDavisMother's first name(s)ElizMother's last name-Record setEngland Births & Baptisms 1538-1975CategoryLife Events (BDMs)SubcategoryParish BaptismsCollections fromEngland, Great Britain

Answer 2

Well, there is definitely a child baptised in Luton, Bedfordshire, on 17 April 1707 by the name of Chas. Davie to a Thos. Davie and his wife Mary.  But that is really no help tying him to Pennsylvania.

There is also a Charles Davis baptised 14 October 1706 in Westminster, London to a Charles and Elizabeth Davis.

There is nothing from the area of Blockley for that time.  Also neither of the two above are Quakers.  There are no Quaker baptisms in England with anything near that name in the ten years around 1706.

Comments

I cannot vouch for accuracy, nor am I able to site the source, but I read that he came as an indentured servant to a Quaker family and possibly took their surname. If this is correct, then the possibilities are endless.

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It strikes me that this is a 'brick wall'.  I have a number of these in my tree; they particularly hurt when they are a key node with many descendants.  A lot of them seem to happen when you reach the first immigrant across the Atlantic level.  Quite a few arrivals left their old lives behind deliberately and reinvented themselves in the new world.

If I were the profile owner I would deliberately disconnect from the Luton couple as parents.  They're real people but unlikely to be the parents.  I'd then leave it open in the hope that some further evidence would appear.  Frustrating though that is.

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Susan, the book referenced above by Eleanor Davis does go over the indentured servant potential, does show that he was with Quakers if not one himself, and within his immediate circle there are several potentials to whom he could have been indentured (had the means, were known to have indentured people). That's one set of things to see if there's any new information that has come to light since that book was sourced about 40 years ago.

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Thank you, T Stanton. I thought that was the book but didn't have time to verify it this morning.

I think the most reliable sources would be meeting records, so long as we are certain we are researching the correct Charles Davies and correct meetings.

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Agree on the meeting records, Susan. I recall working on other family lines these same meeting and time period that many are not transcribed (and some that have been indexed the indexing is not what one would hope) so will have to dig up the online microfilm sources for those again and lose some more eyesight!