Brief Life History of Dr. William
When Dr. William Davis was born on 22 January 1686, in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, his father, Benjamin Davis, was 36 and his mother, Sarah Richards, was 24. He married Hannah Winslow on 26 January 1715, in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 3 daughters. He died on 14 March 1745, in his hometown, at the age of 59.
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Family Time Line
Sources (16)
- William Davis, "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915"
- William Davis, "Massachusetts, Marriages, 1695-1910"
- William Davis in entry for Hannah Davis, "Massachusetts, Births, 1636-1924"
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Children (7)
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Siblings (8)
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Name Meaning
English and Welsh: patronymic meaning ‘Dafydd's (son)’, equivalent to Welsh ap Dafydd, the Welsh form of David . The spelling Davis is more typical in southwestern England northwards as far as Lancashire, where the frequency of the surname largely reflects Welsh migration, but may sometimes represent a native English surname based on Davy (compare Davies ). Davis (including in the sense 2 below) is the eighth most frequent surname in the US. It is also very common among African Americans.
Irish and Scottish: adopted for Gaelic Mac Daibhéid ‘son of David’; see McDevitt . Compare Davies .
History: John Davis or Davys (c. 1550–1605) was an English navigator who searched for the Northwest Passage. — By the 18th century there were numerous persons named Davis in America, including the jurist John Davis, born in 1761 in Plymouth, MA, and Henry Davis, a clergyman and college president, who was born in 1771 in East Hampton, NY. — Jefferson Davis, born in 1808 in KY, was president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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