When Betsey L Davis was born on 5 October 1807, in Industry, Franklin, Maine, United States, her father, James Davis, was 34 and her mother, Betsey Look, was 35. She married William C. Downs on 20 February 1853, in Tisbury, Dukes, Massachusetts, United States. She lived in Maine, United States in 1807 and Tisbury, Dukes, Massachusetts, United States for about 25 years. She died on 7 April 1900, in Oak Bluffs, Dukes, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 92.
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.
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