The Davis Family of Long Island

Additional thanks to Gerald Davis for sending the information on his line which goes to down through the Milford CT area and Long Island Davis line back to Ffulke.

We have recently come into possession of an original document that appears to be a Deed to "Elnathan Davies for Lot #32 in Coram, Brookhaven Towne, NY on New Rhode."
The transaction was for the sum of 40 Pounds. It is dated June, 19, 1769 and is signed by Elijah Davis and written and witnessed by David Dayton.
There is a scan of the document available at this link.

    The Davis Lineage traces its roots back to Acton-Turville, Gloucestershire, England. The family members are believed to descend from a man with the surname Davys, living in Acton-Turville in the late 15th century. The Military Survey of Gloucestershire, 1522 lists two men with this surname in Acton-Turville: John Davys and Thomas Davys alias Smyth, one of whom was most likely the man in question. He would have been born about 1500 and had at least five children, James, Edmund, John, and Robert, and a daughter whose name is unknown.
    Fulk Davis was a Tent Farmer, who could neither read nor write. He originally served as a gardner for Lion Gardiner on Gardiners' Island, New York. He was married twice, first in 1639. She died around 1660. He wed his second wife, Mary, on March 11, 1660. She died before May 4, 1699. He was granted two (2) acres of land on October 9, 1642 (originally described as "Old Land Upon the Playne") in Southhampton, N.Y. He is said to be a native of Wales. Before 1674 he moved to Jamacia, N.Y.
    The Town WEAVER was very important person in each colonial town and the Davis family were instrumental in meeting this need... Goody Davis, the first wife of Foulk Davis of Southampton, Long Island, New York, had used her home as a place of business to prepare materials such as combed flax for the weaver and teach others the trade...she had a good taste for fine linen....she made a work place in her home for her neighbors and family members to comb flax and weave on a loome both at Gardiner's Island, East Hampton and South Hampton townships. She taught her children the trade well, as later shown in the Brookheaven Town Records, where Joseph Davis in (1668) became the Town Weaver and his brother Jonathan Davis worked at the loom..(1671).Charles Salyer the grand son of Goody Davis worked as a weaver in Woodbridge, New Jersey in the year of (1695)......by: Gerald Dee Salyer

23 September 1668 at a towne meeting It is voeted and agreed vpon that the towne haue giuen and granted to Joseph davis of southhampton the wever's acomadations that was cept for a wever and in condideration of the same the said Ioseph haue ingaged to wefe the towns yarn in to cloth vpon as resonable terms as thay doe generally vpon the Iland and he paying the purchas as others doe...ref:Pg.156, BkII, BROOKHAVEN TOWN RECORDS VOL I, 1662-1679 by:Archibald C. Weeks......Submitted By: Gerald Dee Salyer

The Grant to Lion Gardiner, for the Island of Wright, ( Gardiner"s Island ) was made by James Farrett of Long Island, Gent. Deputy to the Right Honable Earl of Starling Secretary for the Kingdom of Scotland, and was Sealed and delivered in the presence of Ffulk Davis and Benjamin Price on the Tenth of March 1639.....Ref: The Documentary History of the State of New York, arranged under the direction of the Hon. Christopher Morgan, Secretary of State, by: E. B. O'Callaghan, M.D., Vol I, 1819.............Submitted by: Gerald Dee Salyer

WILLIAM SALYER III (Sallier) b. about 1723, of Newtown, a great grandson of FOULK and SARAH DAVIS of Queens Co., Long Island, New York on Monday 21st day of January 1754 was frozen to death in a canoe or periauger while claming in Jamaica Bay, when an unusually piercing cold temperature weather change took place. A group of 8 people were found on Friday after the cold and great quanitity of ice that had prevented the rescue possible, the bodies of SAMUEL LEVERICH, AMOS ROBERTS, and THOMAS SALLIER, and others not named were a servant man; three valuable slaves, all were congealed in death, the steersman was sitting in an erect posture at the tiller frozen.........ref: Annals of Newtown.............posted by: Gerald Dee Salyer

Jonathan Davis son of Foulk Davis, and John Skidmore, all of Jamaica, Long Island, were employed by Foulk Davis to use his teams of six oxen, with Iron and wood tacklin, cart, wheels, and yokes, and one plow to work either plowing or carting in season for the present year, (1681) to use as their own and to use for inployment as they shall meet, and only Foulk Davis was to supply hay this spring...ref: RECORDS OF THE TOWN OF JAMAICA LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK, pg. 77/78 By: Josephine C. Frost............submitted by: Gerald Dee Salyer

      Ffulke's birthplace and country of origin have not been determined. It has been suggested that Glamorganshire, Wales is a possible origin, but no references have been cited. The Timothy Davis (1750-1827) family bible states that the Davis family is of Welsh extraction.   In 1636 Fulke Davis was in Hartford Connecticut. His name is listed among the first town proprietors and is engraved upon a obelisk in the towns green. The first Long island reference to Ffulke appears in 1639 when he witnessed the deed to Lion Gardiner of Gardiner's Island. Lion Gardiner had settled at the Island in 1635. (In a Gardiner family bible is the following: "In the Year of our Lord 1635 July 10th came I, Lion Gardiner and Mary my Wife from Worden a town in Holland..."etc. It reads further: "Wee came from Woerden to London and from thence to New England and dwelt At Say brooke forte four Years... and then went to an Island of mine own which I bought of the Indians...").
    East Hampton was founded in 1648, and until 1662 was usually known as Maidstone although in 1650 there is at least one reference to East: Hampton. In 1657 Ffulke lived on the Island - this is clearly indicated in the records of the "witch" matter in 1657 in East Hampton - "...Goody Davis saith y't she had dressed her children in clean linen at the island...". Additionally, in this same matter his wife is identified as a serving woman on Gardiner's Island. Whaling was an active business off the coast at Southampton, and in an effort to organize this business "for the prevention of disorder", in 1644 the Town of Southampton was divided into four wards, eleven persons per ward two of whom should be chosen by lot to cut up any drift whales cast up on the beach, and also that after storms and at other times persons should be deputed to patrol the beach looking for whales. Citing East Hampton Town Records, V. 1, p. 3, for the third ward, the name of Ffulk Davies is listed along with Richard Gosmer, Arthur Bostock, Henry Pierson, John Hande, Thomas Hyldreth, John Mulford, John Moore, Ellis Cook, Robert Bond and Mr. Howe. (Note: in this listing is written "ffor the third ward..." etc. notice the use of a double f, as in ffulk.)
    Ffulke again appears in the East Hampton town records in 1654 where Ffulke, his son, John, and two others were convicted of masturbation. Southampton records of October 9, 1642 indicate that that town was prepared to survey and provide "Ffulk Daues and William Rogers each of them two acres of old ground vpon the playne...". These same records mention Ffulke in entries dated March 7, 1644 and October 22, 1644. He re-surfaces in East Hampton records of 1653 and 1656 when he was alloted certain lands, and again on March 11, 1660 when his second wife, Mary (Haynes, Dayton), and he as co-defendant, were sued by a Mr. Baker and Robert Dayton, son of her former husband, Ralph Dayton, deceased, for an action of tresspass.
    Brookhaven, on the North Shore, which had been purchased from the Indians in 1655, was supplemented on June 10, 1664 with the purchase of land at Old Man's Harbor (now Mt. Sinai). The Brookhaven town records for Dec. 12, 1670 and Jan 28, 1671 document land transactions by Ffulke "in this towne", although in 1660 he was a resident of Jamaica. However, in a record of October 25, 1671 he states that his residence is "Jamaica, in the north Rieding of yourkshiere...". There are several references in the Jamaica records to Ffulke and his family. He died there after Feb. 9, 1686 (when he transferred land to his son-in-law, William Salyer) and before Nov. 4, 1692 when a deed of John Hinds mentions "Ffulk Davies, latte of Jamaica, deseast."
     Ffulke reputedly came from Wales (Tyne) directly to Saybrook, LI NY and subsequently resided on Gardiners Island. He obtained notoriety when he was
run out of East Hampton for molesting men and his wife was also evicted for practicing witchcraft. He lived in Southhampton for a time and then Brookhaven, finally dying in Jamaica, NY. His relationship to Dolar Davis is unsubstantiated, but they both may have come from the same place in Wales and were contemporaries.
    p.272 of this ref. is a transcription of a grant from James Farrett, deputy to the Earle of Sterling (Scotland), to Lion Gardiner, of the "island", called by the Indians "Manchonack" and by the English "Isle of Wight", etc. The document was sealed March 10, 1639 and is witnessed by Ffulke Davis and Benjamin Pine. (Note spelling in signature is Ff (ulk) e).