Nicholas Davis

~• early Massachusetts Colony Quaker

• Parents: perhaps the brother of Dolar Davis who married Margery Davis (born Willard) Who had: John Davis, Ruth Hall (born Davis), Mary Lewis (born Davis), Samuel Davis, Simon Davis

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• Seen as Born: 1627 in Horsemonden, Kent Co. England without supporting evidence.
• died 24 Jul 1672 in New Port, RI;
• married Sarah; born May10,1629 in Stood, Kent, England.

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Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America page 136

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Nicholas Davis, of Barnstable, able to bear arms 1643, when he is last on the list, so that possibly it may be and error, as Hamblen put him into a list of inhabitants admitted after 1660. He may have been of Newport,1638, and there learned the strange policy of toleration in religion. In Sewel, I, 388, it is said he favored the Quakers at their first meeting. He had wife Mary, and was banished from Mass. for his peaceful pravity. At Newport he was drowned before August 9, 1672, as Roger Williams in his public conference, there, with the friends of George Fox, he made good use of the event.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clarke_(Baptist_minister)_
  • Page 254 of The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of ... By John Osborne Austin

also

Davis.. had been an early settler of Aquidneck Island in 1639, but became a merchant and moved to Hyannis in the Plymouth Colony. Davis had many business dealings in Massachusetts, but when he became a Quaker, he was imprisoned and banished from there in 1659, and later lived in Newport. He transported Quaker founder George Fox from Long Island to Newport in 1672, during Fox's visit to the American colonies. Soon thereafter Davis drowned, and within a year and a half his widow married Clarke.

Updated info

https://www.geni.com/discussions/237966?msg=1505648

Quaker Nicholas Davis, died by drowning in Newport, RI harbor on 24 Jul 1672.

If he was not the son of Dolor Davis, then his birthplace, birthdate, and his parentage are unknown. His first verifiable is in Barnstable in 1651.

His wife was Sarah (Ewer) Blossom Davis Clarke Walley. Sarah married twice after Nicholas died to Dr. John Clarke of Newport, and then to Rev. Walley of Barnstable. She was first married to Thomas Blossom.

His children were: Samuel, Hannah, Simon, Sarah, Thomas and Mercy.

comment

A number of Davis men continued in the Quaker faith. It is suggested that Thomas Davis, born in Middletown, Monmouth, NJ in 1686 is a relative.

sources

• The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of Settlers who Came Before 1690, with Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation by John Osborne Austin; Genealogical Publishing Com, 1969 - Reference - 496 pages; see page 63