Trust Nobody: Part II
Fixing a decades-long genealogical error (...maybe.)
Read Part I here.
In my last post, I discussed my early error of falling for a suggested ancestor “hint” on Ancestry. Dozens of user-made trees named Sarah Bowdy (b. 1731 in Haverhill or Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts) as the husband of my ancestor Henry Davis (b. 1729 in Rhode Island), and thus, the mother of my ancestor Henry Davis Jr. (b. 1758 near Pawling, Dutchess County, New York). After a few years of accepting this information and its promise that I was (distantly) connected to a Salem Witch Trial victim and former U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur through Sarah Bowdy, I revisited the line as a more polished genealogist. It was then that I found the only source for Sarah Bowdy being Henry Davis’ wife was that the author of a book took an educated guess. I think my exact words after discovering this were, “Ugh, seriously?”
Sarah Davis, nee ???
I decided to focus on church records. Sarah “whatever her maiden name is” was born a Quaker and married Henry Davis, a Baptist (the scandal). This meant she had to confess her errors if she wanted to remain with the Society of Friends, which she did. No marriage record for the pair can be located, but this is a close second:
An original Month Meeting of the Oblong Society of Friends recorded Sarah Davis’ confession on the 20th day of the 10th month, 1750 (this weird date is purposefully written this way- more on that in Part III). In it, she explains she “offended the Church by dishonoring God and the Holy Religion we make Profession of in having a Bastard Child by my present Husband before marriage. Likewise in Marrying out of the Unity of Friends […]”
So not only did Sarah marry outside the Society of Friends, but the pair had their first child before they wed (a son, Oliverson. Feel free to use that name for one of your kids.) Double scandal! Early Quaker books are full of confessions like these, which is funny considering most people’s assumptions that Quakers were chaste and holy Pilgrim-esque figures. It happened then and it happens now (and thankfully for genealogists, this congregation didn’t sweep things under the rug. Sarah probably wasn’t thrilled with putting these details in writing, but I sure appreciate her honesty!)
Sarah’s Conversion
Henry, a Baptist, joined the Moravian Church when he and Sarah lived in Pawling, located in the Oblong (a skinny strip of NY land bordering Connecticut and Massachusetts) He was baptized into the United Brethren on July 2, 1769. In December 1771, Henry, Sarah, and at least eight of their minor children made a 15-day journey to Gnadenhutten, Pennsylvania (present-day Lehighton, Carbon, PA). They followed other Sichem congregation members to form a new Moravian sect near the Mahoning River.
Sarah remained a practicing Quaker until at least 1761, but on September 18, 1774, she was baptized into the Moravian Church at Gnadenhutten. Several of the couple’s children were also baptized into the church in the years following.
Can I See the Originals?
I first found mention of Sarah’s baptism via a typed-up compilation of Gnadenhutten congregation records created in 1972. No maiden name was given for Sarah. She was referred to only as Sarah, wife of Henry Davis, born May 3, 1732. While this was a great starting point, genealogists must hunt for original records, if they exist. After some digging, I reached out to the Moravian Archives, located in Bethlehem, PA. Their wonderful archivists took the information I had gathered and sent me two full congregational books, including one that listed Henry and Sarah as members of the Gnadenhutten congregation.
Guess what was listed… Sarah’s maiden name. Here it is, in all its glory (drum roll, please!)
All the married women in this record have their maiden names denoted with “late.” So, Sarah Davis late Devotaire means that her maiden name was Devotaire. Not BOWDY. Huzzah! The author of “Settlers of the Beekman Patent” who guessed Henry Davis married Sarah Bowdy was WRONG and I solved the mystery. I win. Right?
I wish. (Genealogy can be a real pain, sometimes.)
Devotaire
I started researching Sarah’s newly unearthed maiden name ASAP. Surely it would lead me to a Quaker family named Devotaire, and that’d be it. Bam. There were several problems, though. Devotaire was not a surname in any Quaker communities of which Sarah was (or might have been) a member. Worse, I could not find anyone in colonial America in the early 1700s with the surname. I searched high and low, combing through 18th-century records and using Soundex since there could be dozens of spellings for a surname like Devotaire. Nothing. No Devotaires.
Sarah’s Moravian church member record clearly stated her maiden name was Devotaire and she was born in Havern, MA on May 3, 1732. I didn’t find any leads for a “Havern” Massachusetts… but Haverhill, MA sounds close to “Havern” and it was home to a significant Quaker community in the early 1700s.
Wait… Haverhill? The town that Sarah Bowdy was born in? What?
I guess it’s time to revisit that red herring. Tune in to my next post, where I dig up as much dirt as possible on Sarah Bowdy, the original-supposed-wife of Henry Davis.
Even the errors have some element of truth to them. Discernment is a skill demonstrated here.
I love these kinds of goose hunts, and this one is surely a fun one! Keep chasing 🪿