William Davis

1663 - 1745  (82 years)

• Name	William Davis
  Birth	1663	Radnorshire, Wales   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Arrival	1684	Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  Residence	1711	Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, USA
  Death	1745	Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA   [1]
  Person ID	I22561	Master
  Last Modified	16 Apr 2015

  
  

  Father	William Davis,   b. 1 Apr 1617, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales d. 9 Dec 1683, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA (Age 66 years)
  Mother	Alice Thorpe,   b. 1620, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA d. 24 Feb 1667, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA (Age 47 years)
  Marriage	21 Oct 1658	Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
  Family ID	F6171	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Elizabeth Brisley,   b. 1665, Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, USA d. 2 May 1706, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (Age 41 years)
  Children	+ 1. John Davis,   b. 5 May 1692, , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA d. 18 Aug 1754, Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA (Age 62 years)
  Family ID	F6083	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Jan 2015

  
  

  Family 2	Elizabeth Pavior,   b. 1680, Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA d. 1760, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (Age 80 years)
  Marriage	6 Jun 1700	, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  Children	+ 1. James Davis,   b. 17 Sep 1720, Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, USA d. 28 Jun 1778, Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA (Age 57 years)  [Father: Stepchild]
  Family ID	F6105	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1663 - Radnorshire, Wales Arrival - 1684 - Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Marriage - 6 Jun 1700 - , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Residence - 1711 - Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island, USA Death - 1745 - Shrewsbury, Monmouth, New Jersey, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  It is thought that he is one of four brothers who were members of the aristocratic Panfay Church, a branch of the Baptist church of Swansea. In his will, David Davis of this group included a sermon that was in keeping with the preaching of our Rev. William Davis, but no children are named in the will. Perhaps William was a son not named because he had gone to America. According to tradition and to the work of some Seventh Day Baptist writers, while at Oxford University, Willisam Davis espoused the Quaker religion and at age 21, in the year of 1684 with other followers o f William Penn, sailed for Philadelphia. In 1691 he and 47 other persons, separated from William Penn and became a follower of George Keith. Some five years later, Willaim Davis was Baptized by Rev.Thomas Killingworth and joined the Pennypek Baptist Church near Philadelphia, of which he was made pastor . He was bannished from that church 17 February 1698 for his unorthodox views and subsequently joined Abel Noble and became a Seventh Day Baptist. In vindication of the doctrine for which he was expelled from Peenypek, he published a book entitled, "Jesus the Crucified Man, the Eternal Son of God" William Davis returned to Pennypek late in the year 1699 and organized a Seventh Day Baptist Church as a brranch of the Providence Church. In 1706 he applied for membership to the New Port ,Rhode Island Seventh Day Baptist Church. On Oct.12,1710 William Davis and his wife Elizabeth applied to Westerly,R.I. for membership in that church. They wererecievedinto that church July 14,1711 and he was invited to preach there in 1713. William Davis recieved word of his fathers death and planned to claim his share in the estate. On March 1,1714 he requested a letter to a church in England. He was asked by his friends to remain in America and at the last minute he consented to do so. Soon after May 16,1717 he left Westerly and settled in Pennsylvania, where in 1724 , he suffered severe loss by fire. From his home in Stonington,Connecticut, October 21,1734, William agian requested membership in the Westerly Church, which was granted December 16,1734. so aftera1740 a settlement of Seveth Day Baptists was formed in Monmouth Co., New Jersey near the Manasquan River. Joseph Maxson and his family of Stonington, Ct. had sailed for the mouth of the Manasquan River in the fall of 1742, but due to storms and ice they did not reach their destination until the spring of 1743, having spent the winter on Long Island. The Seventh Day Baptist Church at Shrewsbury, New Jersey was formally organized in 1745 with William Davis as minister. William died late in the same year, 1745. Born in Glamorganshire, Wales in the year 1663. It is probable that his father was one of four brothers, all of whom were members of the aristocratic Penyfay Church in the county of Glamorgan, a branch of the Baptist church of Swansea. One of these brothers was high sheriff; another, deputy sheriff; a third, recorder of the county of Glamorgan: and the fourth brother, chaplain to the judge in the county town of Cardiff. William Davis was educated at Oxford University, his parents intending that he should become a clergyman. While at Oxford, he became interested in the doctrines of George Fox, the Quaker, and joined that church. He now left the university, and became a public speaker among the Quakers. He soon afterward sailed for America, with a company of Quakers, to join William Penn's Pennsylvania colony. He arrived in America in 1684, and seven years afterward, in 1691, he was one of forty-eight persons who separated from William Penn and became followers of George Keith, who was what may be termed a Baptist-Quaker. Some five years later, he again changed his views, and was baptized by Rev. Thomas Killingworth, the pastor of the Baptist Church in Cohansey (now Roadstown), New Jersey, and soon afterward joined the Pennepek Baptist Church, near Philadelphia, of which he was made pastor. February 17, 1698, he was banished from the Pennepek Church, on account of his unorthodox views concerning the person of Christ. William Davis maintained that Christ was neither human nor divine, but of a blended nature, like "wine and water in a glass." He at once went to Upper Providence near Philadelphia upon the invitation of Abel Noble, and learned from him the doctrine of the supremacy of the moral law and the binding force in perpetuity of all its precepts, and the consequent inevitable conclusion that the Seventh Day of the week, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, was the Sabbath enjoined upon all Christians. He now joined the Seventh Day Baptist organisation in Pennsylvania. The following year he published a book, entitled "Jesus the Crucified Man, the Eternal Son of God," etc., in vindication of the doctrine for which he was expelled from Pennepek.2 This provoked a spirited reply from Rev. John Watts, pastor of the Pennepek Church in a book entitled "Davis Disabled."" In the latter part of 1699, William Davis returned to Pennepek and there organised a Seventh Day Baptist church from among former Keithians and others in the vicinity, as the first branch of the Providence (Pennsylvania) Church. Thomas Graves gave the church a lot of ground on which they erected a log meeting house. In the year 1700, William Davis baptized six persons in the Pennepek. In 1702, George Keith, who had returned to England some time before, again came back to Philadelphia as a fullfledged priest of the Church of England, whose "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," but lately organised in London, had sent him as a missionary to the New World. His return was the signal for a fierce struggle between Keith and Evan Evans on the one hand: and on the other, Thomas Killingworth, who besides being the ablest Baptist clergyman in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, was also judge of the court at Salem, New Jersey; and William Davis, the pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist Church at Pennepek, who strangely enough now united in common defence. William Davis published another edition of his book, with a supplement entitled "George Keith Disabled." Keith was now challenged by Killingworth to a joint debate in public, which resulted in a drawn battle. Evan Evans, who was a former enemy of William Davis, made war upon him with such success that Thomas Graves again joined the Episcopalian Church, and deeded to that church the lot on which stood the meeting house of the Seventh Day Baptists, who had never had a deed for the lot. Deprived of their house of worship the church continued to hold meetings in the houses of the members, but they were badly demoralised and disheartened by their reverses, and little progress was made. In 1706, William Davis applied for membership in the Seventh Day Baptist Church at Newport, Rhode Island, but complaint from his Pennsylvania brethren preceded him, and his request was denied. The cause of his difference with his fellow church members was due to his eccentric ecclesiastical views, similar in a measure to his views already cited touching the person of Christ, and which, however real and fundamental they appeared to him, were in their last analysis, nothing more than mere differences in the definitions of terms. On October 12, 1710, William Davis and Elisabeth Brisley, his wife, applied for membership in the Westerly, afterward the First Hopkinton (Rhode Island) Church, which had been organised some two years previously. His wife was immediately received into membership, but the church deferred final action upon his application. At a church meeting held June 22, 17n, the Westerly Church decided that William Davis had complied with "the rule of Christ," and was therefore eligible to membership in that church. In order, however, to satisfy a group of doubting members, the church presented the case to the Yearly Meeting, at Westerly, July 14, 17n. The Yearly Meeting approved the action of the church, and William Davis became a member of the Westerly Church, in full and regular standing. This action, however, involved the Westerly Church in an embroilment with Rev. William Gibson, of the Newport Church, together with Jonathan Davis and the brethren in Pennsylvania, which was prolonged until as late as the latter part of the year 1713. William Davis was invited by the Westerly Church to preach, and in the first part of the year 1713 was authorised by the church to administer the ordinance of baptism. On March 1, 1714, William Davis requested a letter of recommendation from the church, in order that he might join one of the Seventh Day Baptist churches in England, whither he expected to remove. The church granted his request. His friends, however, were anxious to prevent his going, and circulated a subscription to raise money to compensate him for whatever financial loss he might sustain in abandoning his contemplated removal to England, the object of which was to claim his share in a large estate left him by the death of his father, in Wales. He persisted, however, to the point of going to Newport, ready to embark upon his voyage. At the last moment, he consented to remain; whereupon numberless troubles ensued, some of which found their way into the courts. These difficulties grew, almost if not quite wholly, out of the subscriptions made to induce William Davis to remain in America. The troubles resulted in correspondence on the part of the Westerly Church, with the churches in Newport (Rhode Island), and in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and London. Some time during the year 1716, after an ineffectual attempt at reconciliation, the church withdrew its communion from William Davis, with but four dissenting votes. He now decided to leave Westerly, and under date of May 16, 1717, he received a letter signed by twenty-three of his neighbours, testifying to his Christian character, and exonerating him from blame in his litigation and church troubles. This letter became the subject of some spirited correspondence after William Davis had removed to Pennsylvania. After his removal from Westerly back to Pennsylvania, he suffered a severe loss from fire about the year 1724. This loss, Governor Keith, of the colony of Pennsylvania, ordered made good; but through the secret interference of some enemies of William Davis at Westerly, the order was not carried out. The whole matter was now dropped, apparently, for a period of twelve years, when we find William Davis again making his home within the bounds of the Westerly Church, in Rhode Island. Under date of October 21, 1734, from his home in Stonington, Connecticut, he wrote a letter of confession to the church, praying for a reconciliation. To this letter, the church replied, under date of November 19, 1734, desiring explanation upon several points named in the letter written by the church to William Davis. Under date of December 16, 1734, he replied to the communication from the church, whereupon he was requested to attend the next church meeting. There is no record of his restoration to membership in the Westerly Church, further than that his name appears as that of a regular attendant at church. Nevertheless, the reconciliation was undoubtedly effected, greatly to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, and to none, doubtless, more than to William Davis himself. William Davis was married twice. His first wife was Elisabeth Brisley. By her he had four children; viz., Martha, William, John, and Mary. His second wife was Elisabeth Pavior. By her he had seven children; viz., Thomas, Joseph, Lydia, Edward, James, Elisabeth, and William,—the William by his first wife having died. Soon after the year 1740, a settlement of Seventh Day Baptists was formed in Monmouth County, New Jersey, near the Manasquan River. Perhaps one of the first of this group of settlers was Joseph Maxson, from Stonington, Connecticut. He sailed from Stonington for the mouth of the Manasquan River, in the fall of 1742. His vessel was caught in the ice in Long Island Sound, and he did not reach his destination until the following spring. In the fall of 1744, a party of German Sabbath-keepers, consisting of Israel Eckerling, Samuel Eckerling, Alexander Mack, and Rev. Peter Miller, from Ephrata, Pennsylvania, visited their English-speaking, Sabbath-keeping brethren in Monmouth County, New Jersey. They reported that they found there several Sabbath-keepers, who had come to that place a few years before, from Stonington, Connecticut, and from Westerly, Rhode Island. There were also several members of William Davis's family from Pennsylvania. They found fifteen adults in this group of settlers. Whether William Davis himself had come to Monmouth County, New Jersey, at the time of the visit of this delegation from Ephrata, Pennsylvania, or not, we have no conclusive evidence. At all events, he had come when the group organised itself into a church, at a date not later than 1745. William Davis, however, had come to his new home in New Jersey, but to die among his children, a large number, if not nearly all, of whom had settled here. His death occurred before the close of the year 1745, when he was eighty-two years of age. His life was a tempestuous one. Its close was peaceful and uneventful, however. But his works ceased not with his death. He may fairly be termed the father of the Shrewsbury Church; whence his followers and descendants scattered to the Piscataway and Shiloh churches in New Jersey, and crowded into the wilderness of Western Virginia, and into Ohio, and afterwards still further westward across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Slope. Seventh Day Baptist descendants of William Davis may be found to-day in the states of Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, California, and in all probability, in other states as well.1 The churches of the South-Eastern Association, with the exception of the Salemville Church, at Salemville, Pennsylvania, are composed very largely of the descendants of William Davis; and upon the roll of his posterity are to be found the names of upwards of twenty-five Seventh Day Baptist clergymen. THE SHREWSBURY CHURCH Just what attracted these Seventh Day Baptists who settled in Mon 3 x vll mouth County to New Jersey is uncertain Some of their number were shipbuilders and found occupation in that business Tradition has it that there was a Seventh Day Baptist shipbuilders yard on the banks of the Manasquan River owned by the Maxsons Others appear to have engaged in the manufacture of salt a business which thrived at the mouth of the Manasquan and up the coast as far as the mouth of the Shark River Still others engaged in farming and possibly some were sailors owning their own boats and carrying salt garden vegetables and farm products to New York City The first settlements were at the mouths of the Manasquan and Shark rivers respectively Gradually they extended inward from the shore until they reached as far as Squan kum and Lower Squankum south of the Manasquan River From there they extended northward as far as Deal which was situated between the present seaside resorts of Long Branch and Elberon At a somewhat later date there was a settlement at Clay Pit Creek an arm of the Navesink or North Shrewsbury River near the present village of Navesink Clay Pit Creek then as now was in the town of Middletown The other Seventh Day Baptist settlements were all at that time in the town of Shrewsbury That part of Monmouth County is now embraced in the towns of Wall Howell Neptune tune and Ocean besides the lower part of the present town of Shrewsbury It may be observed in passing that at the time of which we write Monmouth County embraced the whole of the present counties of Ocean and Monmouth and that then the entire county was divided into the two towns of Shrewsbury and Middletown The present county of Monmouth contains sixteen towns and Ocean County eleven A little less than four miles from the ocean on the banks of a little brook which in dry weather contains no running water a group of these people built a little village which for the lack of a better name we shall call Squan 1 In fact there is some evidence that Squan was the name by which the village was actually known although it was full two and a half miles from the Squan River contracted from Manasquan to Squan in much the same way that the cacophonous contraction phone is obtained from telephone 2 The little brook on which was situated the village of Squan was known as the South Branch of Little Brushy Neck now Cranberry Bog which in turn forms what was known then as now as the Great Branch The Great Branch in its turn empties into what is now called Wreck Pond which opens into the sea through Sea Girt inlet a little more than half way from the mouth of the Shark River to the mouth of the Manasquan River Great Branch is very similar to a number of other branches along the coast near by among which are Long Branch and Branchport Creek Some six or eight miles north of the mouth of Great Branch are the well known seaside summer resorts of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.These first members came from Stonington in New England This is a list of their names that came and settled as a church W1ll1am Davis an aged minister of the gospel and formerly an elder of a church of Christ in Pennsylvania but sometime from Stonington aforesaid Joseph Maxson a ministering brother in the church aforesaid John Davis a ministering brother in said church Thomas Babcock a member Thomas Davis a member William Brand Junr a member and Joseph Davis a member These are the brethren there and the sisters were El1sabeth Davis wife of William Davis the Elder Beth1ah Maxson Joseph Maxson's wife El1sabeth Davis John Davis's wife Ruth Babcock Thomas Babcock's wife Beth1ah Davis Thomas Davis's wife El1sabeth Brand Mary Stillman Judith Davis wife of James Davis Elisabeth Dav1s Junr alias Maxson These are the sisters These persons with others have from their first settling in place endeavoured to uphold the public worship of God at places on the Sabbath Day with the help of the ministering amongst them by joining in prayer reading the Scriptures and expounding the Word of God one to another The persons above named being in the above noted circumstances there had been discourse at some times of the need of choosing appointing persons to the work of the public ministry amongst them that they might be capable of administering the holy amongst themselves and to such as may be found willing to join themselves to the Lord considering it to be their duty so to do In October the eighth sic month 1745 Elisabeth Davis widow went to sojourn with her son Joseph in Pennsylvania and Davis and his family went thither also in March following in 1746 It will be observed from the foregoing that the exact of the organisation of the Shrewsbury Church is unknown Certain it is however that it was organised long before end of the year 1745 for we find William Davis whom in preceding chapter we have styled the father of the church and who was one of its constituent members had died the close of that year 1745 is generally accepted however the year of the organisation of the church. New source: The first pastor was Eld William Davis who had lately come from the church in western Rhode Island He lived only a few months after the organization of the church After the death of Eld Davis his son John Davis was chosen He had had thirty years experience in church work in Rhode Island having served as clerk and as stated above had been called to serve as elder but declined He was sent to Rhode Island and was ordained in the house where the Ministers Monument now stands July 23 1746 His service as pastor lasted until his death eight years later From the death of Eld John Davis for a period of twenty years the church had no pastor During this time the church was aided some by the ministration of Seventh day Baptist ministers in the colony In 1774 Jacob Davis the grandson of the first pastor was chosen pastor He served the church while it remained in New Jersey and moved with it to its new home. boricuad boricuad originally shared this to Davis-McFadden 15 Feb 2014 story Taken from: A History of the Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia: Including the ... By Corliss Fitz Randolph Second source: Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Volume 2 By Albert N. Rogers .

  
  

• Sources

  [S720] Ancestry.com, Global, Find A Grave Index for Non-Burials, Burials at Sea, and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current , (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).