"Trader" John Rice Hughes

"Trader" married Nicketti Powhatan in 1640 in , Henrico, Virginia, USA. Nicketti (daughter of Chief Opechancanough Mangopeesomon Powhatan and Matachanna "Cleopatra" Powhatan ("Royal blood line")) was born in 1625 in Tsenacomoca, James City, Virginia, USA; died in 1720 in Hackers Creek, Lewis, West Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Nathaniel Davis about 1676 in , New Kent, Virginia, USA. Nathaniel was born on 17 Apr 1655 in , Devonshire, England; died in , Lancaster, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Samuel Burk (b. 1680) m. Mary Davis (b. 1685), daughter of NathanielDavis.
(It is at this point that Indian blood enters the Burks family), as Nathaniel's wife was Elizabeth Hughes, daughter of a member of a colonial family and a Trader named Hughes and his Indian wife, Niketti, whose mother was Cleopatra, sister to Pocahontas. Or so it has been recorded in several genealogies. The Indian name Niketti translates as "She who sweeps the dew from the flowers."

Documentation for the the Burks/Davis genealogy of Nicketti is given by Frank Wellington's daughter, Mary Wheat Burks Dean (819 Peaksview, Bedford, VA 24523, April 15, 1980). She is the researcher of this Burks genealogy, which was begun by her mother. It is supplemented by information from Faye S. Poss, 471 Mimosa Drive NW., Tucker, GA 30084. Faye Poss is researching the Burks who migrated to GA.

There is positive and indisputable proof that Pocahontas had a sister named Cleopatra. This proof was located in the old library of the Maryland Historical Society, an item of three lines covering eleven years. During the period covered by the fragment, matters became so bad between the Whites and the Indians that Opechancanough , Chief of the Powhatans, was induced to agree upon a line being established which neither White nor Indian, excepting truce bearers, should cross under penalty of being shot on sight. To insure strict obedience to the compact, a law was passed at Jamestown imposing a heavy penalty on any people crossing the line without a special permit from the Commissioners Council and the General Court. This accounts for the item alluded to, which is given verbatim. It reads:


"Dec. 17th, 1641 -- Thomas Rolfe petitions the governor to let him see Opechankeno to whom he is allied, and Cleopatra, his mother's sister."The record of the General Court was evidently intended to be a verbatim
copy though they differ in phraseology and spelling:


"Dec. 17th, 1641 -- Thomas Rolph petitions Gov. to let him go see Opechanko, to whom he is allied, and Cleopatre, his mother's sister."

Thomas Rolfe was the son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, and Cleopatra was unquestionably not his aunts Indian name. It is, however, the only name that has been passed to us historically, and we must accept it. One wonders if her name was not "Matachanna", the aunt-nurse associated with his mother in Thomas Rolfes earliest memories


Source: Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 2, April 1974. Pg. 67. SAMUEL BURKS referenced in a query from Mrs. Marion Burks Haggarty of Detroit, MI - Section "Charlotte, Dowager Duchess of Dunmore / Queries".
"Chief Powhaton had a niece Princess Nicketti. Her granddaughter, Mary Davis, married Samuel Burks, who came from England to New Kent Co., Va. Their daughter Elizabeth Burks married Dr. William Cabell in 1726. The sons of Samuel Burks were John P. Burks and Richard Burks who married Fannie Horsley in 1739."
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Source: "Our Kin: the genealogies of some of the early families who made history in the founding and development of Bedford County, Virginia." Pg. 113a, 114a. Copyrighted 1930 by Mary Denham Ackerly and Lula Eastman Jeter Parker. Available on Google Books online.
"He who cares not whence he came, cares not where he goes."

"The Cabells and Their Kin, " page 43:
"I can not vouch for it but will give it as I find it in the Floyd tradition. Opechancanough, the celebrated chief of the Powhatans, *** left a lovely young daughter, the child of his old age, the Princess Nicketti, -- 'she who sweeps the dew from the flowers.' Some years after this graceful Indian maiden had reached the years of mature womanhood, a member (the name is not given) of one of the cavalier families of Virginia fell in love with her and she with him, and the result was a clandestine marriage, and a half-breed Indian girl, who married about the year 1680 a Welshman (others say a native of Devonshire, England), named Nathaniel Davis, an Indian trader, and according to some accounts a Quaker; and from this alliance many notable people in the East and in the West have descended. Their daughter, Mary Davis, born about 1685, married Samuel Burks, of Hanover (the ancestor of the Burks family of Virginia), and their daughter, Elizabeth Burks, married Captain William Cabell, the ancestor of the Cabells.
"Martha Davis, senior, a son (the ancestor of the 'black Davises' of Kentucky and from whom Jefferson Davis descended), had a daughter, Abadiah (or Abigail) Davis, who married William Floyd, the ancestor of the Floyds of Virginia and of the West.
"A daughter or granddaughter of the Quaker married General Evan Shelby, of Maryland, the ancestor of the Shelbys of the West.
"Samuel and Philip Davis, of the Blue Mountains, were sons, and there may have been other sons and daughters.
"William Floyd left the eastern shore of Virginia, went up the country as far as the present Amherst County, which was then a very wild region, where he met with this family of Davises, who had traded with the Indians and gotten much property this way. (the Quakers were much given to friendly trading with the Indians.)
"William Floyd and his wife's brother, Robert Davis, junior, with their families emigrated to Kentucky with the first settlers, and finally located in the Bear-grass region near Louisville, where the kinsmen (Floyds and Davises) had a fort, called Floyd's Station.
* * * * * * *
"The Princess Nicketti's name has not been popular among her traditional descendents (it may be because the marriage was clandestine). The first Governor John Floyd named one of his daughters for her. I know no other namesake, but if tradition is true, no more lovely woman ever 'swept the dew from the flowers'."

Mary married Samuel King Burks in 1703 in , Hanover, Virginia, USA. Samuel (son of John Joseph Burkes and Mary Partree Peartree) was born in 1680 in , Hanover, Virginia, USA; died on 12 Feb 1756 in Saint Annes Parish, Albemarle, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married William Mayo Shumaker in 1758 in , Henrico, Virginia, USA. William (son of John Shewmaker and Elizabeth Freeman) was born in Jun 1733 in , Henrico, Virginia, USA; died in 1790 in , Amherst, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]