Fannie Davis d.  pre 1797

    Fannie Davis was born in Old Rappahannock County, VA, the daughter of James Davis and his first wife Francis Berry Golding Dobyns.  The family lived on the Northern Neck of Virginia, and the site of the original Davis farm is now, unfortunately, under a large power plant on the Potomac     River.  This is in all probability the burial site, too, of James.

    James Davis had married Francis Berry in about 1749, when she was a 28 year old widow with 2 children and he, a man of 18, ten years her junior.....surely an odd marriage arrangement.  Early on I imagined that he might have married her for her money, but later discovered that it had taken almost all she inherited from her last husband to pay his debts, so money wasn't the answer.  I like to think it must  have been a love match.  

    Francis had been married to (1) Thomas Golding, on Jan 28, 1738.  Family tradition says that he died shortly after the wedding, and these 2 had no children.  She married (2) Thomas Dobyns of Caroline County, who died in 1748, the year before she married (3) James Davis, my ancestor.   She had 2 children by Thomas Dobyns, a daughter Catherine, who married, in 1772,   Aaron Thornley, son of John and Anne Woffendale Thornley of Hanover Parish, King George County, and  a son, Edward Dobyns, who married Francis Kay, in 1770.  These two moved to MasonCounty, Kentucky, where they both died, she having married a second time to Pierce Duvall and a 3rd, to James Brown.

    The children of James Davis and Francis Berry were 

1.  Fannie, who married my Reuben Bullard and is my ancestor (whose children are mentioned in their Grandfather, James Davis's will.)
2.  Catherine, who married in 1771, King George county, commodore Richard Taylor, who moved to Kentucky 
3. Mary, who married Alexander Doniphan (whose  children are listed in their grandfather, James Davis's will)

 There will be a separate page for the Davis line, and one for the Berry family.     

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