Humphrey Davenport Research Note

Humphrey Davenport Research Notes ~ Timeline & Analysis

Year	Event	Evidence
Sep 1656	Humphrey1 is in Barbados, married to Ellen Collinson	Will of Edward Collinson of Barbados
Nov 1660	Humphrey, son of Humphrey1, baptized in Barbados	Barbados church records
Feb 1661/1662	Humphrey, son of Humphrey1, died in Barbados	Barbados church records
Oct 1663	Last evidence of Humphrey1 in Barbados	Barbados vestry records
Oct 1665	First evidence in New England of Rachel Holmes Davenport.	Plymouth Colony records
Early 1666	Humphrey1 in Cape Fear, Carolina, probably arrived there in May of 1664.	South Carolina Historical Society
	Richard Davenport born	Savage (no further record)
Aug 1667	First time Humphrey1 known to be in Hartford	Hartford County court minutes
	William Davenport born	Savage and William Davenport death
Sep 1668	Last time Humphrey1 known to be in Hartford	Hartford County court minutes
Mar 1669/70	First time Humphrey1 known to be in New York	Hartford County court minutes
Apr 1670	A "youth" named Humphrey Davenport witnessed Staten Island deed. The 3 other "youths" were 13-14 years old.	Colonial records of the City of New York.
Jul 1671	Humphrey1 divorced from Rachel. Has more than 1 child.	Records of New Amsterdam
April 1684	Humphrey2 married Johanna Rosenkrans in Kingston and said he was "born the Barbados."	Kingston RDC records
Oct 1697	Last evidence for Humphrey1 in New York.	New York tax lists

Conclusion

For Humphrey2 to have been born in Barbados, he would have had to have been born between 1662 and 1665 or have been the son of someone other than Humphrey1. Since all indications are that Humphrey2 was born in Barbados between 1656 and 1660, he is logically not the son of Humphrey1.

The idea that Humphrey2 is the son of Humphrey1 is not supported by tradition or historical evidence. It is the result of the proliferation of musings by recent "lumpers," -- those who liked to imagine that all Davenports are related -- and by the 1660 baptism of Humphrey in Barbados (who we now know died in 1662).

DNA Evidence

Many believe that William Davenport (b. 1666 CT) and Humphrey² Davenport (b. abt. 1660 Barbados) are brothers, the sons of Humphrey¹Davenport. The descendants of William and Humphrey² share an uncommon Y-DNA profile which shows that the two Davenports are not related on the male line to any other known Davenport family of England or the US. Not only are they not related to any other Davenports, their Y-DNA is almost unique and not closely related to many others that have been analyzed. They are clearly closely related.

The DNA analysis of the descendants of William and Humphrey2, however, cannot tell us if they are brothers, first cousins whose fathers went to Barbados together, or say, 6th cousins who just both happened to have a Barbados connection. There is enough difference between them (4-steps) that statistically, the odds of William and Humphrey2 being brothers is less than 10%. (Correct me if I am wrong, I'm not a scientist!) But that’s just probability and so cannot be used to prove anything.

The probability that two participants share a common ancestor when matching on "X" number of markers within the last "Y" generations.
Marker Matches	4 Generations	8 Generations	12 Generations	16 Generations	20 Generations	24 Generations
21 of 25	0.2 - 0.3%	2.6 - 3.3%	9.8 - 12.0%	21.7 - 25.6%	36.1 - 41.5%	50.8 - 56.7%

Check out the excellent Davenport DNA site for more information on the Y-DNA results. Although I disagree with the family tree that is presented, the DNA evidence is laid out in a clear and logical manner.