SKETCHES OF JOHN AND ANN (SIMPSON)
DAVIS
THEIR FORBEARS AND DESCENDANTS
BY EVA (SELLS) JAEGER
The History of every Family is a romance
--
to those who search its pages a poem.
--Lamartine.
The history of the state of
Pennsylvania, from
which came John and Ann Simpson Davis,
is unique in
the manner of settlements made there,
as it offered an
asylum for all mankind.
To this state came the Swedes, who
settled along the
Delaware River; the Dutch from Holland,
who, in turn,
drove the Swedes back into the state,
now Delaware; the
English, Welsh, Irish; and the French
Huguenots, who
had suffered persecution in their own
land. All came
seeking a home of refuge and peace in a
strange but
chosen land.
The religious sect of Friends, in
England, was not
looked upon with much favor by the
other religious or-
ganizations rapidly gaining power in
England. This
condition led them also to seek refuge
in America.
William Penn, a Quaker, or Friend, with
a company
of about one hundred others of his faith,
set sail from
England, to Pennsylvania, on the ship, Welcome,
about
September, 1682.
The captain of this vessel was Robert
Greenway, and
his voyage across proved a long and
tedious one. Small-
(563)
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
pox broke out on board the vessel, and
thirty of their
number died. William Penn endeared
himself to the
sick by his kindness and help to the
sufferers.
They arrived at New Castle, on the
Delaware River,
on the 27th of October, 1682.
Of the hundred immigrants who came with
Penn,
the heads of families were men of
influence and educa-
tion. About one-half of this number
made their homes
in Bucks County, one of the three
original counties of
Pennsylvania.
History relates that William Penn and
his followers
were much indebted to the early Swedes
and Hollanders
for sustenance, as they had great
farms, which were
cultivated. They were the true pioneers
and furnished
food and shelter for the newcomers, the
Friends.
Penn's policy was to extinguish the
Indian title to
the grants by purchase, thus gaining
the good will of
the Indians and securing safety to
these settlers. Penn
remained in Pennsylvania for two years
and in 1684
set out on his return voyage to England
-- leaving an
industrious people, tillers of the
soil; and soon Pennsyl-
vania had many, many settlers. This
colony gained in
favor and the inhabitants prospered.
One family from the north of Ireland
came to Bucks
County and settled in either Buckingham
or Solebury
Township. William Simpson, on the 15th
day of Janu-
ary, 1766, made application to purchase
one hundred
acres of land in Buckingham Township,
and the deed
was executed by John Penn, May 23,
1767.
Prior to this time he had married Nancy
Hines. Of
this union four children were born:
Ann, Mary, John,
and Mathew.
Sketches of John and Ann (Simpson)
Davis 565
John Simpson lived and died in Bucks
County.
Mathew removed to Ohio, settling near
Zanesville. The
history of Mary is unknown. Ann proved
herself a
heroine in the Revolutionary War.
William Simpson, the father of Ann, was
born in
1732, and died in 1816, in Bucks
County. He was a
soldier of the Revolution, serving as a
private in Bucks
County Associators, in 1775.1
He was in the battle of Trenton. On one
occasion
he came home to visit his family. His
house was
searched by Tory neighbors, who failed
to find him as
he was in the cellar of his home with a
hogshead turned
over him.2
William Simpson lived to see his
country free and
independent, dying at the age of 90
years. His wife,
Nancy Hines Simpson, died at the age of
70 years.
Ann Simpson, daughter of William and
Nancy
Hines Simpson, was born in the year
1764. In the
Revolutionary War she acted as a spy
for George Wash-
ington. At this time she was 14 or 15
years old. She
is said to have carried messages,
concealed in a bag of
meal, to the other commanding officers
of the American
Army. I have many times heard
Grandfather Davis tell
the story of Ann Simpson. He said she
was a messenger
between the generals of the army.
In the old Davis burying ground, one
mile south of
Dublin, on the east side of the Scioto
River, upon the
beautiful double granite monument
erected to the mem-
ory of his illustrious mother, by her
son Joseph Davis,
are inscribed these words:
1 Lineage Book, Daughters of the
American Revolution, Vol. 69, p. 350.
2 William W. Davis, History of Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, p. 202.
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Ann Davis was a messenger and carried
orders from
General Washington to the other
Commanders in the
Revolutionary War -- 1779-1780.
Ann Simpson was married after the
Revolution, in
the year 1783, to John Davis, of Bucks
County.3
The great grandfather of John Davis
came from
Wales and settled in Solebury Township,
Bucks County,
early in 1700.
John Davis, the subject of this sketch,
was born in
1760, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He
married Ann
Simpson in 1783. He was a soldier in
the Revolution
from Trenton to Yorktown. He first
enlisted in the
Flying Camp at the age of sixteen and
was known as
an alert rifleman. He was at
Brandywine, German-
town, Monmouth, Stony Point and the
Cowpens. He
was in Colonel Butler's Pennsylvania
Regiment and
Lafayette's Light Infantry. He was an
Ensign at the
Battle of the Brandywine and he and
Lieutenant Butler
carried Lafayette off the field after
he had been
wounded in this battle.4
After this war, John and Ann Simpson
Davis re-
moved from Bucks County to Maryland in
the year
1795, and to Ohio, in 1816. They took
up a land grant
on the east side of the Scioto River,
one mile south of
Dublin, Franklin County, Ohio. This
grant was for
services in the Revolutionary War.
The inscription on the other side of
the monument
already referred to, reads as follows:
3 The children of John and Ann (Simpson)
Davis were: Sarah,
William, John, Nancy, Samuel, Joshua,
Joseph, Elizabeth. Mrs. Eva
(Sells) Jaeger has prepared in
manuscript a list of their descendants.
4 William W. Davis, History of Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, p. 204.
Sketches of John and Ann (Simpson)
Davis 567
Died Jan. 25th, 1832, age 71 yrs. 4 Mo.
18 Da.
John Davis was a soldier in the
Revolutionary War. Served
from 1771-1781 in the Pennsylvania
Regiment.
On another side of the monument is an
oath of
allegiance taken by John Davis, October
18, 1779, such
oath being required by the General
Assembly of Penn-
sylvania.
John Davis, son of John and Ann Simpson
Davis,
remained in Bucks County, and was
appointed by the
State of Pennsylvania to be a military
escort to Marquis
De Lafayette on the occasion of his
visit to that state,
and served as general in the War with
Mexico.
The tour of Lafayette through the
county in Sep-
tember, 1824, caused great sensation.
His arrival at
New York, as the nation's guest, was
hailed with de-
light and his progress through New
England and re-
turn was watched with deep interest.
His visit to this
county on his way to Philadelphia and
the South was
looked forward to as a great event, and
the people made
arrangements to give him a fitting
reception. A large
meeting of the inhabitants of the
neighboring townships
was held at Bristol, September 3, to
make the needful
preparations. A similar meeting was
held at Tully-
town. On the 4th, the officers of
Colonel John Davis'
regiment of volunteers and a number of
militia officers
and citizens met at Ann Hinkle's
Tavern, Newtown,
and resolved to have a general turnout
to welcome
Lafayette to Bucks County. This action
was strength-
ened by General Dungan, commanding the
brigade, who
ordered the militia to turn out for the
occasion. Colonel
Davis' regiment resolved to meet him at
Trenton Bridge
and with the Center Rifle Battalion,
commanded by Ma-
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
jor Stephenson Brock, at Frankford,
where they joined
the escort to Philadelphia.
General Lafayette reached Trenton
Saturday after-
noon, September 25, and stayed there
over Sunday.
That afternoon the Governor of
Pennsylvania passed
through Bristol on his way to
Morrisville to receive the
distinguished friend. On Monday morning
an immense
concourse of people gathered at
Morrisville, together
with Colonel Davis' regiment, mounted,
six hundred
strong, and several independent
companies to act as es-
cort. Here a difficulty presented
itself. Philadelphia,
not knowing that Bucks County had made
arrange-
ments to receive Lafayette, sent up a
cavalry force to
escort him down to the city. Both
claimed the right to
receive him at the bridge, as he
entered the state, but
it was conceded to Bucks County, in the
reception cere-
mony and in the escort through the
county. As the pro-
cession entered Bristol the honored
guest was received
by the inhabitants of the town and
their families drawn
up on the turnpike and he passed under
a triumphal arch
erected over the bridge. Here he dined
and was intro-
duced to many persons, including Mrs.
Bessonett, his
nurse when he was wounded at
Brandywine, in 1777.
When Colonel Davis was presented, he
said to the Gen-
eral that his father, John Davis, an
ensign in the Penn-
sylvania line, and a private soldier,
carried him off the
field when wounded at Brandywine.
Lafayette replied
that he remembered the circumstance
well, and said the
two had handled him like a child. In
remembrance he
gave the Colonel a good French hug.
Colonel John Davis' son was Captain
William Watts
Hart Davis. He was author of the History
of Bucks
Sketches of John and Ann (Simpson) Davis 569 County, Pennsylvania, which, from a genealogical stand- point, is the finest of that county ever written. He dis- tinguished himself in the Civil War. In 1861, he re- cruited and organized a regiment of infantry, known as the 104th Regiment, and a six-gun battery, which served three years in the field. |
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The descendants of John and Ann Simpson Davis have inherited the patriotic spirit of their ancestors. They have supported and defended the government estab- lished by the Revolution- ary fathers. Six great- great-grandsons of John and Ann Simpson Davis, are known to have given services in the World War. They are as fol- lows: Lester Sells, son of Florence Davis Sells and Amaziah Sells, enlisted in |
the 37th Division at Camp Sheridan, and was honorably discharged April 18, 1919. William Wallace Cromley, son of Dr. W. A. Crom- ley and Matilda J. Cromley, volunteered in Illinois, May 15, 1917, at Chicago, and went into training at Fort Riley, Kansas. He was commissioned second lieutenant and attached to the base hospital at Fort Benjamin Har- rison, Indiana. He arrived in France October 25, 1918, |
570 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications and returned to the United States April 15, 1919, and was honorably discharged May 15, 1919. Franklin Van Petten, son of Edwin and Anna Fitz Henry Van Petten, served in the Tank Corps. Harold Van Petten, son of Edwin and Anna Fitz Henry Van Petten, was an ensign in the United States Navy. |
Harry L. Artz, Jr., son of Harry L. and Sa- rah Thomas Artz, enlist- ed in the 37th Division and served in Company E, 112th Ammunition Train. He sailed from Philadelphia June 27, 1918; landed in France July 20, 1918; saw active service on three fronts; and was honorably dis- charged April 18, 1919. John A. Artz, son of Harry L. and Sarah Thomas Artz, enlisted in the 37th Division and served as a private in |
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Company A, 112th Signal Battalion; was promoted to corporal and sergeant. He saw active service overseas on the Ypres-Lys, Meuse-Argonne and De- fensive Sectors. He was cited and decorated with the Croix-de-Guerre for "maintaining line of communica- tion"; after being wounded by shrapnel he was for a time in a French Hospital. He returned to the United |
Sketches of John and Ann (Simpson) Davis 571 States on the George Washington, and was honorably discharged April 12, 1919. The two Artz brothers are descended from ten Rev- olutionary soldiers: George Ebey, Sr., George Ebey, Jr., Daniel Mickey, Abraham Deardorf, Ann Simpson Davis, John Davis, William Simpson, John Sells, Lud- wick Sells and Eleazer Hutchinson. Eleazer Hutchinson entered the Revolutionary serv- ice from Connecticut; all the others enlisted from Penn- sylvania. George Ebey, Sr., was killed at Stony Point; John Sells, in the Battle at Yorktown. As a descendant of John and Ann Simpson Davis, I am proud of the patriotic record of these ancestors and their numerous descendants; and as a Daughter of the American Revolution, I am pleased to know that the Daughters in Columbus, Ohio, have organized and chosen as their name the "Ann Simpson Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution." At the last national conference of this patriotic order in Wash- ington, the Daughters of this chapter were frequently congratulated on thus choosing the name of this heroine of the Revolution. |
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