The Return of Benjamin Davis

In late 1783, Benjamin Davis, Sr., and Benjamin Davis, Jr., sailed out of New York harbor, their second evacuation to Canada in the course of the American Revolution.

Father and son bought a land grant in Nova Scotia from Samuel Barnard and helped to establish the new town of Shelburne, continuing to work as merchants. Benjamin, Jr., went to London the next year, presumably to make contacts.

In the fall of 1786, Benjamin, Sr., was appointed a judge of the court of oyer and terminer in Nova Scotia. During the British Empire’s wars with Napoleonic France, Davis administered prize money from privateers; the signature above comes from one of those documents.

I’ve been frustrated in my efforts to learn more about the enslaved man captured and held with the Davises in 1776–77. Canadian records show Benjamin Davis continued to be a slave owner. In October 1789, he sold the Rev. John Agnew claim to “four negroes named Prince, and Bella his wife, and two children named Peter and William.”

At some point the Davises quietly moved back to Boston, where their family roots were, even though in 1778 Massachusetts had banished the older man by name and prepared to confiscate his property.

Boston newspapers reported that Benjamin Davis, Sr., died on 14 Sept 1805. Probate judge Thomas Dawes, Jr., appointed an administrator for his estate, which was found to consist entirely of household furniture worth just $101.

Benjamin, Jr., sold the Shelburne land in 1809. On 31 Dec 1836, the Boston Courier and Columbian Centinel reported the death three days before of “Benjamin Davis, Esq., aged 81.” The newspapers stated:

he was the last male descendant (of the name) in Boston of Capt. William Davis, an early settler, and well known character in the colony history.

I hadn’t planned to spend two weeks on Benjamin Davis, but the remarks from 1776 about him and gingerbread piqued my curiosity, and then there were more threads to pull.