Captain James Davis 1575-1633 (Jamestown)

I want to provide a disclaimer that the further I go back in history, the harder it is, with the tools I have to state with 100% accuracy that all of this is correct.  However, the information I have here seems solid enough to me to suggest that this person is one of our ancestors. 

Captain James Davis (1575 - 1623)

is your 12th great grandfather

JOHN DAVIS (1610 - 1665)

Son of Captain James

John Davis (1648 - 1720)

Son of JOHN

Mary Burton Davis (1673 - 1732)

Daughter of John

John Colson (1694 - 1736)

Son of Mary Burton

John Colson (1720 - 1791)

Son of John

William Colson (1749 - 1783)

Son of John

John William Colson (1793 - 1851)

Son of William

Mary Ann Colson (1818 - 1887)

Daughter of John William

Susan Rivana McElmurry (1838 - 1925)

Daughter of Mary Ann

William H Roberts (1870 - 1919)

Son of Susan Rivana

William David Roberts (1893 - 1974)

Son of William H

Leslie V Roberts Sr (1923 - 1992)

Son of William David

David Walter Roberts (1951 - )

Son of Leslie V

David Walter Roberts Jr

You are the son of David Walter

Captain James Davis was one of the original settlers of Jamestown, VA.  Just Google his name and you will find a great deal of information on Capt. Davis.  He was born in England in 1575-80, the son of Sir Thomas Davis (1550-16??) and Elizabeth Lawrence (1552-1620).  His father, Sir Thomas was on the Board of Directors for the London Company.  Capt. Davis married Rachell Keyes in England around 1607-8 either before he left for the new world or on one of his return trips to England.  Originally James sailed to America to settle northern Virginia (present day Maine) and was the founder and Captain of Fort Sagadahoc.  Much of his story and journey to America was documented by him in a book "The Relation of a voyage unto New England begun from the Lizard, ye first of June 1607." (The lizard is what people called Plymouth, England in those days)  After the colony was settled James returned to England to get supplies, when he returned many of the settlers had died during a brutal winter.  The remaining settlers built a ship “The Virginia” and abandoned the colony sailing home to England before the next winter.   This meant the area north of Virginia wouldn’t be permanently settled again until 13 years later when the Mayflower reached America. 



Tower of the Old Jamestown Church

 Capt. Davis returned to Virginia in 1609 on the "Virginia” heading to Jamestown with a fleet of 9 ships known as the "third supply".  It carried with it the new Charter of the Virginia Company, which had been drafted by Sir Francis Bacon and signed by King James I on May 23, 1609, granting a vast extension of territory and larger powers were given to the Company.  During their trip they encountered a hurricane which sank one ship and all aboard and grounded two other ships on the island of Bermuda. The Virginia apparently survived the storm, and under the command of Captain James Davis, arrived in the Colony in October 1609, probably in tow behind one of the larger ships. At that time, Captain Davis assumed command of Fort Algernon at Point Comfort, where he survived the Starving Time of 1609-10. The Virginia disappears from records in 1610.

There are conflicting reports of Captain James death.  There was a report that he died in 1622 during the Indian Massacre however, most of the recent research suggests that this is false.  It is believed Captain James died in 1633 on his plantation near Point Comfort because he death was recorded at that time listing him as an "Ancient Planter".  The term "Ancient Planters" referred to any colonist who arrived before 1616, had paid thier way across the Atlantic and remained in the colony for a period of at least 3 years.  These "Ancient Planters" received the first deeds for land in "America" in 1618 as a reward for thier adventure. 

So there you have it.  One of our ancestors is one of the first land holders in the US.  This man would have most likely known or been witness to the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, and the attacks from Powhatan.  It is hard to think that they could have imagined how that trip they took across the ocean could have been the catalyst for starting this nation.

Southern Patriot: Jame Fulcher b:1755 d:1839

James Fulcher was born in Virginia in 1755 and was the son of William Fulcher and Nancy Armistead. During the Revolutionary War he served as a soldier in the Continental Line from Georgia and saw service in Georgia and South Carolina. For his services to his country he received land grants in several Georgia counties including Richmond, Screven, and Muscogee.

He married Mary Elizabeth Huff in 1777 in Virginia and they are believed to have had the following five children.

1) Armistead Fulcher (born 1778) married Nancy Daniel.
2) Margaret Fulcher (born 1780) married Augustine Hewlett.
3) John LaFayette Fulcher (born 1781) married Mary Colson.
4) James Fulcher (born 1783, died 1823).
5) Nancy Fulcher (born 1789) married William Colson.

In addition to being a land owner, James served as a Justice of the Peace and was the owner of an Inn on McBean Creek not far from Waynesboro. George Washington breakfasted there on his tour of the South in 1791. President Washington entered into is diary "Wednesday 18th - Breakfast at Fulcher's, 15 miles from Waynesboro." The desk said to be the one at which George Washington made this entry in his diary has been passed down to a present day descendent of James Fulcher.

Though there are few records for James Fulcher, I do have a census record from 1830 stating that he was a plantation owner and was the owner of 8 slaves.  His plantation at the time was located in Richmond County, GA. Patriot James Fulcher died on March 23, 1839 in Richmond County and is buried in the Fulcher Cemetery located near the intersection of Piney Grove Road and the present day Highway 56. His example of duty and service to his nation and community serves as a model for us all.

Elizabeth Grace (Winter) Tinley b: May 1865 d: Mar 28,1940

Elizabeth Grace Winter was born in May of 1865 in Georgia (most likely in McBean, GA).  Grace was the daughter of John Winter and Indiana (Indie) H. Dove.  I have intentionally chosen Grace to be the first female I write about for several reasons.  1. There is very little information out there about females because we were such a  patriarchal society, but I do have some information about Grace. 2. Grace was a single mother in a time when there were not very many. and 3. Because she is Annie Mae Tinley's "Granny's" mother.  Since many of you knew and loved Granny, I thought it would be helpful to give you a glimpse into her story to better understand where she came from. 

Grace was born at the end of the Civil War in May of 1865.  Her father John Winter had been a 2nd Lieutenant for the Conferate Army (Company I, GA 48th Infantry) beginning in Nov of 1861 and mustering out in March of 1862.  He married Indie on November 5, 1863. John Winter seems to have been a successful planter/farmer based on the number of slaves he owned (19 before the war).  Grace grew up in Richmond County.  She could read and write and helped her mother "keep house" according to census documents.  She was married to John J Tinley on 13 June 1889 in Richmond County.  This has been a huge mystery for me for sometime because there was no 1890 census record for Grace and suddenly she popped up in 1900 with two kids, the last name Tinley and widowed???  I looked for a long time and finally, yesterday I found a marriage record and his middle initial "J".  When I googled it, I found a website for the Tinley Cemetary (http://www.thegagenweb.com/garichmo/cemetery/Tinley.html) in Richmond Co.  There is a grave marker there for a J.J. Tinely born 15 Jan 1866 died 10 Sept 1893, since the timeline and other family member match up, I feel that this has to be him.  I still have no idea how John died. 

John and Grace had three children, two survived a son Thomas (b 1892) and a daughter Annie Mae (b: 8 Nov 1893) which means that Granny never knew her father, he died two months before she was born.  Grace moved back in with her parents John and Indie Winter and was there with them with her kids through the 1900 census. 

In 1910 however, Grace and her children (now in thier teens) were living with the Byrd family.  Grace was the house servant for the Byrd family Thomas "Walker" (her son) was a serviceman for the telephone company and Annie Mae was a spooler at the local cottonmill.  In a strange twist of fate, the family have left the rural life for the more suburban life of Augusta to live with the Byrd family on Hicks Street, right down the way from the Roberts family, who also lived on Hicks Street.  Hicks Street in Augusta, GA is like ground zero for our family name. Generations of the Roberts family lived and were raised on Hicks Street.  I did look on Google hoping to find Hicks Street and while there are some houses from the era still standing, half of the street was turned into a highway and the houses that are there are in pretty bad shape.  The homes that our ancestors lived in were on the side of the street they turned into a highway. 


Hicks Street Augusta today

Grace lived the rest of her life in Augusta.  I have years worth of phone address books always listing her as Grace Tinley, widow of John.  She had various addresses over the years, but she eventually moved in with William and Annie Mae to help them keep house and raise thier 4 children.  Grace never remarried after her brief 4 year marriage to John.  It seems like she devoted the rest of her life to working for her family and raising her children.  Though she had been living in Fulton County with Mage and Granny as recently as 1930, she died in Richmond County, GA on March 28, 1940.