my mother Davenport, sisters Minot and Elliot, and myself, sixteen
pounds." This latter item is decisive, as we know that two of Richard
Davenport's daughters married persons of those names. It is a
circumstance of singular interest, as showing by how slight an
accident--for it is a mere accident--important questions of history
are sometimes determinable. This item, so far as I have been able to
find, is the only absolute evidence we have to the point that Richard
was the father of Nathaniel Davenport; and it would not have been in
existence, had not questions arisen in the settlement of the estate of
the latter requiring the action of the General Court. The record of
baptisms in the First Church at Salem, prior to 1636, is lost. The
names of Richard Davenport's children, baptized subsequent to that
date, are in the records of the Salem or Boston churches. As Nathaniel
is understood to have been one of the earliest born, the record of his
baptism was probably in the lost part of the Salem book.

It may be thought surprising, that so little appears to have been
known concerning an officer of his rank and parentage, and whose death
has rendered his name so memorable. To account for it, I must recur to
the history of the Narragansett expedition. No military organization
was ever more rapidly effected, or more thoroughly and promptly
executed its work. The commissioners of the three united colonies were
satisfied that the Indian rendezvous at Narragansett, where their
forces and stores were being collected and their resources
concentrated, must be struck at without a moment's delay; that the
blow must be swift and decisive; that it must be struck then, in the
depth of winter; that, if deferred to the spring, all would be lost;
that, if the Indian power was allowed to remain and to gather strength
until the next season, nothing could save the settlements from
destruction. Early in November, they formed their plan, and put the