Author: Jerry Ray Sayre
William Davis was born 11 Mar 1754 in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He was the 3rd son of James (P-144587) and Judith (Maxson) Davis. He grew to manhood in Monmouth County and in 1773 married Elizabeth Anna Havens, the daughter of John and Anna (Davis) Havens. The family was loyalist at the start of the Revolution. They owned a shipyard and even helped pilot the British Fleet into New York Harbor in 1776. When the British burned their shipyard, the Davis family became patriots. After the loss of the family shipyard, he took his wife and family to her father’s home and joined the Patriot Cause (source: Viola Trainer Manuscripts)

According to his pension record, he served as a guide in 1776, served alternant monthly tours in both the 2nd Regiment Monmouth County Militia under Col. Samuel Forman & Capt. John Dennis, and the 3rd Regiment Monmouth County Militia under Col. Auke Wykoff & Capts Benjamin Dennis and Stephen Fleming.

During a skirmish at Sandy Hook, New Jersey,, he was wounded by a musket ball to the chest. His wound left a large scar for the rest of his life. He was taken prisoner about 20 Jan 1777 at Somerset Courthouse, held on a prison Barge for about 22 months, later escaped and went to his in-laws and hid for 9 months.
He applied for his pension as a resident of Pike Township, Clark County, OH on 4 Oct 1832.

While testifying for his father’s pension, James Davis stated that he and his mother and family lived with her father, John Havens in Shrewsbury, NJ while his father was a prisoner of the British. James and his father served together in 1794 under Col. Wm. Lowther & Capt. Bogard.

William Davis passed from this life in 1834 while living in Pike Township, Clark County, OH, was buried and later moved to the Asbury Cemetery in Northampton, Clark County, OH. No marker or headstone has been located there.

Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!

Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.

Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here: Patriot Biography Do's and Don'ts

Send your submission¹, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space

---

¹Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.