Writing this entry on the brink of July 4th, 2021, I was thinking of the founding fathers and the great sacrifices they endured to gain independence so many years ago. Also, I am aware that many of these men have fallen in status and appreciation because of their participation in the ugly practice of enslavement. Recent historians have also stressed that many of these slave owners abused those women they held in bondage and bore children with them. Perhaps at the top of the list when it comes to men who fit into that category was the author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, Thomas Jefferson. One of the president's was a woman named Jemima Jefferson ( she and Peter Jefferson, the father of the President, were half-siblings). Jemima Jefferson married a man named John Davis.
Born around the year 1725 in Goochland County, Virginia, by 1787 John Davis is listed as an overseer of a plantation in Pittsylvania County, VA. That plantation was owned by George Jefferson, of Mecklenburg County, VA, who was Thomas Jefferson's first cousin. The closeness between the Davis and Jefferson families is explained by Henry Ragland, in his "History of Logan County, W.Va. 1896," due to the fact that John Davis' wife, and the mother of his children, was Jemima Jefferson, the aunt of Thomas Jefferson.
Another author, Constant Elisha Watson Davis (the great-grandson of Jemima Jefferson Davis), author of The Davis Family, an 1892 manuscript, offers support for this claim by recognizing the widow Jemima Collins, whose maiden name was Jefferson, as a relative of the president. Together the couple had at least eight children, possibly nine. Two of their sons, James (died in 1831) and Robert (died in 1843) claimed to be first cousins to President Thomas Jefferson. All this has led researchers, as per www.wikitree.com, to conclude that Jemima Jefferson was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Jefferson, II. She would have been born after the death of his second wife. It is assumed that her mother was the Captain's unknown third wife or perhaps "a companion or consort" (see NOTE). Some of her descendants have taken DNA tests and confirmed that they were indeed part of Capt. Jefferson's family (although many researchers deny the validity of the family's claims).
IF it is true that Jemima Jefferson Davis is the half-sister of Peter Jefferson, then she would have been Thomas Jefferson's aunt. What is true is the fact that John Davis' sister, Martha Hannah Davis (born in 1702) became the wife of Abraham Venable II (born in 1700) and that they would become Dad's 6th-great-grandparents (and John and Jemima Davis would be Dad's 5th great-grand uncle and aunt). Here is how the connection breaks down.
| Captain Thomas Jefferson II (1679) |
Robert Nathaniel Davis and Abadiah Lewis Davis |
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| Peter Jefferson (1708) |
Jemima Jefferson (about 1730) |
John Davis (1725) |
Martha Hanna Davis Venable (1702) |
| President Thomas Jefferson (1743) |
Hugh Lewis Venable (1727) | ||
| Elizabeth Venable Bragg (1764) | |||
| Hugh Lewis Bragg (1795) | |||
| William Bragg (1834) | |||
| Franklin Martin Bragg (1867) | |||
| Orval Bishop Bragg (1895) | |||
| Don Cicero Bragg (.1920) | |||
| Richard and Elizabeth Worsham Kennon |
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| Sarah Kennon (1689) |
Martha Kennon (1682 |
| Martha Eppes (1721) |
Hannah Munford (1705) |
| Martha (Patsy) Wayles Jefferson (1748) |
Hannah Marksbury (1735 |
| Samuel Peter (1753 |
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| Zachariah Peter (1780 |
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| James M. Peters (1820 |
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| Margaret N Peters (1851 |
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| Zacharious I. Standerfer (1871 |
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| Mercedes Ruth Standerfer (1892 | |
| Mary Jean Ethington Bragg (1928) |
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