There has been some uncertainty on the point whether Nathaniel Davenport was a son of Richard, the commandant at the castle.  The fact that he was associated with William Stoughton, and Stephen Minot whose wife was a daughter of Richard Davenport, as an administrator of the estate of the latter, has been regarded as rendering it probable.  Dr. Palfrey’s unhesitating statement to that effect is, of itself, enough to settle the question.  There is, moreover, a document on file which proves that he is correct.  Nathaniel’s widow had some difficulty in settling his estate, and applied to the General Court for its interposition.  Quite a mass of papers belong to the case.  Among them is a bill of expenses incurred by her in connection with his funeral charges, such as, “twenty-one rings to relatives,” and to those “who took care to bring him off slain, eight pounds;” and “for mourning for 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 machinery for summoning all their utmost resources into instant action.  On the 30th of November, the officers appointed for the purpose made return,