WHERE TWO STORIES BECOME ONE
John & Marguerite
The marriage of February 3, 1904 · Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church · Richmond, Virginia
JOINED IN HOLY MATRIMONY
The Wedding of John & Marguerite
John Sidney Davenport, Jr.
(1877–1946)
John Sidney Davenport Jr. was born on May 30, 1877, in Manhattan, New York, the son of John Sidney Davenport Jr. (1846 to 1937) and Mary Elizabeth Rintoul, whose family had emigrated from Montrose, Angus, Scotland. He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and came to Richmond in 1901 in his professional capacity, sent by the firm of his uncle David Parks Fackler in New York. At the time, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia was in receivership, and John was brought in to help guide it back to health. He became its actuary in 1902 and rose to Vice-President in 1925. Richmond came to him through work. Marguerite came to him through Richmond.
Louise Marguerite Warwick
(1880–1968)
Louise Marguerite Warwick, known as Marguerite, was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1880, the daughter of Byrd Warwick (1848 to 1894) and Ida Louise Burrows (1857 to 1946). Through her Warwick, Byrd, Carter, and Randolph connections she was embedded in the oldest layers of Virginia planter society, born in the city that her ancestor William Byrd II had founded 143 years before her birth.
Their Wedding at Grace and Holy Trinity
John and Marguerite were married on 3 February 1904 at Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond. A letter written three weeks later by James A. W. Jackson, the church sexton, described the wedding as one of the largest the church had ever hosted, with more than 1,700 people present and guests standing in the aisles. The letter turns a family fact into a vivid scene: this was not only a marriage between two people, but a public Richmond event.
FULL SOURCE
James A. W. Jackson, Sexton's Letter, Grace and Holy Trinity Church, February 24, 1904. Read here.
THE CHILDREN OF JOHN & LOUISE
The Names They Gave Their Sons
John and Marguerite had five sons between 1905 and 1916. Each son was given a different family surname as a given or middle name, together encoding virtually the entire family tree: John Sidney (the paternal Davenport line); Byrd Warwick (Marguerite's maiden name and the Virginia Byrd dynasty); Roswell Burrows (Marguerite's maternal grandfather Roswell Smith Burrows, 1798 to 1879); Stephen Rintoul (John's Scottish mother Mary Elizabeth Rintoul of Montrose, Angus); and Bradfute Warwick (Marguerite's grandmother Margaret Elizabeth Bradfute and the memory of her uncle Bradfute Warwick, killed at Gaines' Mill).
John Sidney Davenport III
Byrd Warwick Davenport
Roswell Burrows Davenport
Stephen Rintoul Davenport
Bradfute Warwick Davenport
THE NEXT GENERATION
The Five Sons
All five brothers were born in Richmond, Virginia · All five were baptized at Grace and Holy Trinity
John Sidney Davenport III
b. 14 March, 1905, Richmond, Virginia; d. 17 May, 1983
Branch and name: The paternal Davenport line and the continuing John Sidney name. By strict count he should have been John Sidney Davenport IV.
Family: Married Edna Wylie McAdams, and after her death married Liza Hagan. He outlived both wives.
Children:
Marguerite Warwick Davenport Lord
Education: Yale University, Class of 1928. Yale Law School. He took a gap year before entering Yale.
Military service: None.
Career: Attorney in Richmond with Mays, Valentine, Davenport and Moore.
Where he lived: During part of World War II, John, Edna, and Marguerite lived in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. Family lore has included possible OSS work during those years, though no source has confirmed it.
Personality, hobbies, and family memories: Martha Davenport remembered him as the oldest brother, recognizable by his waved hair. He was the only brother who learned to milk Buttercup, the family cow, and he played basketball at St. Christopher's. His daughter, Marguerite Lord, later recalled the morning of January 1, 1946, the day her grandfather died, as the first time she ever saw her father cry.
Byrd Warwick Davenport
b. 20 August, 1908, Richmond, Virginia; d. 1 Jun, 1985 (aged 76)
Branch and name: Marguerite's Warwick surname and the Virginia Byrd family.
Family: Married Alice Byrd, and lived in the house at the end of Davenport Hollow.
Children:
Lucy Wickham Davenport Wallace
Byrd Warwick Davenport Jr.
Mary Bowditch Davenport Nelson
Education: University of Virginia.
Military service: Navy (did not serve).
Career: Manufactured paper and cardboard with Manchester Board and Paper.
Where he lived: Built the house at the end of Davenport Hollow, number 6134, which would later be owned by Bradfute Warwick Davenport Jr. and his family.
Personality, hobbies, and family memories: The practical brother. Martha Davenport called him the towhead who became the one who could fix things. Betty Davenport Wright wrote that Uncle Byrd could fix anything and kept a garage full of tools. He was a potter and a sailor with a house at Fishing Bay in Deltaville, kept a chicken house in the woods, and had a setter named Koodie.
Roswell Burrows Davenport
b. 5 February 1911, Richmond, Virginia; d. 8 March, 1994
Branch and name: Marguerite's maternal grandfather, Roswell Smith Burrows (1798 to 1879).
Family: Married Jane Norton Gibson.
Children:
Huntley Gibson Davenport
John Sidney Davenport IV
Elizabeth Roswell Davenport Wright
Education: University of Virginia.
Military service: Navy (did not serve).
Career: Worked for the Miller Manufacturing paper company, and also ran a laundry truck.
Where he lived: Davenport Hollow.
Personality, hobbies, and family memories: Remembered for warmth, playfulness, and a famous grin. Martha Davenport described infant Roswell as having a great smile. In 1925, at age fourteen, he first went to Rockywold-Deephaven Camp at Squam Lake, which became a lasting family tradition.
Stephen Rintoul Davenport II
b. 28 January, 1915, Richmond, Virginia; d. 14 July, 2002
Branch and name: John's Scottish mother, Mary Elizabeth Rintoul of Montrose, Angus.
Family: Married Susan Stuart Gibson, whom he had known since before high school.
Children:
Stephen Rintoul Davenport III
Churchill Gibson Davenport
Susan Stuart Davenport Simrill
John Lloyd Davenport
Robert Atkinson Davenport
Education: University of Virginia.
Military service: Did not serve, owing to a bad back.
Career: Episcopal priest. In 1965, Stephen and members of the parish community helped found St. Francis School, an integrated coeducational school in Kentucky during the civil-rights era.
Where he lived: After marriage, he and Susan lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, then Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during World War II, then Salem, Massachusetts, after the war, and by 1953 Harrods Creek, Kentucky, where he became rector of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church.
Personality, hobbies, and family memories: Martha Davenport remembered him as another towhead who became a tease with a great sense of humor. Betty Davenport Wright wrote that she was proud to have a minister for an uncle, and recalled that Stephen and Susan always drove cars that made her think they would not make it back home. He loved fishing, and loved eating fish.
Bradfute Warwick Davenport
b. 18 August, 1916, Richmond, Virginia; d. 20 March, 1992, Richmond, Virginia
Branch and name: Marguerite's grandmother Margaret Elizabeth Bradfute and her son Bradfute Warwick, killed at Gaines' Mill in 1862.
Family: Married Martha Orr in Anderson, South Carolina, in July 1942. The two met at the University of Virginia while both were in graduate school.
Children:
Bradfute Warwick Davenport Jr.
Martha Orr Davenport Reed
Education: Yale University, Class of 1938, where he was business manager of the Yale Daily News and earned enough to pay his own way through law school. He was a member of Skull and Bones and stayed close to his classmates throughout his life. University of Virginia Law School, 1941.
Military service: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army. Served on the War Department staff under General George C. Marshall, 1942 to 1946. Awarded the Legion of Merit.
Career: After his military service, an attorney in Richmond with Hunton and Williams.
Where he lived: Richmond, Virginia.
Personality, hobbies, and family memories: Custodian of the Bradfute Warwick and Garibaldi sash legacy, and the brother whose World War II service became one of the best-preserved family stories. Warwick loved his rose garden and was intense and dedicated in his work. He had no musical talent but liked to sing hymns anyway, and he was an enthusiastic, if not especially skilled, dancer. He was likely closest to his brother Stephen. The two were in the same class at school, because their mother had grown tired of going to separate parent-teacher meetings.