The Davis Family & Descendants who owned Wagon Hill Farm

The Davis family and their descendants owned Wagon Hill farm for centuries (the Chesleys were descendants of the Davis family)  it is appropriate to include excerpts from Landmarks in Ancient Dover published in 1892 by Mary Pickering Thompson about the Davis Garrison as follows, from the section about the Oyster River garrisons (page 174, I have updated the abbreviations and language, and added some historic info):
 
The Davis garrison (from ‘Landmarks in Ancient Dover’ by Mary Pickering Thompson, pub. 1892)
 
This garrison stood near the Oyster river, upriver from the Meader garrison on the sand hill west of Davis Creek. It was built by John Davis of Haverhill, MA, who was born in England and came to New Hampshire as early as 1653. Valentine Hill conveyed to John Davis of Oyster River, August 14, 1654, sixty acres of land at the mouth of the river, on the north side, “beginning at the mouth of a creek and extending west south-west to Stony Brook cove, and so bounded from the forementioned creek by the river." Ensign John Davis died before May 25, 1686, leaving his homestead to his son James, in his will of April 1, 1685, which runs as follows : "I do give unto my son, James Davis, my estate of houses and lands with all the privileges thereunto belonging, wherein I now dwell, after the decease of my wife." 
 
At the Indian attack of 1694 during King William’s War (The Nine Years War in Europe) Lieutenant James Davis sent his family off by water, but remained himself to defend his garrison, which he did successfully with the help of his brother, Sergeant Joseph Davis. One soldier was stationed at the Davis garrison from July 25, 1694 until November 24, 1694.  Lt. James Davis testified April 7, 1696, that James Rollins served in his garrison in His Majesty’s service, from November 2 until November 18.  Lt. Davis's account for boarding soldiers from November 2, 1695 to March 6, 1696, amounted to £3. (N. H. Provincial Papers, 17: 645, 654, 657.) 
 
A road on the north side of the Oyster River between the farms of Joseph Meader and Lt. James Davis is mentioned in 1701.  On April 9, 1703, a public highway was laid out on the north side of Oyster river, from the road that led to Lt. Davis's, along by the head of Joseph Bunker's land (Watson Road), and thence to the King's thoroughfare road to Dover (Drew Road, Back River Road). James Davis, in his will of October 11, 1748, gives his son Ephraim "the place where I now live , between Col. Samuel Smith and Daniel Meader" entailing it on one of his grandsons. 
 
Colonel James Davis was one of the leading men of Oyster River in Dover, incorporated in 1732 as the Town of Durham. At an early age he organized and led scouting parties for the defense of the province, and was the companion-in-arms of Colonel Hilton, as related by Rev. Jeremy Belknap in the History of New Hampshire, published in three volumes between 1784 and 1792. Colonel Davis took part in the British expeditions to Maine and to Port Royal, Nova Scotia when those places were colonies of France.  At the age of twenty-five, he received a lieutenant's commission, which was confirmed by the Massachusetts government in 1690 and renewed by Governor Usher of New Hampshire in 1692. Belknap calls him ‘Captain’ in 1703.  Sixty men under Captain James Davis, scouting at the head of our rivers, were ordered to be disbanded April 20, 1703. (N. H. Provincial Papers, 3: 252). He was appointed a member of the Council of War by the provincial government on October 18, 1707 during Queen Anne’s War (The War of the Spanish Succession in Europe). His 1712 muster-roll is given in the N. H. State Papers, Vol. 14:3. He is called ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ in the Dover Town Records of 1720, and ‘Colonel’ in 1721.   
 
James Davis was elected a selectman of Dover in 1698, 1700 and 1701, and a member of the General Assembly from December 28, 1697 to June 1701, and again from November 8, 1716 until November 21, 1727, when he was 65 years old. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace and on December 9, 1717, he was made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.  Colonel Davis died September 8, 1749 at the age of 87 years. He left nine children, whose ages at their deaths averaged 87 years. 
 
The cellar of the Davis garrison can still be traced (1892). From this knoll, now so solitary and peaceful, Colonel Davis could, in that night of horrors in July 1694, not only hear the cries of the victims, but could plainly see the flames consuming the Meader garrison below, the Beard garrison above, and across the river the Adams garrison and the Drew garrison, with the houses of Reverend Buss, Ezekiel Pitman, and many others in every direction—among them that of his own brother, John Davis, who was killed together with his wife, his sons, his widowed mother, his sister and her sons; his daughters were taken as captives to Quebec.
 
It is still related in the neighborhood how Colonel James Davis, the veteran officer and able magistrate, used on occasion to lay aside his carnal weapons, and convene religious meetings at his garrison, in which he took part in prayers.  Six or seven people from Oyster River point, on the way to their boats from one of these meetings in 1706, were waylaid and slain by the Indians on the Meader land, just below Davis creek. Their bodies when discovered were covered with earth where they lay. This place is still pointed out by the present owner of the land, Mr. John S. Chesley, who, like his father and grandfather, it is a pleasure to state, continues to respect the grave of these victims. The mass grave was marked with a monument in 1939 by members of the colonial societies but the monument is now lost.

Janet Mackie - DHA - 4/2020