Mourning Pilkinton Davis was born in Johnston County, North Carolina in about 1761. In March 1778 she married John Davis and the following year her husband enlisted in the 3rd North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line for the remainder of the war. Her husband owned a 300-acre plot of land in Johnston County, and while her husband was away in service, Mourning Davis was responsible for tending to and harvesting their crops. She remained a widow after her husband's death in 1831 and in 1843 she successfully applied for a widow's pension based on her husband's military service, entitling her to $80 a year from the time of her husband's death until her death in about April 1845.