A growing number of historians, but by no means all, believe that it was York. Early life York was born in Caroline County near Ladysmith, Virginia. His skin was dark colored. He and several members of his family were owned by the Clark family. The will of John Clark III (father of George Rogers and William Clark) states:I give and bequeath to my son Edmund... three slaves, to wit Peter (Vegas child), and Scipio and Darathy (Rose's children)... I give and bequeath to my son William... one black man named York, also old York and his wife Rose, and their two children, Nancy and Juba; also three old negroes, Tame, Cupid and Harry.The most plausible family tree based on this description and others is that York was the son of Old York, not by Rose, that Scipio (also spelled Sippo, Seppo, Sep, and Pipo, likely named the same as the Roman general Scipio Africanus) and Daphny (also spelled Dafney, Daphney, and Daphne) were Rose's children not by Old York, and that Nancy and Juba were Old York and Rose's biological children. This would make Scipio, Daphney, Juba, and Nancy the half-siblings of York. William Clark called York his "playmate". He was Clark's "body servant". The name "Ben" There is a single, unsupported oral report, from 1965, that York also had the name Ben. The name never appears in any of the many records of the Lewis and Clark expedition, nor in any other document. On the expedition York "participated fully in the journey and contributed in significant ways to its success." The records of the well-documented trip do not reveal any racial bias against him. For all intents and purposes, York's role in Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery was equal to that of the expedition's white men. He could swim, which many of the troupe could not. He was allowed to use a rifle, something the enslaved were not ordinarily permitted. When a decision had to be made, York's vote counted equally with those of the white men. There were none of the enslaved's usual restrictions on movement. York could have run away, but chose not to. A modern writer has called York indispensable to the expedition. The journals are peppered with references to York's hunting prowess: he shot buffalo, deer, and geese alike. His use of a rifle is highly unusual and shows the trust expedition members had