John Davies (priest, born 1795)

John D. Davies
Born(1795-12-00)December 1795
Llanddewi-Brefi
Died21 October 1861(1861-10-21) (aged 65)
Ilkley Wells, Yorkshire
Occupationpriest

John D. Davies (December 1795 – 21 October 1861) was a Welsh priest and author.

Early life

He was born in Llanddewi-Brefi, the son of John[1] or James[2][3] and Jane Davies, who farmed at Hendre Phylip (or Philip), near Tregaron.[1][3][4] His mother was Jane Richards of Garnlwyd, Llanbadarn Odwyn, near Llangeitho.[5] After her death, when John was in his early teens, his father remarried and emigrated to the United States. John Davies, one of a family of at least six, was left in the care of his maternal uncle Mr. Richards.[3][6]

Davies attended grammar school in Lampeter, where he was taught by Eliezer Williams.[1]

Clerical career

Davies matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1817, aged 22.[2] He was ordained deacon in June 1819, by Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich, and then in December that year was ordained priest, by George Henry Law, Bishop of Chester.[7] He then entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as a sizar, in 1820. A ten-year man, he matriculated there and graduated B.D. in 1831. He graduated D.D. in 1844.[8]

Also in 1820 Davies became a curate at Saint Peter the Great, Chichester, under Bartholomew Middleton.[6][9] He was for a few years an assistant teacher at Chichester Prebendal Grammar School. Its headmaster, ex officio with the Headley prebend at Chichester Cathedral, was George Bliss, also a curate, at Funtington. Bliss, Davies, and another curate associated with the school, Stephen Barbut, were all evangelicals.[10][11][12] The tithes for the prebend (not at this point subject to commutation), were involved in Middleton's marriage settlement with his wife Elizabeth Powell. The settlement fell in later, while Davies held the prebend.[12]

After his marriage in 1823, Davies set up his own school. It, however, began an itinerant period: Davies was in poor health, and concentrated on writing.[13] In 1827 he resigned his Chichester curacy, and moved to Carlton Crescent, Southampton.[14] In 1829 Davies lobbied for a chair at the new London University, circulating copies of his work An Estimate of the Human Mind. Zachary Macaulay was sympathetic to him, as an evangelical. But the professors were not stipendiary, and the effort came to nothing.[15] Daughter Emily was born in Southampton, in 1830.[13] That year the family moved back to Chichester, and in 1831 Davies became rector of St Pancras, Chichester, where George Bliss had acquired the advowson.[8][15][16]

Edward Maltby became Bishop of Chichester in 1831. Davies was quickly on good terms with him. In 1833 Maltby agreed to ordain Thomas Speck, about to graduate at Cambridge, to serve as curate to Davies, allowing Davies to spend time abroad for his health. The Davies family immediately moved to Avranches, in northern France.[13][17][18][19]

Maltby became Bishop of Durham in 1836.[20] In 1840 the family moved north, when Maltby made Davies rector of Gateshead, County Durham, a position he held to 1860, when he retired. In 1853 he was made Honorary Canon of Durham Cathedral.[8]

Death

John Davies died on 21 October 1861 at Ilkley Wells, Yorkshire.[8]

Works

Davies wrote a great deal. His published works include:[1]

  • The Estimate of the Human Mind (1828) (2nd ed., 1847)
  • First Impressions: A Series of Letters from France, Switzerland, and Savoy (1834), letters to Henry Raikes[21]
  • The Ministerial Commission. Two Sermons (1840)[22]
  • Essay on the Old and New Testaments (1843)
  • The Ordinances of Religion
  • The Cultivation of the Mind
  • A Glance at the European Continent (1852), lectures[23]

Family

Davies married in 1823 Mary Hopkinson, whom he had met in Chichester. She was the daughter of John Hopkinson, originally from Derby, a retired businessman, and his wife Sarah.[24][6] John Hopkinson made Mary co-heir with his son.[25] A newspaper report of the marriage identified "Rev. G. Davis" as "primary usher" of the Grammar School, and "Miss Hopkinson" as of West Gate, Chichester.[26] In 1839 was reported the death on 30 November "at West Gate, Chichester, Mr. John Hopkinson, aged 79, formerly of Testwood Mills, near Southampton."[27]

The couple had a family of three sons and two daughters.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d James, John Williams. "Davies, John (1795 - 1861), cleric and philosopher". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b Foster, Joseph (1888–1891). "Davies, John (24)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: James Parker – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ a b c Stephen, Barbara (1927). Emily Davies and Girton College, Part 2. London: Constable & Co. p. 19.
  4. ^ Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, London (1984). The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. The Society. p. 344.
  5. ^ Cylchgrawn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru. Vol. 19. National Library of Wales. 1975. p. 265.
  6. ^ a b c Hendry, John (2024). Emily Davies and the mid-Victorian women's movement. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 42–3. ISBN 9780198910237.
  7. ^ "Davies, John (1819–1819)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 112479. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d "Davies, John (DVS820J2)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  9. ^ "Davies, John (1820–1820)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 63281. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  10. ^ "61924 (1815–1824)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 63281. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  11. ^ Barker-Benfield, Bruce (2022). "Teaching at the Prebendal School in 1822" (PDF). Chichester History (38): 14–18.
  12. ^ a b Horsfield, Thomas Walker (1835). The History, Antiquities, and Topography of the County of Sussex. Sussex Press. p. 41.
  13. ^ a b c d Delamont, Sara (2004). "Davies, (Sarah) Emily". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32741.
  14. ^ Hendry, John (2024). Emily Davies and the Mid-Victorian Women's Movement. Oxford University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-19-891023-7.
  15. ^ a b Hendry, John (2024). Emily Davies and the Mid-Victorian Women's Movement. Oxford University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-19-891023-7.
  16. ^ "Davies, John (1840–1840)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 63282. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  17. ^ Hendry, John (2024). Emily Davies and the Mid-Victorian Women's Movement. Oxford University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-19-891023-7.
  18. ^ "Speck, Thomas (SPK829T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  19. ^ "Speck, Thomas (1833–1833)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 68755. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  20. ^ Varley, E. A. "Maltby, Edward (1770–1859)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17900. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  21. ^ Davies, John (1835). First Impressions: A Series of Letters from France, Switzerland, and Savoy, Written in 1833-4, and Addressed to the Rev. H. Raikes, M.A., Chancellor of Chester. London: R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside.
  22. ^ Davies, John (1840). The Ministerial Commission. Two Sermons, the First [entitled "The Necessity of Immediate Attention to Eternal Things"] Preached on Relinquishing the Ministry of the Parish of St. Pancras, Chichester; the Second [entitled "The Christian Ambassador"] on Entering on that of Gateshead, Durham. J. Hatchard & Son.
  23. ^ Davies, John (1852). A Glance at the European Continent: Two Lectures Delivered ... October 1851 ... [with] a Letter Addressed to ... Rev. Chancellor Raikes. London: Seeleys.
  24. ^ Stephen, Barbara (1976). Emily Davies and Girton College. Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-88355-282-7.
  25. ^ Bennett, Daphne (1990). Emily Davies and the Liberation of Women: 1830-1921. André Deutsch. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-233-98494-0.
  26. ^ "Chichester, Saturday, July 12". Hampshire Chronicle. 14 July 1823. p. 3.
  27. ^ "Deaths". Hampshire Independent. 14 December 1839. p. 3.
  28. ^ "Davies, Sarah Emily, 1830-1921". SNAC. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
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