DAVIES, JOHN (1795 - 1861), cleric and philosopher

Born December 1795 at Llanddewi-brefi, son of John and Jane Davies of Hendre Phylip - a wealthy family; pupil of Eliezer Williams at Lampeter; proceeded to Queens' College, Cambridge, 1820 (B.D. 1831, D.D. 1844). He was ordained at Norwich, becoming rector of S. Pancras, Chichester, and in 1840, of Gateshead, Durham, and master of King James's Hospital, Durham; in 1853 he became honorary canon of Durham cathedral; he retired in 1860 and died 21 October 1861 at Ilkeley Wells, Yorkshire

Davies was a prolific author, his best-known works being (a) Essay on the Old and New Testaments, 1843; (b) The Ordinances of Religion; (c) First Impressions - a description of Swiss and French Scenery; (d) The Cultivation of the Mind; and, his greatest and most important, (e) The Estimate of the Human Mind, 1828, 2nd ed., 1847.

Two of his children deserve mention: JOHN LLEWELYN (1826 - 1916), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Hulsean Lecturer, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Preacher at Oxford, chaplain to Queen Victoria, an advocate of higher education of women, and an associate of Frederick Denison Maurice; he was joint author (with D. J. Vaughan) of a well-known translation of The Republic of Plato; and SARAH EMILY (1830 - 1921), an early advocate of the higher education of women and founder of what later became Girton College, Cambridge.

Author

• Chancellor John Williams James

Sources

• Alumni Cantabrigienses
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9251-9277A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1912-21

Additional Links

• VIAF: 297805678
• Wikidata: Q20733377

Published date: 1959

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