a commission being charged and of the falsification of vouchers. Lord Moira, Mr. Huskisson, various flag officers of distinction, and others testified in the highest terms to Davison's probity and public spirit. He was found guilty (Ann. Reg. 1808, pp. 133–5), and having paid into the exchequer all the commissions received by him, amounting to 8,883l. 13s. 1d., was ordered further to be imprisoned in Newgate for twenty-one calendar months (King's Bench, Trin. Term, 48 Geo. III, Crown Roll, 192). Twenty years afterwards Davison died at Brighton, on 7 Dec. 1829, in the eightieth year of his age.
Previous to the trial Davison brought out a pamphlet entitled ‘A Reply to the Committee of Military Enquiry respecting Barrack Supplies’ (London, 1807). ‘A Descriptive Catalogue of Paintings by British Artists, executed for A. Davison, Esq., of subjects selected from the History of England, as arranged in his house in St. James's Square,’ was privately printed by Bulmer & Co. in 1806, 49 pp. 4to, and is mentioned in Martin's ‘Cat. of Privately Printed Books,’ p. 172, with a note that the collection, including works by Copley, Northcote, and other academicians, was afterwards sold by Stanley. Davison's portrait will be found in Evans's ‘Engraved Portraits,’ No. 2975.
In February 1786 Davison married Harriet, daughter of John Gosling, banker, Fleet Street, and by her had six children, of whom the eldest, Major-general Hugh Percy Davison (d. 1849), at one time of the old 18th hussars, and Lieutenant-colonel Sir William Davison, K.H. (d. 1872), successively of the Northumberland militia, 2nd or Queen's, and unattached, a colonel ‘hors rang’ in the Hanoverian army, and many years aide-de-camp and equerry to the late Duke of Cambridge, were twins (Dod, Knightage; Times, 9 May 1872).
[Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 21705 fol. 191–2, 21733 fol. 41, 21737 fol. 349; Egerton MSS. 2240 and 2241 fol. 1; Clarke and McArthur's Life of Nelson; Southey's Life of Nelson; Harris Nicolas's Nelson Letters and Despatches, text and footnotes, passim; McKenzie's Hist. of Northumberland; Reps. Comm. Military Enquiry in Parl. Papers, Accts. and Papers, 1806–1807, ii.; Pamphlet by A. Davison above referred to; Ann. Reg. 1807, 1808; Records Court of King's Bench, 48 Geo. III, in Public Record Office; Times, December 1829; Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, Supplements, September–October 1886.]
DAVISON, EDWARD (1576?-1624?), Jesuit. [See Dawson.]
DAVISON, EDWARD (1789–1863), divine, born in 1789, was the son of Edward Davison, B.A., incumbent of the church of St. Nicholas, Durham. He was ordained in 1817, and graduated M.A. of University College, Oxford, in 1819. In 1822 he became rector of Harlington, Middlesex, and on the resignation of his father in 1825 he acquired the living of St. Nicholas, which he retained for thirty-one years. He was an eloquent preacher and a diligent parish priest. He was the author of ‘Tentamen Theologicum, or an attempt to assist the young Clergyman of the Church of England in the choice of a subject for his Sermon on any Sunday throughout the Year,’ Durham, 1850, 12mo; also of several sets of lectures and sermons. He died at Durham on 22 May 1863, in his seventy-fifth year.
[Gent. Mag. 1863, pt. i. 108.]
DAVISON, FRANCIS (fl. 1602), poet, eldest son of William Davison [q. v.], secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, was born about 1575. His mother was Catherine, only daughter of Francis Spelman, younger son of William Spelman, esq., of Norfolk. He was admitted in 1593 a member of Gray's Inn, and in December 1594 he was among the contributors to the Gray's Inn Masque, for which he wrote some speeches. In May 1595, accompanied by his tutor, Edward Smyth, he started on his travels. The queen's license (dated 27 May 1595) permitting him to go abroad is preserved in ‘Harleian MS.’ 38, f. 188. In the following January Smyth wrote from Venice to Mr. Secretary Davison protesting that the allowance of ‘100l. yearly for our expences’ was inadequate, and three weeks afterwards he sent another letter, in which he declared that his pupil was ‘not so easily ruled touching expences, about which we have had more brabblements than I will now speak of, … and if somewhat be not amended I hope I shall have leave to return.’ The travellers were at Florence in the autumn of 1596. Anthony Bacon (brother of Francis) wrote to Davison at Florence highly commending a ‘Relation of Saxony’ which Davison had composed abroad. This ‘Relation’ was stolen from the Earl of Essex's house some time in 1596, and is supposed to have perished (Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ii. 255). Some interesting letters written by Davison from Italy to his father and to Anthony Bacon are extant among the ‘Harleian MSS.,’ and have been printed by Sir Harris Nicolas. From these letters it appears that he was anxious to gain the favour of the Earl of Essex, who in January 1596–7 sent him a friendly letter of counsel and encouragement. It is probable that Davison returned to England at the close of
