Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/128

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Davidson
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Davies

his post. The surrender of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch was the chief heresy alleged, but in the controversy that followed he was accused of doctrinal unsoundness in several directions, and a charge of plagiarism from German writers made against him. These charges are summed up in a pamphlet which appeared in October 1857, entitled 'Dr. Davidson: his Heresies, Contradictions, and Plagiarisms. By Two Graduates.' The authors were E. Mellor and J. G. Rogers. On the other side appeared 'Dr. Davidson's Removal from the Professorship of Biblical Literature in the Lancashire Independent College, Manchester, on account of alleged Error in Doctrine,' London, 1860, by Thomas Nicholas. At the end of this pamphlet Bishop Thirlwall, Dean Alford, and Canon Cureton are quoted in Davidson's favour. A 'Detailed Narrative' of the whole proceedings is given in Davidson's 'Autobiography,' from the pen of J. Allanson Picton. As a statement of facts Mr. Picton's account was approved of by Davidson, but he preferred not to tell the story himself, perhaps because he never lost the feeling that he had been treated unjustly.

After his resignation many friends gathered round him, and a large testimonial, which finally reached 3,000l, was presented to him. He retired to Hatherlow, in Cheshire, and engaged himself in the education of pupils. In 1862, being elected scripture examiner in London University, he removed to London, and his life becomes a record of literary work and visits to the continent. It was much saddened by domestic bereavements. He lost three sons before the death of his wife in 1872, only one son and a daughter being left to him. In 1862 he became an occasional contributor to the 'Athenaeum,' and for three years, from 1871, he reviewed philosophical and theological books in the 'Westminster Review.' He died on 1 April 1898 and was buried in Hampstead new cemetery. He married in 1836 Anne Jane Kirkpatrick of Belfast.

His works after his retirement from Manchester were: 1. 'An Introduction to the Old Testament, Critical, Historical, and Theological,' 1862-3, 3 vols. 2. 'Fürst's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, translated from the German,' 1865; 4th edit. 1871. 3. 'An Introduction to the New Testament,' 1868, 2 vols.; 3rd edit. 1894. This was a version of No. 5 above. 4. 'On a Fresh Revision of the English Old Testament,' 1873. This essay was written for a projected second volume of 'Essays and Reviews,' which never saw the light. 5. 'The New Testament translated from the Critical Text of Von Tischendorf, with an Introduction on the Criticism, Translation, and Interpretation of the Book,' 1875; 2nd edit. 1876. 6. 'The Canon of the Bible,' 1877; 3rd edit. 1880. This is an enlargement of the article in the 'Encyclopaedia i Britannica.' 7. 'The Doctrine of the Last Things contained in the New Testament, compared with the Notions of the Jews and the Statements of Church Creeds,' 1882. He also contributed articles to Kitto's 'Cyclopædia,' to Smith's 'Dictionary of Biography and Mythology,' and to the ninth edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.'

[In 1899 the Autobiography and Diary of Samuel Davidson, with a selection of letters from English and German Divines, and an account of the Davidson Controversy of 1857, by J. Allanson Picton, M.A., was edited by his daughter, Anne Jane Davidson. It contains a list of his works. On the Davidson controversy Joseph Thompson's Jubilee Memorial History of the Lancashire College may be consulted. There are notices of Davidson in Men of the Time, 1891, and in earlier editions, and in the Supplement to Schaff and Herzog's Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge, Edinburgh, 1887.]

R. B.


DAVIES, DAVID CHARLES (1826–1891), Welsh presbyterian divine, born at Aberystwyth on 11 May 1826, was the eldest son of Robert Davies, by a daughter of David Charles [q. v.] of Carmarthenshire. His father was one of the leading laymen among the Calvinistic methodists of Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century, and it was at his house in Great Dark Gate Street, Aberystwyth, that their articles of faith ('Cyffes Ffydd') were drawn up in March 1823.

David was educated first at Aberystwyth under a noted mathematician named John Evans, who had also taught Dr. Lewis Edwards [q. v.], and afterwards at Bala, whither he was sent on the opening of the connexional school there by Dr. Edwards in 1837. After spending some time in the interval with a private tutor at Hanley, where his occasional addresses to the Welsh colony prepared the way for the Welsh churches subsequently established in the potteries, he proceeded in November 1844 to University College, London, where he had among his fellow-students Bagehot, Todhunter, R. H. Button, and Sir William Roberts. He graduated B.A. in 1847 and M.A. in 1849, being placed second on the list. Ill-health compelled him to abandon a theological course which he commenced at Edinburgh in November 1847.

His parents, who were in affluent cir--