energy to write a very large number of books on various subjects. He was never wanting in ingenuity, though the extent of his critical powers may be illustrated by his contentions that ‘in the mystic Welsh bards he found certain terms evidently pertaining to the Hebrew language,’ and that ‘the British mysteries commemorate the deluge and those characters which are connected with its history.’
Davies's chief works were:
- ‘Aphtharte, the genius of Britain. A poem written in the taste of the sixteenth century,’ 1784.
- ‘Vacunalia, consisting of Essays in Verse,’ 1788.
- ‘Eliza Powell, or the Trials of Sensibility, a novel,’ 1795.
- ‘Celtic Researches on the Origin, Traditions, and Language of the Ancient Britons, with Introductory Sketches on Primitive Society,’ 1804. This is his best known book.
- ‘A Series of Discourses on Church Union, in which it is maintained that the duty of communion with the apostolical church remains uncancelled by the tolerance of the British laws,’ 1811, directed against dissenters.
- ‘Immanuel, a letter on Isaiah vii. 14, in answer to the strictures of a modern Jew,’ 1816.
- ‘The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, ascertained by national documents and compared with the traditions and customs of Heathenism,’ 1809.
- ‘The Claims of Ossian examined and appreciated, together with some curious particulars relative to the state of poetry in the Celtic dialects of Scotland and Ireland,’ 1825, an attack on Macpherson for disparaging the Welsh bards.
- Various papers and translations, such as those of Davydd ap Gwilyn, which are printed in the ‘Cambrian Register.’
Several of Davies's works remained in manuscript.
[Memoir of Rev. E. Davies by Rev. W. J. Rees in Cambrian Quart. Mag. iii. 408–36, abridged in R. Williams's Eminent Welshmen, pp. 103–4; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DAVIES, EVAN (1805–1864), independent minister, born at Hengwm in the parish of Lledrod, Cardiganshire, in 1805, was educated in the academy at Neuaddlwyd and in the Western Academy at Exeter. On the completion of his collegiate course he settled at Great Torrington, Devonshire. In 1835 he was ordained at Wycliffe Chapel, London, as a missionary to the Chinese, and was sent to Penang under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. At the expiration of four years he was compelled to return home in consequence of failing health. In 1842 he was appointed superintendent of the Boys' Mission School at Walthamstow, and in 1844 he removed to Richmond, Surrey, where he officiated as pastor of the congregational church for thirteen years. He died at Llanstephan, near Carmarthen, on 18 June 1864.
He wrote:
- ‘China and her Spiritual Claims,’ Lond. 1845, 12mo.
- ‘Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Dyer, sixteen years missionary to the Chinese,’ Lond. 1846, 8vo.
- ‘Revivals in Wales: facts and correspondence supplied by pastors of the Welsh churches,’ London, 1859, 12mo.
- ‘Rest: Lectures on the Sabbath.’ He also edited ‘Letters of the Rev. Samuel Dyer to his children,’ 1847; ‘Lectures on Christian Theology,’ by the Rev. George Payne, LL.D., 1850; and the ‘Works of the Rev. Dr. Edward Williams of Rotherham.’
[Congregational Year Book (1865), p. 234; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
DAVIES, FRANCIS (1605–1675), bishop of Llandaff, was a native of Glamorganshire, who at the age of seventeen entered Jesus College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. on 26 Feb. 1625, and M.A. on 14 March 1628. He was elected to a fellowship and proceeded B.D. in 1640. He left Oxford and became rector of Llangan, and possibly vicar of Pentyrch as well, both benefices being in his native county. A staunch royalist and high churchman, he was ejected from his livings because he would not ‘read the directory nor otherwise conform to the times.’ But ‘his great piety, learning, and excellent parts commended him to one of the leading men of those times,’ and he was allowed a pension of one-fourth of his living, and his own brother was made the tenant of it. He also eked out his means by keeping a school, but after a few years ‘the great man grew weary in well doing,’ and Davies was forced away to London, where his friends procured for him the post of chaplain to the Countess of Peterborough, a position he held for three or four years. After the Restoration he regained possession of his old benefice, and in August 1660 petitioned for the archdeaconry of Llandaff on the ground of his ejection ‘for trying to maintain his majesty's cause and that of the church’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 219). Sheldon endorsed the petition in his favour, and Davies became archdeacon in October. On 21 May 1661 he took the degree of D.D. As archdeacon he was able to retaliate on the ejected puritan clergy, and he was largely responsible for the ‘frequent imprisonments and great sufferings’ of Samuel Jones, a former brother fellow of Jesus, and now the ejected vicar of Llangynwyd; but as in 1665 he joined with the bishop in pressing Jones to accept a living, he does not seem to have been a very rancorous persecutor (Calamy, Nonconf. Me-
