of the Reprobates,’ 1644; ‘The Bride's Preparation,’ 1644. Her last publication was ‘Tobit's Book,’ 1652. Davies had a son, an idiot, who was drowned in Ireland, and a daughter, who married Ferdinando, sixth earl of Huntingdon. From the earl's great-grandson Carte obtained Davies's Irish papers, which are now largely represented by the ‘Chichester Collection’ in the Carte MSS., Bodleian Library (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1603–6, pp. lxii–iii).
Davies's complete works have been collected by Dr. Grosart in the Fuller Worthies Library, 3 vols. 1869–76. His two famous poems, ‘Nosce Teipsum’ and ‘Orchestra,’ have been frequently published, and a collection of his ‘Historical Tracts’ was edited by George Chalmers in 1786. Some antiquarian essays attributed to Davies were first printed in Hearne's ‘Collection of Curious Discourses written by eminent Antiquaries,’ 1771, 8vo. It is doubtful whether he was the author of ‘A New Post, with Soveraigne Salue to Cure the World's Madnes. … By Sir I. D., knight,’ n. d., which Grosart prints among his works. Chalmers and others ascribe to him ‘The Declaration … concerning the Title of his Maiesties Sonne Charles … to the Duchy of Cornewall,’ 1613.
Care must be taken to distinguish the Irish attorney-general and poet from another Sir John Davies, who was implicated in Essex's rebellion. He held an office in the Tower of London, and was entrusted by Essex with the task of guarding the hall of the queen's palace at Whitehall as soon as her attendants should be overpowered. His confession, when arrested on the failure of the plot, shows him to have been much in Essex's confidence. Although convicted and sentenced to death on 5 March 1600–1, he was subsequently pardoned (Spedding, Bacon, ii.; State Trials). A third Sir John Davies is described by Mr. F. R. Davies in ‘Notes and Queries’ (1st ser. vii. 39, 2nd ser. xi. 209, 352, 3rd ser. viii. 250) as marshal of Connaught under Elizabeth, but no such name appears in the lists of persons filling that office in Lascelles' ‘Liber Munerum Hibernic.’ He is said to have owned much property in Mayo and Roscommon, including Clonshanville Abbey, and his descendants are stated to be very numerous in Ireland. A fourth Sir John Davies is described by F. R. Davies as master of the ordnance in Ireland in 1599, and his identity cannot be determined.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 400–5; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 250; Chalmers's preface to Historical Tracts; Grosart's Memorial Introductions; Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1603–25, prefaces and passim; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Handbooks; Collier's Bibliography; Corser's Collectanea; Woolrych's Lives of Eminent Sergeants, i. 186–219; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. iii. 82–3, 336–7, 3rd ser. ii. 461; Gardiner's Hist. of Engl. i. 382, 401, 406, 439, vii. 302–3; Court and Times of Charles I, 174, 182, ii. 259, 280; Ballard's Memoirs of British Ladies, ed. 1775, 191–7.]
DAVIES, JOHN, D.D. (1570?–1644), lexicographer, was born about 1570 at Llanrhaiadar-in-Kinmerch in Denbighshire. His father, David ab John ab Rees ab Ednyfed, was a weaver, but his mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis David Lloyd, was highly connected. Davies was at first educated by William Morgan, the translator of the Bible into Welsh, at the time vicar of a neighbouring village. He afterwards went to Ruthin school under Dr. Richard Parry, whose friendship he retained through life, and whose chaplain he became on Parry's elevation to the bishopric of St. Asaph in 1604. About 1589 Davies entered Jesus College, Oxford, where he remained for four years and proceeded B.A. 16 March 1593. He went to Wales in 1593, was ordained in 1594, and in 1604 was presented by the crown to the rectory of Mallwyd, Merionethshire. In 1608 he returned to Oxford; was admitted of Lincoln College, and proceeded to the degree of B.D. (30 June) without graduating M.A. He became rector of Llanymowddy in Merionethshire in 1613, and received the sinecure of Darowen in Montgomeryshire in 1615. On 21 March 1615–16 he took the degree of D.D. at Oxford, and in 1607 was appointed to the prebend of Llanyfydd in the cathedral of St. Asaph (Le Neve, Fasti, i. 87). Davies assisted Dr. Parry in the preparation of his great Welsh bible, which was published in 1620. His own great work, ‘Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ Dictionarium Duplex,’ which was published in 1632, gave him a high reputation as a scholar. As a clergyman and a magistrate Davies was held in high esteem, building ‘three publick bridges,’ and doing ‘other charities about Mallwyd where he lived.’ He married Jane Price, whose sister was the wife of Richard Parry, bishop of St. Asaph. He died without issue on 15 May 1644, and was buried in his own church at Mallwyd. His wife survived him, and remarried Edward Wynn, his successor in the rectory of Llanmowddy.
His chief works were:
- ‘Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ Rudimenta,’ first edition, 1621; second edition, edited by Rev. Henry Parry, 1809, Oxford.
- ‘Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ Dictionarium Duplex,’ the first part being Welsh and Latin, the second Latin and Welsh, 1632. The second part was the work of Thomas Williams [q. v.] of Trevriw, but the whole was edited by Davies.
