1807, 8vo. A collection of his own ‘Works, comprising the whole of his poetical and prose writings,’ was published at Carmarthen in 3 vols. 8vo, 1868, under the editorship of Daniel Silvan Evans, B.D., rector of Llan ym Mawddwy, Merionethshire.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. xxxiv. 555; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 555; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Rowlands's Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, p. 655.]
DAVIES, WILLIAM (fl. 1614), traveller, was a native of Hereford, and became a barber-surgeon of London. He states that he was a gentleman by birth, and served in many naval and military operations. On 28 Jan. 1597–8 he sailed in a trading-ship (the Francis) from Saltash, Cornwall, and reached Cività Vecchia, the port of Rome. He subsequently visited Algiers and Tunis. On leaving Tunis his ship was attacked by six galleys of the Duke of Florence. Davies was taken to Leghorn, where he worked as a slave for eight years and ten months. At the end of that period Robert Thornton, the English captain of a Florentine ship (the Santa Lucia), begged the duke's permission to take Davies with him as doctor on an expedition to the river Amazon. The duke demanded five hundred crowns as security for Davies's working under Thornton's orders, and the money was paid by William Mellyn of Bristol, who happened to be in Italy. Before leaving Leghorn the duke granted Davies an audience and received him with great kindness. Davies attributes the geniality of his reception to his perfect acquaintance with Italian. On returning to Italy Davies's ship was attacked by an English pirate, and an English sailor (Erasmus Lucas of Southwark) was fatally wounded. Davies landed with the body at Leghorn, and, declining to avail himself of the services of Roman catholic priests, proceeded to bury it by himself. While thus engaged he was arrested by the agents of the Inquisition; lived on bread and water in an underground unlighted dungeon for sixteen days, and after a first examination was removed to a large open prison. An English shipowner, Richard Row of Milbroke, helped him to escape, and after sailing about the Mediterranean he reached London in 1614 and wrote a full and interesting account of his travels, published in that year under the title of ‘A True Relation of the Travailes … and Captivitie of William Davies.’ It was reprinted in 1746 in Osborne's ‘Travels and Voyages,’ vol. i.
[Davies's True Relation, 1614.]
DAVIES, WILLIAM (d. 1593), catholic divine, born in Carnarvonshire or, according to another account, at Crois in Yris, Denbighshire, became a student in the English college at Rheims, and after being ordained priest was sent back to the mission in Wales in 1585. Going to Holyhead in March 1591–2 to procure a passage to Ireland for four young men who desired to proceed to the college at Valladolid, he and his companions were apprehended and committed as prisoners to Beaumaris Castle. At the ensuing assizes Davies was arraigned for high treason on account of his priestly character, while the young men were charged with felony for having been found in his company. All were found guilty and sent back to prison until the queen and her council should signify what was to be done with them. Not long afterwards Davies was removed to Ludlow, where the council of the marches of Wales was sitting. There the most learned ministers of the country held conferences with him, and the president of the council neglected no means of bringing him to conformity. From Ludlow he was transferred to Bewdley, and to other gaols, and at last was sent back to Beaumaris, where he rejoined his four companions, with whom he formed a kind of religious community in the prison. At the assizes for the county of Anglesey held in 1593 Davies was placed at the bar and sentenced to death. He was accordingly drawn, hanged, and quartered at Beaumaris on 21 July 1593.
[Challoner's Missionary Priests (1741), i. 294; Yepes's Hist. de la Persecucion de Inglaterra, p. 652; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. v. 163.]
DAVIES, WILLIAM (d. 1820), book-seller, was for many years partner with Thomas Cadell the younger [q. v.] He held an important position in the employment of the elder Cadell, when he was selected by him in 1793 as a guide for his youthful son in the management of the business thenceforward carried on under the name of Cadell and Davies. The firm continued the former prosperity of the house of Cadell. The fourth to the eighth editions of Boswell's ‘ Life of Johnson’ were published by them, but G. Steevens, writing to Bishop Percy 9 Sept. 1797, proclaims that Cadell and Davies, ‘in spite of all their boasts, are not allowed to be at the head of their trade in the line of publication’ (Nichols, Illustrations, vii. 30). Nichols speaks of Davies as possessing superior abilities and as a liberal and straightforward man of business. These qualities were joined to a kindly disposition but rather pompous
