James Davis (escaped convict)

James Davis was born in Glasgow, Scotland,{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Ernest Sandford |date=16 December 1924 |title=MEN WHO WENT BUSH |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/219065967 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=Daily Mail |location=Brisbane}}{{Harvnb|Laurie|1966|ps=. 1st paragraph.}} to blacksmith{{Sfn|Lang|1847|p=418}} Walter Davis and his wife Mary McGrigor. On 2 August 1807, he was christened in Strathblane.{{Cite web |last=Daly |first=Eric Harry |title=James Davies {Davis] |url=https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/davies-davis/james/108819 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730112338/https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/davies-davis/james/108819 |archive-date=30 July 2021 |access-date=3 August 2024 |website=Convict Records |language=en}}Baptism Record (1807) He grew up in Broomielaw, and at 14 he was apprenticed as a blacksmith to his father at the Old Wynd.{{Sfn|Lang|1847|p=418}}{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Cite news |date=9 May 1889 |title=Death of an old identity |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3495916 |access-date=26 July 2024 |work=Brisbane Courier |pages=6}}

On 29 September 1824 in Glasgow, James Davis was sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. He had pleaded guilty to "the offence of theft, habit and repute". According to writer Wargandilla, Davis himself later gave two conflicting stories of his conviction: "One was [for] appropriating half a crown from a church plate, and the other was for a crime of which he was quite innocent".{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 2nd paragraph.}} According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Davis was convicted for stealing 2 shillings 6 pence (half a crown) from a church box.

In late October, he was one of 11 male prisoners received at Calton Hill Gaol in Edinburgh.

{{Blockquote|text=The eleven convicts belonging to Glasgow, before leaving the prison, were each presented with a pocket Bible, a collection of Tracts, and a catechism, neatly stitched. The delivery of the Bibles and Tracts was prefaced by a most impressive and feeling address from the Rev. James Morrison, chaplain of the prison.|author=|source=The Edinburgh Advertiser, 9 November 1824}}

Davis arrived in New South Wales on the Minstrel on 22 August 1825. Upon his arrival, he was described as a 17-year-old Glaswegian cattle boy with blond hair.

He is not to be confused with James Davis of Surrey, who arrived on the ship Norfolk on 18 August 1825.{{Cite web |title=James Davis, convict Queenslander |url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/research-collections/family-history/convict-queenslanders/james-davis-convict-queenslander |access-date=26 July 2024 |website=State Library of Queensland |language=en}}{{Efn|John Dunmore Lang states that Davis travelled on the Minstrel.{{sfn|Lang|1847|p=418}}}}

File:Captain Patrick Logan.jpg]]

In 1828 Davis was tried for robbery at Patrick's Plains and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at the Moreton Bay penal settlement (now Brisbane, Queensland). Davis was sent to the penal settlement on 6 February 1829, arriving there on the 18th.{{sfn|The Week|1889}} The settlement's commandant, strict disciplinarian Patrick Logan, was notorious for his excessive use of the lash.{{harvnb|Lang|1847|p=418}}; {{harvnb|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}}; {{harvnb|Laurie|1966}}. 1st paragraph. Indeed, Logan's punishments were so extreme that certain convicts at the settlement committed murder with the intention of getting themselves hanged; preferring death to further lashing.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=64}} Around 500 convicts would ultimately abscond from Moreton Bay.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=52}}

On 30 March 1829, Davis escaped northward with a companion,{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=64}}{{sfn|The Week|1889}} possibly convict John Downie.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=66}} Apparently neither of the men had suffered punishment; it has been suggested that either the fear of being murdered or possible future lashings is what led them to abscond.{{Cite news |last=Sparks |first=H. J. J. |date=10 August 1937 |title=CONVICTS WHO WENT NATIVE |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/184562653 |access-date=26 July 2024 |work=The Telegraph |location=Brisbane, Queensland |pages=9}}{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|pp=64–65}}{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|Lang|1847|pp=418–419}}

The duo first came across Aboriginal people when they reached Sandgate{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 4th paragraph.}}—possibly the Doomgalbarah people—whom they stayed with for 12 months.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|pp=64–65}} The tribe passed them along to Toorbul Point, then to the Mary River, to see if anyone would recognise the white convicts as reincarnated Aboriginal men. The convicts soon joined the Kabi Kabi people (then called the Ginginbarrah people) of Wide Bay.{{efn|QAGOMA believe they were the Badtjala people.}} The Kabi Kabi leader Pamby-Pamby believed Davis was his reincarnated dead son Duramboi, and accepted him into the tribe as "an honoured guest".{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|Lang|1847|p=419}}{{Efn|The writer Wargandilla stated that "Duramboi" meant "little", and that Davis was given the name due to his small stature.{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 4th paragraph.}} Henry Stuart Russell stated that the name meant "kangaroo rat", and was an emblem of activity and speed.{{sfn|Russell|1888|p=277}}}} Not long after, Davis's companion broke tribal law by desecrating an Aboriginal grave—removing the deceased's remains from a dilly bag in a tree in order to carry oysters—and was killed.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=66}}{{Sfn|Lang|1847|p=|pp=419–420}}

Shortly after, Davis accidentally killed his adoptive mother's pet dog. The woman persuaded Pamby-Pamby to kill Davis. At first Pamby-Pamby was not indisposed to do so. He accused Davis of being not his son but a "mawgooy" (ghost), and threatened to have him killed. In response, Davis gave Pamby-Pamby "such a merciless drubbing with his fists that he not only subdued his murderous intentions but induced him to forgive the death of his pet dog".{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|Lang|1847|p=|pp=420–421}} Davis was "a specially dutiful son ever afterwards".{{sfn|Wargandilla|1905}}

File:Two Representative Tribes of Queensland - Natives of Yabber, Kabi Tribe.jpg]]

Davis stayed with the Kabi Kabi for 12 months.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}} He eventually travelled hundreds of miles from Brisbane and learned the languages and customs of many tribes.{{sfn|The Week|1889}} All of these tribes treated him as a reincarnated Aboriginal man. For each tribe, Davis would assume the identity of a recently deceased tribesman, but over time these lies became increasingly difficult to maintain. On the occasions that Davis was not "recognised", he would claim he had forgotten his name after his "death".{{sfn|The Week|1889}} By 1842, he had settled back with the Kabi Kabi people and his adoptive father Pamby-Pamby.{{Cite journal |date=31 August 2017 |title='Duramboi' |url=https://www.pressreader.com/australia/australian-geographic/20170831/282480003896455 |access-date=29 July 2024 |website=Australian Geographic}}{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}} He was allotted a flat named Toon about {{convert|8|mi|spell=in}} off the Mary River.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}}

Davis completely adopted the habits of his newfound culture. He dressed in little clothing and could navigate the bush as easily as his colleagues.{{sfn|Wargandilla|1905}} He also partook in traditional scarification. By 1842, Davis's chest was tattooed with parallel horizontal scars, and he had scars of old wounds in his back and legs.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Aboriginal Scarification |url=https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/body-art/aboriginal-scarification/ |access-date=29 July 2024 |website=The Australian Museum |language=en}}

In 1879, an Aboriginal man from Pialba claimed that Davis was susceptible to cannibalism.{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 6–7th paragraphs.}}

File:AndrewPetrie01.jpg located Davis in 1842.]]On 12/13 May 1842, Davis was found by tradesman and explorer Andrew Petrie in Wide Bay, amongst the Kabi Kabi tribe.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}} Petrie's party was travelling northwards from Brisbane. They had recently located another convict escapee named David Bracewell (known as Wandi) in Noosa, who had spent seven years among the Aboriginal people.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|pp=63–64}}{{sfn|Wargandilla|1905}} Petrie had heard from Aboriginal people on Fraser Island that another white man was living in the bush.{{Harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 9–10th paragraphs.}} The historian Henry Stuart Russell was one of the men in Petrie's party.{{Cite news |date=1929-07-21 |title=HENRY STUART RUSSELL |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/97694566 |access-date=2025-04-17 |work=Sunday Mail |location=Brisbane, Queensland |pages=30}}{{Cite news |last=Gum |first=Red |date=1897-01-09 |title=Glimpses of Early Residents. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/125047464 |access-date=2025-04-17 |work=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |location=Queensland |pages=3}}

Petrie and his party planned to bring Davis back to Western society. Bracewell and an Aboriginal man from Moreton Bay managed to sneak into the Kabi Kabi encampment unnoticed. Then two of Petrie's men, armed with guns, went towards the encampment to secure Davis. The operation was so risky that the men were promised improved conditions if successful.{{sfn|The Week|1889}} The Kabi Kabi people were vengeful of the party of Western men, as over fifty Kabi Kabi had recently suffered from a mass poisoning in Kilcoy.{{Cite journal |last=Langevad |first=Gerry |date=1980 |title=The Kilcoy massacre: an ethnohistorical exercise |url=https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:328090 |access-date=29 July 2024 |website=The University of Queensland |doi=10.14264/328090}}{{Harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 8–9th paragraphs.}}

Bracewell and the Moreton Bay native were recognised and received by the Kabi Kabi. The two convicts were spotted from a distance, prompting the natives to prepare to spear them. Bracewell and Davis communicated and managed to convince the Kabi Kabi to spare the two convicts.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}

Petrie persuaded Davis to accept that it was safe to return to Brisbane with the cessation of transportation. Once assured of his freedom, Davis ran towards the convicts and surrendered. Davis accused Bracewell of betraying him to mitigate his own sentence. Bracewell, enraged, began singing a war song, causing Davis to rush off towards Petrie's party.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 10–11th paragraphs.}} Finally Davis became calm and agreed to leave with Petrie next day.{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 11th paragraph.}}

The next morning, Davis boarded the whale boat and left with the party. According to Wargandilla, "blacks in hundreds followed along the bank of the river, walked out on projecting trees and rocks and called their farewells to Davis, who{{nbsp}}... told them the awful sorrow he felt at leaving them, the joyous days he had spent in their company, his undying love for his father and mother, and all the other superb exaggerations made necessary in the diplomacy of that critical occasion".{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 12–13th paragraphs.}}

{{Blockquote|text=I shall never forget his appearance when he arrived in our camp – a white man in a state of nudity, and actually a wild man of the woods; his eyes wild and unable to rest a moment on any one object. He had quite the same manner and gestures that the wildest blacks have got. He could not speak his 'mither's tongue,' as he called it. He could not pronounce English for some time, and when he did attempt it, all he could say was a few words, and those were often misapplied, breaking off abruptly in the middle of a sentence with the black gibberish, which he spoke very fluently. During the whole of our conversation his eyes and manner were completely wild, looking at us as if he had never seen a white man before. In fact, he told us he had forgotten all about the society of white men, and had forgotten all about his friends and relations for years past, and had I or someone else not brought him from among those savages he would never have left them.|author=|source=Andrew Petrie's diary{{sfn|The Week|1889|p=14}}}}

Though Davis could speak up to five Aboriginal languages, he had forgotten the English language, and "could only tell his name and place". Petrie and his group were the first white people Davis had seen since he had encountered Bracewell around 1832.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|pp=63–64}}

According to a contemporary report by The Australian, Davis "was naked, besmeared and cut the same as the natives. He is equally as expert in climbing a tree, [etc], as they are. Both [Davis and Bracewell] can give much information to the Government, and as they have been the means of saving the lives of Mr. Petrie and party, I doubt not but they will receive their free pardons."

File:James Davis George Street circa 1872.tif, {{Circa|1872}}]]

Davis relearned English and gradually re-integrated into Western society. He was made to serve out the remainder of his sentence as a blacksmith for the police. In 1844, he was recommended for a ticket of leave. Not long after he returned to the Western world, Davis gave a recollection of his life to historian John Dunmore Lang. Though initially open to discussing his life in the bush, in later life Davis would "snappishly" refuse to describe his experiences.{{Sfn|O'Keeffe|1976|p=65}}{{sfn|The Week|1889}}

Davis became employed by land commissioner Stephen Simpson. Later he became a blacksmith at Kangaroo Point. In 1864 he established a crockery shop in George Street.{{sfn|The Week|1889}} He retired from working at his shop some months before his death. He also briefly worked as a colonial expedition guide.{{sfn|The Week|1889}}{{sfn|Wargandilla|1905}}

He occasionally worked as a court interpreter for Aboriginal people.{{sfn|The Week|1889}} According to Fred Campbell of Moreton Bay, Davis often manipulated the words of his Aboriginal clients for his own benefit.{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 15th paragraph.}} In 1866 he unsuccessfully petitioned the governor to raise his salary to the standards of other interpreters. Davis also gave some descriptions of Aboriginal rites, with the exception of one apparently obscene ceremony.{{harvnb|Laurie|1966|ps=. 3rd paragraph.}}

Davis is the subject of a 1893 painting titled Duramboi by Swedish-born artist Oscar Fristrom.{{Cite web |last=McFarlane |first=Kyla |date=3 October 2017 |title=We use art to question what we know |url=https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/we-use-art-to-question-what-we-know/ |access-date=26 July 2024 |website=QAGOMA}}{{Cite web |title=Oscar Friström - Duramboi 1893 |url=https://learning.qagoma.qld.gov.au/artworks/duramboi/ |access-date=30 July 2024 |website=QAGOMA}}

During his time in the bush, Davis had a son with an Aboriginal woman named Caleeraba. Their son was known as Calarga (meaning "the sparrow hawk") or Daybee. The events of Calarga's life after he grew to manhood are unknown.{{harvnb|Wargandilla|1905|ps=. 7th paragraph.}}

On 3 November 1846, Davis married Annie Shea; she died in 1882. On 28 July 1883 he married Irish-born widow Bridget Hayes.{{harvnb|Laurie|1966|ps=. 2nd paragraph.}}{{sfn|The Week|1889}}

File:JamesDavisGrave2024.jpg]]

By 1889, Davis was confined to his bed at his house in Burnett Lane as he was suffering from heart and lung disease. According to testimony from neighbour Potter Badson and his colleague Henry Ogelthie, on 30 April they saw Bridget, intoxicated, bumping Davis's head on the floor multiple times. Badson and Ogelthie claimed to have pulled Bridget off her husband before carrying Davis to the house of Davis's landlord, Gustav Faulte. Davis's doctor Grant Furley was sent for on the same day. When Furley arrived at Faulte's house at 1pm, Davis had an abrased wound on his left arm and his nightshirt was covered with blood which came from his arm and mouth. Bridget was absent. Furley concluded that the injuries had come from a violent assault, and he regularly attended Davis for the week after.{{Cite news |date=7 June 1889 |title=CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3497096 |access-date=4 November 2024 |work=The Brisbane Courier |pages=2}} A police officer, Constable Bailey, stated that he had visited Davis on 1 May, and that Davis was in a weak state with blood stains on his bed sheets. Davis died on 7 May. During the post-mortem, it was discovered that his heart, lung, liver and kidney were extensively diseased. His injuries from April had accelerated his death. He was buried in Toowong Cemetery.

Bridget was arrested for manslaughter{{Cite news |date=31 August 1889 |title=CRIMINAL JURISDICTION - Before Sir Charles Lilley, Chief Justice. MANSLAUGHTER |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/186199519 |work=The Week |pages=25}}{{Cite news |date=10 May 1889 |title=DEATH OF DAVIS |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/213461976 |work=The Telegraph |pages=4}}{{Cite news |date=10 May 1889 |title=COLONIAL TELEGRAMS BRISBANE |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146674149 |work=Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser |pages=2}} on 6 May and appeared in court on 6 June. Furley gave medical testimony that Bridget assaulted Davis and accelerated his death.{{Cite news |date=10 May 1889 |title=NEWS BY TELEGRAPH |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/213461976 |work=The Daily Northern Argus |location=Rockhampton |pages=3}} Badson testified that prior to Davis's death, Bridget had been "continually upbraiding [her husband] with not having given her more money". Bridget was incoherent and half-conscious during the hearing, and the case was adjourned. The case was continued on 21 June; Badson, Ogelthie, Faulte and Bailey testified.{{Cite news |date=22 June 1889 |title=CHARGE OF MANSLAUGHTER |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3497718 |work=The Brisbane Courier |pages=3}} Bridget was found not guilty and consequently discharged on 24 August, before Chief Justice Charles Lilley.

According to Davis's obituary in the Brisbane Courier, ″his career included some of the strangest experiences that have ever fallen, perhaps, to any man in this colony, and are on a par with those of the once famous ′Crusoe′ of Victoria″.

Davis died a wealthy man. In his will, he donated £750 in 1889 and £1100 in 1911 to the Brisbane General Hospital. Though he was baptised in the Church of Scotland, Davis was a Catholic and in his will he gave a substantial bequest to St Stephen's Cathedral.{{Cite web |last=B |first=Karen |date=8 June 2019 |title=Convict Runaways. James 'Duramboi' Davis. |url=https://moretonbayandmore.com/2019/06/08/convict-runaways-james-duramboi-davis/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240802131749/https://moretonbayandmore.com/2019/06/08/convict-runaways-james-duramboi-davis/ |archive-date=2 August 2024 |access-date=2 August 2024 |website=Moreton Bay and More |language=en}}

• List of convicts transported to Australia
• John Caesar
• Sheik Brown
• William Buckley

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite news |date=11 May 1889 |title=Durrumboi or Davis - Close of a Remarkable Career - Fourteen Years with the Blacks |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/186196327 |access-date=26 July 2024 |work=The Week |location=Brisbane |pages=13–14|ref={{sfnref|The Week|1889}}}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lang |first=John Dunmore |author-link=John Dunmore Lang |url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=JDoXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Cooksland in North-eastern Australia: The Future Cottonfield of Great Britain: Its Characteristics and Capabilities for European Colonization. With a Disquisition on the Origin, Manners, and Customs of the Aborigines |date=1847 |publisher=Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans |language=en}}
• {{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Laurie|first=Arthur|authorlink= |year=1966|id=A010279b|title= Davis, James (1808 - 1889) |accessdate=13 October 2008}}
• {{Cite journal |last=O'Keeffe |first=Mamie |url=https://www.textqueensland.com.au/item/article/6fcc0b3fe0cd5e41b79391c055a741d1 |journal=Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland |title=THE RUNAWAY CONVICTS OF MORETON BAY |date=22 April 1976 |location=Brisbane |publisher=Royal Historical Society of Queensland |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=52–71 |access-date=26 July 2024}}
• {{Cite book |author-link=Henry Stuart Russell |last=Russell |first=Henry Stuart |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Genesis_of_Queensland/mIkrAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA18&printsec=frontcover |title=The Genesis of Queensland |date=1888 |publisher=Turner & Henderson |language=en}}
• {{Cite news |last=Wargandilla |date=30 July 1905 |title="DURAMBOI" - JAMES DAVIS - THE WILD WHITE MAN |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/198984274 |access-date=26 July 2024 |work=Truth |pages=2 |publication-place=Brisbane, Queensland}}

• [https://learning.qagoma.qld.gov.au/artworks/duramboi/ Oscar Friström - Duramboi 1893]
• {{Cite web |last=B |first=Karen |date=9 June 2019 |title=Convict Runaways – "Duramboi" Davis Returns. |url=https://moretonbayandmore.com/2019/06/09/convict-runaways-duramboi-davis-returns/ |access-date=3 August 2024 |website=Moreton Bay and More |language=en}}
• {{Cite news |date=6 April 2018 |title=Six extraordinary first contact stories of friendship and survival |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-06/living-with-the-locals-stories-of-first-contact-survival/9613098 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU|last1=Maynard|first1=John|last2=Haskins|first2=Victoria}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Lavarack |first=Bill |date=February 2025 |title=Andrew Petrie early explorer of the Colony of Moreton Bay |url=https://www.buderimhistoricalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/Occasional-Paper-No.-34-Andrew-Petrie.pdf |journal=The Pioneer |publisher=The Buderim Historical Society Inc. |issue=34 |pages=1–7 |access-date=17 April 2025}}
• {{Cite web |last=B |first=Karen |date=2025-02-09 |title=Other “D” stories – Dundalli, Davis and Dowse. |url=https://moretonbayandmore.com/2025/02/09/other-d-stories-dundalli-davis-and-dowse/ |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=Moreton Bay and More |language=en}}

• {{Cite news |date=15 August 1861 |title=Fourteen Years with the Aborigines |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4600492 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=The Courier |location=Brisbane}}
• {{Cite news |date=9 October 1877 |title=FOURTEEN YEARS WITH THE BLACKS |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5940462 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne}}
• {{Cite news |date=10 October 1877 |title=Fourteen Years with the Blacks |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244522950 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=The Herald |location=Melbourne}}
• {{Cite news |date=13 June 1889 |title=A WHITE MAN AMONG THE BLACKS (FROM THE BRISBANE TELEGRAPH) |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63225415 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=The Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil |location=Melbourne}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, James}}

Category:1807 births

Category:1889 deaths

Category:Convicts transported to Australia

Category:People from Brisbane

Category:Criminals from Glasgow

Category:Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia

Category:Convict escapees in Australia

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