Thomas Davis (priest)

File:Rev. Thomas Davis M.A.jpg, Vicar of Roundhay for 48 years. Died November 11th 1887, aged 83 years]]

Thomas Davis (15 February 1804 – 11 November 1887) was a Church of England clergyman, author and hymn writer.

Life

=Family life=

Davis was the son of the Rev Richard Francis Davis DD (ca. 1766–1844), by his marriage to Sarah Stable. Richard had been awarded his degree in 1788 from Oxford University having resided there at University College from 1784.{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=J. |title=Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886 |date=1888–1891 |publisher=Oxford University |page=350 |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp58284 |quote=Richard Francis Davis: Matriculated 24 Mar 1784 University College, Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England - Degree 1788 University College, Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England |archive-date=26 July 2024 |access-date=22 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240726135609/http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp58284 |url-status=live }} Richard's son, Thomas Davis, was born at Worcester where Richard had been rector since 1795. Thomas Davis's grandfather was the "Mayor of Worcester, Thomas Davis, Esq." (d.1820) and is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1788 as having "kissed the hand" of King George III at the Bishop's Palace, Worcester.{{cite book |title=The Gentleman's Magazine - Volume 58, Part 2 |date=1788 |publisher=F. Jefferies |page=1075 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UE8DAAAAMAAJ&q=mayor+of+worcester+++Thomas++davis&pg=PA1075 |accessdate=6 December 2019 |quote=The King visited the bishop at Hartlebury Castle...The King held a levee at the Bishop's Palace at Worcester....At ten, the Corporation attended the levee; the Mayor (Thomas Davis, Esq.)...had the honour of kissing the King's hand.}}[http://www.wargs.com/images/kate039d.pdf Death Certificate of Christiana Maria Davis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311113008/http://www.wargs.com/images/kate039d.pdf |date=11 March 2012 }} at wargs.com, accessed 29 May 2011The Gentleman's magazine, vol. 178 (1845), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DX4DcDD_0u4C&pg=PA325 p. 325]

Thomas Davis was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1832. He proceeded to Master of Arts.Josiah Miller, Singers and songs of the church: being biographical sketches of the hymn-writers in all the principal collections (Longmans, Green, 1869), [https://archive.org/details/singersandsongs00millgoog/page/n543 p. 513] In 1833 Davis was ordained a priest and became his father's curate at Worcester, and in 1840 was appointed Vicar of Roundhay, Leeds in Yorkshire. Davis's father died at the age of 78 on Christmas Day, 1844, of "a violent cold".[http://www.wargs.com/images/kate076d.pdf Death certificate of Rev. Richard Francis Davis] at wargs.com, accessed 29 May 2011

On 10 December 1839, at Stratford-upon-Avon, Davis married Christiana Maria Hobbes, a daughter of Robert Hobbes, attorney-at-law,The Gentleman's magazine, vol 13 (1840), [https://books.google.com/books?id=AFhIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA201 p. 201]: "MARRIAGES... at Stratford-upon-Avon, the Rev. Thomas Davis, of All Saints, Worcester, to Christiana-Maria, fifth daughter of the late Robert Hobbes, esq." and between 1843 and 1851 they had six children, Christiana F., Arthur Sladen,{{Cite web |title=oakwoodchurch.info |url=http://www.oakwoodchurch.info/Oak%20Leaves%20Part%2011%20-%20St%20George%27s%20School%20Roundhay%20circa%201880-1917%20by%20Neville%20Hurworth.pdf |quote=St George's School, Roundhay, circa 1880-1917}} Henry Champney, Mary Sarah, Harriet Albina, and Emily Judith. Davis died on 11 November 1887 at Heslington, Yorkshire, aged 83, while his widow survived him until 1899.[http://www.wargs.com/images/kate038d.pdf Death Certificate of Thomas Davis] at wargs.com, accessed 29 May 2011

=Controversial career=

Davis is recorded in The Westminster Review as "one of the conscientious clergyman of the Church of England" who was "unable to preach the doctrine of endless suffering". A Philosophical Radical, Davis's controversial views were published in 1866 in his book Endless Sufferings not the Doctrine of Scripture.{{cite web |title=The Westminster Review, Volume 30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvFTAAAAcAAJ&q=Thomas++Davis++roundhay&pg=PA219 |publisher=Hooper - July 1866, pp 218-220 |accessdate=14 August 2018}}