Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/109

Rh pastorates in New Brunswick, N. J., in 1843-'59, New York city in 1860-'4, and Huntington, L. I., in 1864-'8, removing to Philadelphia in the last-named year. Mr. Davidson was for a quarter of a century a member of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, was permanent clerk of the general assembly in 1845-'50, and in 1869 was a delegate to the general assembly of the Free church of Scotland, in Edinburgh.

DAVIDSON, Thomas, philosopher, b. in the parish of Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 25 Oct., 1840. He was graduated at the University of Aberdeen in 1860, being a first graduate and Greek prizeman. From 1860 till 1863 he was rector of the grammar- (Latin-) school of Old Aberdeen, and from 1863 till 1866 master in several English schools, spending his vacations on the continent. In 1866 he removed to Canada, to occupy a place in the London collegiate institute. In the following year he came to the United States, and, after spending some months in Boston, removed to St. Louis, where, in addition to work on the New York &ldquo;Round Table&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Western Educational Monthly,&rdquo; he was classical master in the St. Louis high-school, and subsequently principal of one of the branch high-schools. In 1875 he removed to Cambridge, Mass. He has travelled extensively in Europe, especially in Greece and Italy. In the former country he devoted himself mainly to archæology and modern Greek, in the latter to the study of the Catholic church, of scholastic philosophy, of Dante, and of Rosmini. For studying the Catholic church unusual opportunities were thrown open to him, chiefly through the Princess Carolyne of Sayn-Wittgenstein and Cardinal Hohenlohe, who offered him an apartment in his episcopal palace at Albano, and also in the villa D'Este at Tivoli. His interest in Thomas Aquinas having come to the ears of the pope through Bishop (now Cardinal) Schiatlino, he was invited to the Vatican, where the holy father suggested that he should settle in Rome and aid his professors in editing the new edition of St. Thomas. For more than a year he lived at Domodossola, in Piedmont, where the Institute of charity, founded by Rosmini, has its novitiate. Here he produced the work that first brought Rosmini to the notice of English-speaking students: &ldquo;The Philosophical System of Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, translated, with a Sketch of the Author's Life, Bibliography, Introduction, and Notes&rdquo; (London, 1882). At the same time he wrote essays on classical subjects, mainly archæological, published under the title &ldquo;The Parthenon Frieze and Other Essays&rdquo; (London, 1882). He also translated &ldquo;Rosmini's Psychology&rdquo; (3 vols., London, 1884). In 1883 he occupied a villa in Capri, and there translated Rosmini's &ldquo;Anthropology.&rdquo; Mr. Davidson has been a frequent contributor to periodicals, and delivered courses of lectures, before the Lowell institute in Boston and elsewhere, on modern Greece, on Greek sculpture, etc. He was mainly instrumental in founding &ldquo;The Fellowship of the New Life,&rdquo; which has branches in London and New York. He speaks French, German, Italian, and modern Greek. Besides the works named, Mr. Davidson has published &ldquo;The Fragments of Parmenides,&rdquo; in English hexameters, with introduction and notes (St. Louis, 1869); &ldquo;On the Origin of Language,&rdquo; from the German of W. H. J. Bleek (New York, 1869); &ldquo;A Short Account of the Niobe Group&rdquo; (New York, 1874); &ldquo;The Place of Art in Education&rdquo; (Boston, 1886); &ldquo;Giordano Bruno, and the Relation of his Philosophy to Free Thought&rdquo; (Boston. 1886); and a &ldquo;Hand-Book to Dante, from the Italian of Scartazzini, with Notes and Additions&rdquo; (Boston, 1887).

DAVIDSON, William, soldier, b. in Lancaster county, Pa., in 1746; killed at the battle of Cowan's Ford, N. C., 1 Feb., 1781. His father removed with his family to Rowan county, N. C., in 1750, and William, the youngest son, was educated at Queen's museum, afterward Liberty hall, Charlotte. At the beginning of the Revolution he was appointed major in one of the first regiments raised in North Carolina, and was in the engagements at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In November, 1779, he was detached to re-enforce the army of Gen. Lincoln in the south, at which time he commanded his regiment with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In an engagement with a party of loyalists, near Calson's Mill, a ball passed through his body; but he took the field eight weeks later, with the rank of brigadier-general conferred on him by the state of North Carolina, and exerted himself to interrupt the progress of Cornwallis. Detached by Gen. Greene on 31 Jan., 1781, to guard the wagon ford chosen by Cornwallis for his night passage of the Catawba, Gen. Davidson posted himself on the bank of the river with 250 men. The British army forced its way across, reserving its fire until it had reached the bank, when the militia fled. Gen. Davidson was the last on the field, and was pierced by a rifle-ball through the breast. Congress voted $500 for a monument to him, but it has never been erected. Davidson college, N. C., is named in his honor, and his sword hangs in one of its halls.

DAVIE, William Richardson, soldier, b. in Egremont, near Whitehaven, England, 20 June, 1756; d. in Camden, S. C, 8 Nov., 1820. He came to this country with his father in 1763, and was adopted by his uncle, Rev. William Richardson, who lived near the Catawba, in South Carolina. Y"oung Davie was graduated at Princeton, in the autumn of 1776, after serving with a party of his fellow-students as a volunteer in the vicin- ity of New York dui'ing the summer of that year. He then began to study law in Salisbury, N. C, but was commissioned lieutenant of a new- ly organized company of dragoons on 5 April, 1779, and, succeeding to the command of the troop, joined Pulaski's legion and rose to the rank of major. At the battle of Stono Ferry, 12 June, 1779, he re- ceived a severe wound in the thigh, and on his recovery returned to Salisbury, re- sumed his studies, and was admitted to the bar in Sep- tember, 1779. In the winter of 1780 he raised a body of cavalry, spent in its equipment the last shilling of the estate be- queathed to him by his uncle, and with this force

protected the southwestern part of the state from the attacks of the British in South Carolina. He fought in the battles at Hanging Rock and Rocky Mount, did good service in saving the remnant of the army after Gates's defeat at Camden, and on 5 Sept., 1780, was appointed colonel commanding the cavalry in North Carolina. He surprised the