Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/164

  

DAVIES or DAVIS, THOMAS  (1631–1679), lord mayor of London and book-seller, son of John Davis, a draper of London, was born in 1631, and was educated at St. Paul's School, where Pepys was his school-fellow. He obtained the freedom of the Drapers' Company by patrimony, but pursued the business of a stationer in St. Paul's Churchyard. Writing under date 23 Nov. 1662, Pepys notes ‘how old rich Audley [see ] died and left a very great estate, making a great many poor families rich. Among others one Davies … a book-seller in Paul's Churchyard.’

Five years later (1667) Davies served as sheriff, ‘a strange turn, methinks,’ says Pepys, and on 23 Oct. he was knighted. He was alderman of Farringdon Without from 1667 till death. In the same year he became an assistant of the Stationers' Company, and in 1668, and again in 1689, he was master. On 4 Aug. 1673 the company's books show that some pressure was required to induce Davies to supply his brace of bucks for the feast fixed for six days later. He was chosen lord mayor in November 1676. He had then translated himself to the Drapers' Company, after presenting the Stationers with two large silver cups. During his mayoralty the monument on Fish Street Hill to commemorate the great fire was erected. When the inscription was under discussion, Littleton suggested ‘a heptastic vocable’ compounded of the names of the seven mayors in office since the foundations of the monument were laid, and Davies's name forms the last part of the proposed ‘vocable’ (, Dictionary). Davies died in 1679, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, Snow Hill, where there is a monument to his memory.



DAVIES, THOMAS (1712?–1785), book-seller, was born about 1712, and was educated at the university of Edinburgh (1728 and 1729), acquiring, according to Johnson, ‘learning enough to give credit to a clergyman.’ He preferred the stage, however, and in 1736 appeared in Lillo's ‘Fatal Curiosity’ at the Haymarket, then under Fielding's management. He then tried bookselling, but failed and returned to the stage. On 24 Jan. 1746 he ‘attempted’ the part of Pierre in ‘Venice Preserved,’ which was performed for his benefit at Covent Garden. He next became a strolling actor, and soon afterwards married the daughter of an actor at York, named Yarrow. His wife was both beautiful and virtuous. He performed at Edinburgh, where he was accused of unfairly monopolising popular parts, and afterwards at Dublin. In 1753 he was engaged with his wife at Drury Lane, and they were received with some favour when occasionally taking the parts of more conspicuous performers incapacitated by illness. In 1761 appeared Churchill's ‘Rosciad,’ four lines of which give Davies's character as an actor:

The last line, according to Johnson, drove Davies from the stage. A letter signed ‘T. Davis,’ deprecating an anticipated attack by Churchill, which appeared in the papers in September 1761, is said by Nichols to have been written by another ‘comedian of inferior talents.’ Davies apparently left the stage in 1762, when he again set up as a bookseller at 8 Russell Street, Covent Garden. He professed to find the two occupations incompatible, though Garrick (10 Aug. 1763) twits him about the ‘Rosciad’ story, and says that he was always ‘confused and unhappy’ when Churchill was in the audience. Here in 1763 he had the honour of introducing Boswell (who had been introduced to him by Derrick) to Johnson. Davies republished the works of several old authors, including William Browne (1772), Sir John Davies (1773), Eachard (1774), George Lillo (1775), and Massinger, with some account of his life and writings prefixed (1779). In 1773 he audaciously published ‘Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces,’ in two volumes, and advertised them as ‘by the author of the Rambler.’ Johnson's writings, which he had appropriated without authority, formed the bulk of this collection. When Mrs. Thrale spoke of this piratical proceeding to Johnson, he said that he would ‘storm and bluster a little;’ but he was disarmed by Davies's good-nature and professions of penitence. ‘I believe,’ he said, ‘the dog loves me dearly,’