Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/188

Davison and the support of his children. He died about 21 Dec. 1608, and was buried at Stepney on the 24th. His will was proved 9 Jan. 1608-9. Davison married, about 1570, Catherine, daughter of Francis Spelman, younger son of William Spelman of Norfolk and a relative of Sir Henry Spelman, by Mary, daughter of Richard Hill. His wife appears to have died before him. By her he had four sons, Francis [q. v.], Christopher, William, and Walter [q. v.], and two daughters, one of whom [Catherine) married one Duncombe, and the other one Towneley. Christopher was admitted a student of Gray's Inn, 1597 ; translated some psalms into verse (''Harl. MS''. 6930), and in March 1609-10 petitioned that the legal offices conferred on the Byngs by the wish of his father should be transferred to him. William was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1604. A William Davison, who was mayor of Rochester in 1714, and whose descendants are still alive, claimed descent from Elizabeth's secretary.

A mass of state papers in Davison's handwriting survive. Many letters of his, relating to his Scottish missions, are in Cott. MSS. Calig. ch. vii. and viii.,and in Harl. MS. 291. Letters concerning his work in the Low Countries are in Cott. MSS. Galba, ch. viii. and ix., and in Harl. MSS. 36 and 285, and in Lansd. MS. 150. Notes on Scottish history and politics appear in Harl. MSS. 290 and 291, where a short satire, entitled `Three Months' Observations of the Low Countries,' is also extant (f. 262). In Harl. MS. 168, f. 197, is a letter to Elizabeth dissuading her from a peace with Spain, and in Harl. MS. 6893 are `instructions for a traveller,' addressed to his son. The latter forms part of a little volume entitled `Profitable Instructions; describing what speciall Observations are to betaken by Travellers … by … Robert, late Earle of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Secretary Davison,' London, 1633. ' Davison's apologies for his conduct, several of his letters, and his will, are printed in Sir Harris Nicolas's biography. Some of his letters also appear in Wright's `Queen Elizabeth and her Times,' vol. ii.

[Life, by Sir N. H. Nicolas (1823); Biog. Brit. (Kippis); Sir Amias Paulet's Letter-book, ed. Morris; Strypc's Auuals; Sir James Melvill's Memoirs; Leicester Correspondence (Camd. Soc); Camden's Annals; Burton's Hist. of Scotland; Froude's Hist. of England; Lingard's Hist. of England; Thorpe's Scottish State Papers; Cal. State Papers, 1580-1609.]  DAVISON or DAVIDSON, WILLIAM (fl. 1635–1660), chemist and physician, was of Scottish descent, but at an early period settled in Paris, and, through the patronage of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, was named physician to the king of France. Lord Scudamore, English ambassador in Paris, writing to Secretary Windebank, promises to ‘signify to Dr. Davison his majesty's [Charles I] gracious favour. He has been rightly informed concerning the worth of this man, and the benefit his Majesty's subjects receive by him’ (Cal. State Papers, Charles I, Dom. Ser. 1635–6, p. 321). His name also occurs occasionally in subsequent volumes of the ‘Calendars of State Papers,’ in connection with those of persons of eminence who had consulted him. On the title-page of his ‘Prodromus,’ published at the Hague in 1660, he is styled ‘nobilis Scotus,’ formerly councillor and physician to the king of France, and keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden of Paris, and now senior surgeon to the king of Poland. The date of his appointment to be superintendent of the botanic gardens was 1648, and he resigned this appointment to go to Poland in 1650. Evelyn mentions in his ‘Diary’ having gone during his visit to Paris to ‘hear Dr. D'Avisson's lecture in ye physical garden and see his laboratorie, he being prefect of y't excellent garden and Professor Botannicus.’ He is mentioned by La Marolles among several other savants not less distinguished by their knowledge and skill than by their probity (Mémoires, Amsterdam, ed. 1755, iii. 354). Davison was more distinguished as a chemist than a botanist, and was an enthusiastic partisan of the ideas of Paracelsus. His principal work is his ‘Philosophia Pyrotechnica seu Cursus Chymiatricus nobilissima illa et exoptatissima Medicinæ parte Pyrotechnica instructus, multis iisque haud vulgaribus observationibus adornatus.’ Of this work ‘Pars tertia-quarta’ was published in 1633 and also in 1640 (Brit. Mus. Cat.), and ‘Pars primasecunda’ in 1635 and 1642 (Cat., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh). In the copy in the British Museum of the complete edition of the ‘Philosophia Pyrotechnica,’ with the date 1641, there is a portrait of Davison at the age of sixty-nine, but it bears evidence of having been inserted after the volume was bound, and it is improbable that Davison was so old as sixty-nine in 1641. Another edition of the ‘Philosophia Pyrotechnica’ was published in 1657 (, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique, iii. 3). There is in the British Museum a French translation of the work by Jean Hellot, entitled ‘Eléments de la philosophie de l'art du feu, ou chemie,’ Paris, 1657. Another translation, according to Lenglet du