James Davidson (1793–1864) was an English antiquary and bibliographer.

Life

The eldest son of James Davidson of

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...

, London, a stationer and deputy-lieutenant of the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

, and Ann his wife, only daughter of William Sawyer of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, he was born at Tower Hill on 15 August 1793. When not quite thirty years old he bought the estate of Secktor, near Axminster in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He enlarged the small cottage, and lived there for the rest of his life. Davidson died at Secktor House, Axminster, on 29 February 1864, and was buried in the town cemetery.

Works

Davidson's major work of local history was ''Bibliotheca Devoniensis; a Catalogue of the Printed Books relating to the County of Devon'' (1852, supplement 1862). It was based on wide research in libraries. ''Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire'' (1861) went up to the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

. On the Axe Valley, he wrote: * ''The British and Roman Remains in the vicinity of Axminster'', 1833; * ''History of Axminster Church'', 1835; * ''History of Newenham Abbey, Devon'', 1843 ( Newenham Abbey is situated about a mile south of Axminster, and George Oliver had assistance with his account of it in ''Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis'' from Davidson); * ''Axminster during the Civil War'', 1851. Another work was ''A Glossary to the Obsolete and Unused Words and Phrases of the Holy Scriptures in the Authorised English Version'' (1850). Davidson wrote also for ''

Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inne ...

'', ''Pulman's Weekly News'' and the '' Gentleman's Magazine''.

Family

Davidson married, on 6 March 1823, Mary, only daughter of Thomas Bridge of Frome St. Quentin,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, and their issue was two sons and three daughters. His eldest son, James Bridge Davidson, who died on 8 October 1885, aged 61, had similar interests. Many books from their Secktor House library were put on sale by William George of Bristol in 1887.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, James 1793 births 1864 deaths English antiquarians English bibliographers