| Davies Gilbert | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 March 1767 Penzance, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 24 December 1839 (aged 72) Eastbourne, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Royal Society |
Davies Gilbert (born Davies Giddy) FRS (6 March 1767 – 24 December 1839) was a British engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830.[1]
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Davies Giddy was born, the only child of Edward Giddy, curate of St Erth church, and Catherine Davies, daughter of Henry Davies of Tredrea. Davies Giddy would later adopt Gilbert as his surname, the maiden name of his wife.[1]
He was educated at Penzance Grammar School and by his father, and by Rev Malachy Hitchens,[2] the mathematical astronomer. He went up to Pembroke College, Oxford, from whence he graduated with a M.A. on 29 June 1789.[1]
Davies was High Sheriff of Cornwall from 1792 to 1793. He served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Helston in Cornwall from 1804 to 1806 and for Bodmin from 1806 to 1832.
Giddy was an intimate friend of physician Thomas Beddoes, had attended Beddoes' lectures in Oxford and had been a confidant of Beddoes in his plans for the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. He noticed and encouraged Humphrey Davy and convinced Beddoes that Davy was the man to work in the laboratory at the Institution.[3]
The Dictionary of National Biography article says of him:
"Gilbert's importance to the development of science in the early nineteenth century lay in his faith that science provided the best means to tackle practical problems and in his facility as a parliamentary promoter of scientific ventures."
He also had a great interest for the history and culture of Cornwall. For instance, he removed a Celtic cross from near Truro, on the Redruth Road (where it had found new use as a gatepost), and took it to a churchyard in his new home of Eastbourne.[4] When asked why he carried off a Cornish Cross and re-erected it in Eastbourne by the Rev. Canon Hockin, of Phillack, Mr. Davies replied, It was in order to show the poor, ignorant folk that there was something bigger in the world than a flint!.
He assembled and published A Parochial History of Cornwall and collected and published a number of Cornish Carols.[5][6]
He edited for publication a Cornish Language poem about the Passion: Passyon agan Arluth, as Mount Calvary (1826).[7] He was elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1820.[1] Gilbert was the President of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall from its foundation in 1814 until his death.[8]
On 18 April 1808 he married Mary Ann Gilbert, and in 1816 he took his wife's surname, Gilbert, to perpetuate it.[9] This enabled the couple to inherit the extensive property in Sussex of her uncle, Thomas Gilbert, who had no male heir.[1][10]
Three daughters and a son survived him. Their son, John Davies Gilbert (5 December 1811 – 16 April 1854) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April, 1834 [11] but he does not seem to have published any scientific work.
Their eldest daughter, Catherine, married John Samuel Enys (b. 1796) on 17 April 1834.[12] She was the mother of the notable New Zealand naturalist, John Davies Enys (11 October 1837 – 7 November 1912).[13]
Their second daughter, Annie, married Rev. Henry Owen, rector of Heveningham, Suffolk on 4 December 1851.[14]
The other daughters were Mary Susannah and Hester Elizabeth.[10]
Books and publications written or edited by Davies Gilbert include:[15]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by James Harris John Penn |
Member of Parliament for Helston 1804–1806 With: James Harris 1804–1805 Archibald Primrose 1805–1806 |
Succeeded by Sir John Shelley Archibald Primrose |
| Preceded by Josias du Pre Porcher James Topping |
Member of Parliament for Bodmin 1806–1832 With: William Wingfield, 1806–1807 Sir William Oglander, 1807–1812 Charles Bathurst, 1812–1818 Thomas Bradyll, 1818–1820 John Wilson Croker, 1820–1826 Horace Beauchamp Seymour, 1826–1832 |
Succeeded by William Peter Samuel Thomas Spry |
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