Davies Gilbert

Davies Gilbert
Born	(1767-03-06)6 March 1767 Penzance, Cornwall, England
Died	24 December 1839(1839-12-24) (aged 72) Eastbourne, Sussex, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Engineering
Institutions	Royal Society

Davies Gilbert (born Davies Giddy) PRS (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]

Biography

Davies Giddy was born on 6 March 1767, the second child of three, to the Reverend Edward Giddy, curate of [St Erth] church, and Catherine Davies, daughter of Henry Davies of Tredrea, St Erth. The first child, also Davies by forename, had died within 24 hours of birth in 1766, and the third child, daughter Mary Phillipa Davies Giddy (aka Philippa) was born in 1769.^[2] The Giddy family moved into Penzance, living on Chapel Street in 1775, until Giddy's mother Catherine inherited the family home of Tredrea back in St Erth. By 1780 the family returned to St Erth, and Davies was taught by his father, alongside his sister Philippa. Davies Giddy would later adopt Gilbert as his surname, the maiden name of his wife, the agronomist Mary Ann Gilbert, who he married at Easter of 1808.^[1]

Davies was educated first at Penzance Grammar School and then by his father, and by Rev Malachy Hitchens,^[3] the mathematical astronomer. At the age of 17, at the recommendation of Hitchins, he was sent to Bristol to join the Mathematical Academy of Benjamin Donne where he remained for three years. His sister Phillipa simultaneously finished her own schooling with the famous bluestocking Hannah More.^[4] He went up to Pembroke College, Oxfordin 1786, 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 when the latter had become University Reader in Chemistry in 1788 and had been a confidant of Beddoes in his plans for the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. He noticed and encouraged Humphry Davy and convinced Beddoes that Davy was the man to work in the laboratory at the Institution.^[5]

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."

His mathematical skills were sought by such early engineering pioneers as Jonathan Hornblower, Richard Trevithick and Thomas Telford.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8][9]

He edited for publication a Cornish Language poem about the Passion: Passyon agan Arluth, as Mount Calvary (1826).^[10] 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.^[11]

Marriage and family

On 18 April 1808 he married Mary Ann Gilbert, and in 1816 he took his wife's surname, Gilbert, to perpetuate it.^[12] This enabled the couple to inherit the extensive property in Sussex of her uncle, Thomas Gilbert, who had no male heir.^[1][13]

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 ^[14] 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.^[15][16] She was the mother of the notable New Zealand naturalist, John Davies Enys (11 October 1837 – 7 November 1912).^[17]

Their second daughter, Annie, married Rev. Henry Owen, rector of Heveningham, Suffolk on 4 December 1851.^[18]

The other daughters were Mary Susannah and Hester Elizabeth.^[13]

Publications

Books and publications written or edited by Davies Gilbert include:^[19]

• Plain Statement of the Bullion Question (1811)

• Some ancient Christmas Carols, with the Tunes to which they were formerly sung in the West of England. Collected by D. Gilbert. London : J. Nichols and Son, (1822).)^[20]

• Some ancient Christmas Carols, with the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England. pp. x. 79. J. Nichols and Son: London, 1823

• "On the vibrations of heavy bodies in cycloidal and in circular arches, as compared with their descents through free space; including an estimate of the variable circular excess in vibrations continually decreasing." By Davies Gilbert, .. London : printed by William Clowes, [1823] 15,[3]p. 'Extracted from the Quarterly Journal, Vol. XV'.

• A Cornish Cantata. [Names of places in Cornwall arranged in the form of verses.] [Privately printed? East-Bourn?] 1826.

• Mount Calvary; or, the History of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, written in Cornish (as it may be conjectured) some centuries past. Interpreted in English, in ... 1682, by J. Keigwin . Edited by D. Gilbert. pp. xxii. 96. Nichols and Son: London, 1826.

• "On the expediency of assigning Specific Names to all such Functions of Simple Elements as represent definite physical properties; with the suggestion of a new term in mechanics; illustrated by an investigation of the Machine moved by Recoil" ... From the Philosophical Transactions. pp. 14. [Privately printed:] London, 1827.

• "Some Collections and Translations respecting St. Neot, and the former state of his Church." In : Hedgeland (J. P.) A Description ... of the ... decorations ... in the Church of St. Neot, etc. 1830.

• A Cornish dialogue between Tom Pengersick and Dic. Trengurtha. East-Bourn : Davies Gilbert, [ca. 1835](In verse.)

• The Parochial History of Cornwall, founded on, [or rather including,] the manuscript histories of Mr. William Hals and Mr. Thomas Tonkin; with additions and various appendices, by D. G. [including copious extracts from J. Whitaker, D. and S. Lysons, &c. and geological notices by Dr. Boase. 4 vol. London, 1838.

References

• David Philip Miller (2004). "‘Gilbert (Giddy) Davies (1767–1839)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2006-09-18. 
• A.C. Todd (1967), Beyond the blaze: A biography of Davies Gilbert, D.Bradford Barton 

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Davies Gilbert

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Davies Gilbert (aka Davies Giddy) Note: The low count is wrong - search Hansard with "Davies Giddy" and "Davies Gilbert".
• Davies Gilbert Biography in hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com website
• "Smithsonian/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service". Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 5, p.20 "Biographical notice of Davies Gilbert Esq." (Royal Astronomical Society) 5: 20–23. 1840. Bibcode:[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1840MNRAS...5...20. 1840MNRAS...5...20.] 
• Obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol.13 (New series) 1840 Jan - June, Page 208-211. Online in Google Books
• "Giddy (post Gilbert), Davies (GDY794D)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.