Thomas Davis or Davies

1. Thomas Davies or Davis (both spellings found) was the husband of Hannah Williams, a daughter of Bartholomew Owen Williams and his wife, Alice Pierce Ibbott. Thomas Davies was named as the father of Bartholomew Watson Davies, in the Will of Agnes Williams (m/s Watson; widow of John Sutton Williams). Four births/baptisms have been found in the Jamaican records for children of Thomas Davies and Hannah Williams: Thomas Williams Davies born 03/10/1819, baptised 22/12/1819; Hannah Williams Davies born 04/09/1823, baptised 03/10/1823; Alice Pierce Davies born 17/06/1828; and Bartholomew Watson Davies baptised 17/10/1837, aged 6 months, Port Royal. In the latter record, Thomas Davies’ occupation was “slave keeper". Another son, John Davies, was named in the Will of Agnes Williams, but no birth/baptism information for him, has been found to date.

2. Thomas Davies, the husband of Hannah Williams, was probably an attorney, as well as a plantation owner/lessee in Jamaica. By 1845, his wife/widow, Hannah Davies was proprietor of Salt Hill, Port Royal, 191 acres.

3. The Robert W. Davies, aged 13, visitor, born at sea and a British Subject, who was at the home of Agnes Williams, at the time of the 1851 census, was possibly a son of Hannah Williams and her husband, Thomas Davies. The abbreviated name, Robt, could be an Enumerator’s error, and may have been Bart’, for Bartholomew. The other reason for thinking it is him, is because he is named in Agnes’ William’s Will “… to apply the sum of £500 sterling for the purpose of completing the education of Bartholomew Watson Davis, son of the late Thomas Davis, planter, Salt Hill, Jamaica ….”

4. Bartholomew Watson Davies was possibly sent to Scotland, following his father’s death, to live with his uncle, John Sutton Williams, at Campie. He continued to live there with his aunt after his uncle’s death and may even have stayed there, whilst a student at Edinburgh University. Bartholomew Watson Davies began to study Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the academic year 1854-55. He graduated four years later with an M.D. in 1858. The title of his M.D. thesis was “On plural births”.

5. At some time after graduating and being awarded his LRCS in Edinburgh, in 1858, Bartholomew must have returned to Jamaica, as there is a baptismal record for the Parish of Vere, County of Middlesex, Jamaica, for “Charlotte Maud Ashby Davies, born 15th June 1862; baptised 20th August 1862; parents – Bartholomew Watson Davies, Doctor in Medicine, and Sarah; residence, Ashley Hall. He was a magistrate in Vere in 1865. In the late 1870s and early 1880s he emigrated with his family to New York, where he died in 1891.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; Forfar Sheriff Court, Additional Inventory SC/47/40/27/p156.

2. Jamaica Almanac (1845).

3. 1851 census online for Campie House, Inveresk.

4. Copy of his thesis available at https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/32941 [accessed 14/04/2020].

5. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; Jamaica Almanac (1865); Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database online]; Ancestry.com, New York, New York, Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948 [database online].

We are grateful to Mary Hewitt for compiling this entry.