Thomas Davy

Owner of Knowsley Park in Manchester Jamaica, an estate entwined with Topsham: the two have yet to be adequately separated by LBS although they are geographically separated by about 7 miles as the crow flies. Topsham is south west of Mile Gully, near to Maidstone, while Knowsley Park is north of Mile Gully, near to Coleyville.

1. Brother of James (1765-1825) and Edward Davy (1776-1803), who went from Countess Wear, then part of Topsham on the River Exe outside Exeter, to Jamaica probably in the 1790s and established coffee and pimento estates. Edward died 1803/4, and left the Topsham estate in Jamaica to his brother in Devon, Thomas Davy. Topsham was reportedly sold about 1824.

2. Will of Thomas Davy surgeon of Ottery St Mary proved 17/02/1853. In 1851 Thomas Day 'surgeon, general practitioner previous to 1815', aged 78 was living with his wife Elizabeth and two adult children at Mill Street in Ottery St Mary.

3. Thomas Davy's son Edward (1806-1882) has a blue plaque on his place of birth Raleigh House at Ottery St Mary as 'pioneer of the electric telegraph' and an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography as 'medical practitioner.' In South Australia from 1839, he set up a starch factory and later a distillery, was doctor to Montecute miners, editor of The Adelaide Examiner, patented a new principle for extracting copper, and was appointed Assay Master for gold. He moved to Victoria in 1853 where he was three times mayor of Malmesbury, a health officer and public vaccinator.

T71/915 Manchester claim no. 296. 

1. Gillian Allen, 'Slavery and two Ottery St Mary families', Heritage - Journal of the Ottery St Mary Heritage Society No. 30 Summer 2009 pp. 3-5 [cf also Gillian Allen's article 'Two Devon families in Jamaica: a local association with slavery', Maritime South West No. 21 (2008) p.8]. There were five brothers and three sisters in total: Rebecca (1759-1827, q.v.), Joan (1761-?), Robert (1762-1862), James (1765-1825, q.v.), John (1767-?), Mary (1769-1829), Thomas (1773-1853) and Edward (1778-1804, q.v.); see G.J.G. Davy, "The Davy Family: Gaius 1633 to Ebony Rae 2012" (Xlibris, 2013). The memorial inscription of Robert Davy (1762-1862) of Countess Wear describes him as "an extensive ship builder for the Royal Navy and of East and West Indiamen etc, general merchant and shipowner"; see Findagrave.com memoiral ID 199058297.

2. PROB 11/2166; 1851 census online. Allen, 'Two Devon families' p. 8 says that Thomas Davy 'bought the best house in Ottery -the Raleigh House'.

3. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM353P_Raleigh_House [accessed 02/07/2018]; William O. Gibberd, 'Davy, Edward (1806–1885)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davy-edward-1966/text2373, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 2 July 2018; email from Gillian Allen 18/02/2020 sourced to J. Davy, 'Edward Davy - His life in South Australia', in Heritage, Journal of the Ottery St Mary Heritage Society, Winter 2005 and L. Morton, 'Edward Davy - His life in Victoria, Australia' in Heritage, Journal of the Ottery St Mary Heritage Society.

We are grateful to Gillian Allen for her assistance with compiling this entry.