Simon Davson

Resident in Berbice, dying there c. 1856. He acted as attorney for London merchants in the colony, and received a number of smaller awards in his own name. The business he established grew in post-Emancipation British Guiana. He was the father of Sir Henry Katz Davson (1830-1909), a London-Guyana sugar merchant who left £66,000, and grandfather of Sir Edward Rae Davson 1st bart. (1875-1937) and of Sir Charles Simon Davson (1857-1933), a colonial judge who served as Chief Justice of Fiji 1914-1922 (the third bart., Sir Christopher Davson, married the great-great-great grand-daughter of William Wilberforce). In 1828 as the holder of a protested bill of exchange from L.F. Gallez, Simon Davson triggered the sequestration of the Ithaca estate and enslaved people.

1. 'DAVSON, Edward Rae: Sugar Estate Proprietor; son of Sir Henry Katz Davson, Deputy Chairman, West India Committee; partner in London firm of H.K. Davson & Co., Director of S. Davson & Co., Ltd., Berbice, the Blairmont Sugar Plantation, Ltd., the Guiana Gold Co., Ltd., and the West Indian Produce Association, Ltd.; contributor to "Empire Review" and other publications more especially on Imperial questions; has visited the interior of the colony on several occasions, and keeps in close touch with the affairs of the colony which he visits often.'

2. The British Guiana Colonists Index gives a Simon Davson born c. 1785, married to Anne Lindrier, died 07/06/1856.

London Gazette 18516 21 October 1828 p. 1916.

1. 1909 Argosy Directory of British Guiana.

2. British Guiana Colonists Index, https://www.vc.id.au/tb/bgcolonistsD.html [accessed 25/01/2019].

We are grateful to John Schofield for his assistance with compiling this entry.