Davies Gilbert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Davies Giddy (1767-03-06)6 March 1767 |
| Died | 24 December 1839(1839-12-24) (aged 72) Eastbourne, Sussex, England |
| Spouse | Mary Ann Gilbert |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Royal Society |
| 24th President of the Royal Society | |
| In office 1827–1830 | |
| Preceded by | Humphry Davy |
| Succeeded by | Prince Augustus Frederick |
Davies Gilbert (bornDavies Giddy, 6 March 1767 – 24 December 1839) was a British engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to theRoyal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as itsPresident from 1827 to 1830. He changed his name to Gilbert in 1817 and served asMember of Parliament, first forHelston in Cornwall and then forBodmin.
Davies Giddy was born on 6 March 1767, the second of the three children of Reverend Edward Giddy, curate ofSt Erth's Church, and his wife Catherine, daughter of Henry Davies of Tredrea,St Erth inCornwall. His parents' first child, also Davies by forename, died within 24 hours of birth in 1766, and their third child, Mary Philippa Davies Giddy (known as Philippa) was born in 1769.[1] The Giddy family moved toPenzance, 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 agronomistMary Ann Gilbert, whom he married at Easter of 1808.[2]
Davies was educated first at Penzance Grammar School and then by his father, and by RevMalachy Hitchins,[3] the mathematical astronomer. At the age of 17, at the recommendation of Hitchins, he was sent to Bristol to join the Mathematical Academy ofBenjamin Donne where he remained for three years. His sister Philippa simultaneously finished her own schooling with the famous bluestockingHannah More.[4] He went up toPembroke College, Oxford in 1786, whence he graduated with a MA on 29 June 1789.[2]
He was elected to theRoyal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as itsPresident from 1827 to 1830.[5][2] Davies wasHigh Sheriff of Cornwall from 1792 to 1793. He served in theHouse of Commons as Member of Parliament forHelston in Cornwall from 1804 to 1806 and forBodmin from 1806 to 1832.
Giddy was a close friend of the physicianThomas Beddoes, had attended Beddoes' lectures at Oxford when Beddoes became University Reader in Chemistry in 1788 and was in regular correspondence with him over the latter's plans for aPneumatic Institution in Bristol. Giddy was an early supporter ofHumphry Davy and persuaded Beddoes to employ him in the laboratory at the institute.[6]
TheDictionary 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 early engineering pioneers such asJonathan Hornblower,Richard Trevithick andThomas Telford.[7] He also had an interest in the history and culture of Cornwall. For instance, he removed a Celtic cross from nearTruro, on the Redruth Road (where it had found new use as a gatepost), and took it to a churchyard in his new home ofEastbourne. When asked why he carried off a Cornish Cross and re-erected it in Eastbourne by the Rev. Canon Hockin, ofPhillack, Davies replied,It was to show the poor, ignorant folk that there was something bigger in the world than a flint![citation needed][8]
He changed his name to Gilbert in 1817.[9] In 1822 he collected and published a number of Cornishcarols[10] and in 1838 assembled and publishedA Parochial History of Cornwall.[11]
He edited for publication a Cornish Language poem about the Passion:Passyon agan Arluth, asMount Calvary (1826).[12] He was elected to theSociety of Antiquaries in 1820.[2] Gilbert was the President of theRoyal Geological Society of Cornwall from its foundation in 1814 until his death.[13] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1832.[14]
Davies Gilbert was opposed to mass education during his time in parliament. When the Parochial Schools Bill of 1807 was debated in the Commons, Tory MP Davies Gilbert warned the House that:
"However specious in theory the project might be of giving education to the labouring classes of the poor, it would, in effect, be found to be prejudicial to their morals and happiness; it would teach them to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture and other laborious employments to which their rank in society had destined them; instead of teaching them the virtue of subordination, it would render them factious and refractory, as is evident in the manufacturing counties; it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent to their superiors; and, in a few years, the result would be that the legislature would find it necessary to direct the strong arm of power towards them and to furnish the executive magistrates with more vigorous powers than are now in force. Besides, if this Bill were to pass into law, it would go to burthen the country with a most enormous and incalculable expense, and to load the industrious orders with still heavier imposts. (Hansard, House of Commons, Vol. 9, Col. 798, 13 June 1807, quoted in Chitty 2007:15–16)"[15]
He died inEastbourne inSussex on Christmas Eve 1839.[16]
On 18 April 1808 he marriedMary Ann Gilbert, and in 1816 he took his wife's surname, Gilbert, to perpetuate it.[17] This enabled the couple to inherit the extensive property in Sussex of her uncle, Thomas Gilbert, who had no male heir.[2][18]
Three daughters and a son survived him. Their son,John Davies Gilbert (5 December 1811 – 16 April 1854) was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in April 1834[19] but does not seem to have published any scientific work. Their eldest daughter, Catherine, marriedJohn Samuel Enys (b. 1796) on 17 April 1834.[20][21] She was the mother of the notable New Zealand naturalist,John Enys (11 October 1837 – 7 November 1912).[22] Their second daughter, Annie, married Rev. Henry Owen, rector ofHeveningham, Suffolk on 4 December 1851.[23] The other daughters were Mary Susannah and Hester Elizabeth.[18]
Books and publications written or edited by Davies Gilbert include:[24]
In 1831, Gilbert gave evidence to aParliamentary select committee onsteam carriages, which is included in the committee's report, published in 1834.[26]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHelston 1804–1806 With:James Harris 1804–1805 Archibald Primrose 1805–1806 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBodmin 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 Seymour, 1826–1832 | Succeeded by |
| Professional and academic associations | ||
| Preceded by | 24thPresident of the Royal Society 1827–1830 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
