Caleb Davis

Caleb Davis (October 25, 1738 – July 6, 1797) was a merchant, revolutionary patriot, and public servant in Boston, Massachusetts. He held several positions of public trust, including state legislator, 1776–1788; Speaker of the Massachusetts General Court, 1780–1782; and Elector for Massachusetts' Suffolk County in the first U.S. presidential election in 1789.

Davis was born in 1738 in , to Joshua Davis and Sarah Pierpont. Siblings included Amasa Davis, Joshua Davis, and Robert Davis. At age 10, Davis and his family moved to Roxbury.

When he came of age, Davis earned his living as a merchant. He kept a shop in Boston. "In 1759 he was a partner with his uncle, Robert Pierpont, in a retail provision and grocery business, soon after setting up a store of his own. ... Considerable purchases of rum from Thomas Amory and others are noted." Around 1760 he married Hannah Ruggles (d. ca.1773). Davis was a deacon of the Hollis Street Church, ca.1769-1797.

Davis participated in the Sons of Liberty. "In 1772-1773, [Davis] was one of the Boston Committee of Correspondence." In 1774, he was appointed to the "Committee of 63 Persons...to carry into Execution in the Town at Boston, the Agreement and Association of the late respectable Continental Congress."

In April 1775, Davis and Paul Revere suspected Benjamin Church of secretly being a loyalist to the British. Revere writes:

"I came a Cross Deacon Caleb Davis; —we entred into Conversation about Him [i.e. Benjamin Church]; —He told me, that the morning Church went into Boston, He (Davis) received a Bilet for General Gage —(he then did not know that Church was in Town) —When he got to the General's House, he was told, the General could not be spoke with, that He was in private with a Gentleman; that He waited near half an Hour, —When General Gage and Dr. Church came out of a Room, discoursing together, like persons who had been long acquainted. He appeared to be quite surprised at seeing Deacon Davis there; that he (Church) went where he pleased, while in Boston, only a Major Caine, one of Gage's Aids, went with him."

...
Wikipedia