Davies Gilbert
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Davies Gilbert PRS |
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| Born |
6 March 1767 Penzance, Cornwall, England |
| Died | 24 December 1839 (aged 72) Eastbourne, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Royal Society |
Davies Gilbert PRS (born Davies Giddy, 6 March 1767 – 24 December 1839) was a British engineer, author, and politician. He was elected to the Royal Society on 17 November 1791 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1827 to 1830. He changed his name to Gilbert in 1817.
Davies Giddy was born on 6 March 1767, the second child of three, to the Reverend Edward Giddy, curate of St Erth church, and Catherine Davies, daughter of Henry Davies of Tredrea, St Erth in Cornwall. The first child, also Davies by forename, had died within 24 hours of birth in 1766, and the third child, daughter Mary Philippa Davies Giddy (aka Philippa) was born in 1769. The Giddy family moved into Penzance, 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 agronomist Mary Ann Gilbert, whom he married at Easter of 1808.
Davies was educated first at Penzance Grammar School and then by his father, and by Rev Malachy Hitchins, the mathematical astronomer. At the age of 17, at the recommendation of Hitchins, he was sent to Bristol to join the Mathematical Academy of Benjamin Donne where he remained for three years. His sister Philippa simultaneously finished her own schooling with the famous bluestocking Hannah More. He went up to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1786, whence he graduated with a M.A. on 29 June 1789.
Davies was High Sheriff of Cornwall from 1792 to 1793. He served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Helston in Cornwall from 1804 to 1806 and for Bodmin from 1806 to 1832.
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