John Davison (1777-1834)

John Davison (1777–1834) was an English clergyman and academic, known as a theological writer.

He was born at Morpeth, where his father was a schoolmaster, but brought up in Durham. He was educated at Durham cathedral school, and in 1794 entered Christ Church, Oxford. There he obtained a Craven scholarship in 1796, and was elected Fellow of Oriel College in 1800. In 1810 he became one of the tutors of Oriel.

In 1817 Davison was presented by Lord Liverpool to the vicarage of Sutterton, near Boston, Lincolnshire. Subsequent preferment was to the rectory of Washington, Durham, in 1818, and in 1826 to that of Upton-upon-Severn. For a few years he held the prebend of Sneating in St Paul's Cathedral, and in 1826, on the recommendation of Lord Liverpool, he was made a prebendary of Worcester Cathedral.

Davison died 6 May 1834 at Cheltenham, where he had gone for his health. He was buried in the chancel of Worcester Cathedral.

In relation to the Oriel Noetics, Davison wrote in support of Edward Copleston's campaign for reform of Oxford teaching, but stood on the conservative side of the group. With Edward Hawkins he was chary of the liberal stance of some Noetics, in particular Richard Whately and Thomas Arnold; but (unlike Hawkins) he was sympathetic to the early moves of John Keble and the Tractarians of the "Oxford Movement". Along with Copleston he contributed to the "liberal Tory" strand of the debate on the poor laws. Davidson, with Coplestone and Whately, formed a group in the Noetics of political economists in the sense of Robert Malthus.

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