Thomas Aspinwall Davis

Thomas Aspinwall Davis
Thomas Aspinwall Davis
10th Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts
In office February 27, 1845 – November 22, 1845
Preceded by	Martin Brimmer
Succeeded by	Josiah Quincy, Jr.
Majority	499 (8th ballot).
Personal details
Born	Thomas Aspinwall Davis December 11, 1798 Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Died	November 22, 1845(1845-11-22) (aged 46)
Nationality	American
Political party	Native American Party
Spouse(s)	Sarah Jackson (1824–1845)
Occupation	Businessman, politician

Thomas Aspinwall Davis (December 11, 1798 – November 22, 1845) was a silversmith and businessman who served as mayor of Boston for nine months in 1845.

Davis was born on December 11, 1798, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer Davis III and Lucy Aspinwall. Both the Davis and Aspinwall families were longtime residents of Brookline. Thomas' elder brother Increase Sumner Davis became a Congregational minister. Thomas grew up on Harrison Place (now Kent Street), and began work in a jeweler's shop in Boston at age 14.

By 1820, he was in partnership with Thomas N. Morong. He had his own business 1825–34, and was a partner of Julius Palmer and Josiah Bachelder from 1838. The firm was successful, after his death known as Palmer, Bachelder & Co. By 1843 he had acquired, by inheritance and purchase, farmland around his father's house, which he subdivided to create The Lindens, a prestigious suburban residential development designed by Alexander Wadsworth and John F. Edwards.Davis' own house was at the head of Linden Park, until it was moved to 29 Linden Place in 1906. In 1985 it was added to the List of Registered Historic Places in Brookline.

In the runup to the 1844 election Davis was nominated for mayor at a convention chaired by the showman Moses Kimball, who was best known for exhibiting a stuffed mermaid with P.T. Barnum. At this time a candidate for mayor needed a majority to be elected, and if no candidate received a majority of the vote a new election was held. A candidate did not have to have run in the previous round, and previous candidates did not necessarily run in subsequent elections. In the first vote held on December 9, 1844 in addition to Davis, the candidates were Josiah Quincy, Jr., who led in the first round of balloting, and Adam W. Thaxter, Jr., who placed a weak third behind Davis. Quincy received 4,457 votes, Davis 4,017 and Thaxter 2,115, with a scattering of 232 votes going to others. Because none of the candidates had received a majority of the 10,821 votes cast no one was elected mayor. Quincy, the Whig candidate, and Thaxter, a Democrat, dropped out after the first round, with Thomas Wetmore and Charles G. Greene, the editor of the Boston Post, taking their places in the next round of balloting. Well known Bostonians like former mayor Samuel A. Eliot entered the lists in ensuing rounds, but nothing could break the three-way deadlock. In each of the next six elections held between December 23, 1844, and February 12, 1845 there were at least three major candidates in contention for the mayoralty, and no one candidate received a majority of the vote. Davis led with a plurality on every round after the first.