William Davidson of Curriehill

Sir William Davidson, 1st Baronet of Curriehill (Dundee, 1614/5 – Edinburgh, 1689?) was a Scottish tradesman in Amsterdam, an agent and a spy for the King and a member of his Privy Council.

Nothing is known about his youth and ancestors, but he settled in Holland after 1640 and traded in the Baltic region. In 1645 he married Geertruid Schuring and stated that he was 29. In 1648 he appointed Anthony van Leeuwenhoek as an assistant. Van Leeuwenhoek stayed six years in his service. Davidson lived and worked in Warmoesstraat, close to the Oude Kerk.

During the English Civil War he choose the side of the Stuarts. In 1652 his wife died. He remarried Geertruid van Dueren who died in 1658. In those years he was living on Nieuwe Waalseiland, close to the harbour and selling wine in Stockholm.

In May 1660 he went to see Charles II in the Hague on his way to England. In July 1660 Mary Stuart lived in his house on Herengracht, to settle an agreement with the Amsterdam burgomasters on the education of her grandson William III of Orange, only ten years old. In February he had married Elisabeth Klenck, a sister of Johannes Klencke, who presented at an unknown occasion the Klencke Atlas to the King.

In 1662 he was appointed as the King's agent in Amsterdam; he was already knighted as a baronet by Charles II of England and in 1661 as the conservator of the staple in Veere. In 1664, during the Second Dutch War he moved to Hamburg. In 1666 he was involved in a salt company in Denmark, together with Cort Adeler.

In 1670 he was allowed to start mining for copper in Klaebu, south of Trondheim. His note from King Kristian IV of Denmark was given to him October 14. 1670. The date is in references from letters send to and from the king Kristian IV of Denmark. He started Ulrichsdal Mining Company, and build a melting-cabin at Hyttefossen in Klaebu. There are still rest of his building there. He also mined after iron at Mostadmark in Malvik east of Trondheim. The rest of buildings are still there. He became broke and owed the king a lot of money, and suddenly he was gone from Trondheim. But his history still lives, and so do his buildings.

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