Sir Henry Davison (16 March 1805 – 4 November 1860)''Alumni Oxonienses'', 1715-1886, later series, A-D, ed. Joseph Foster, Parker & Co., 1888, p. 352 was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Madras from 1859 to 1860. The fourth son of Thomas Davison, of St Bride's,

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, Davison was educated at

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

(B.A. 1829, M.A. 1834), and called to the Bar from the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1834. Having been a puisne judge at Madras (sworn in 16 March 1857), Davison was appointed Chief Justice in March 1859, but did not serve for long, dying at

Ootacamund Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located northwest of Coimbatore, and is the headquarters of N ...

on 4 November 1860.

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...

affectionately dedicated his historical novel ''The Virginians'' (published from 1857 to 1859) to Davison. Davison was married and had issue; his daughter, Emily Jane, married the organist

Philip Armes Philip Armes (15 August 1836 – 10 February 1908) was an English organist, notably holding posts at Rochester, Chichester and Durham Cathedral. Musical career Armes was a chorister at the cathedral of his native city, Norwich, between 1846 and ...

in 1864.''Dictionary of National Biography'' (1912 supplement), ed. Sidney Lee, vol. I, 1912, pp. 53-54

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davison, Sir Henry 1805 births 1860 deaths Lawyers from London Knights Bachelor Judges of the Madras High Court Chief justices of the Madras High Court British India judges 19th-century English lawyers