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 major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, Davison was educated at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

(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 exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

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 known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and s ...

on 4 November 1860.

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 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� ...

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