Thomas Davidson (7 July 1838 in

Oxnam Oxnam () is a village near Jedburgh, in Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is a primarily residential village. The placename Oxnam is from Old English ''oxa'' ( genitive ''oxan'') " oxen" and ''ham'' "village", the meanin ...

, near Oxnam Water, a tributary of the

River Teviot The River Teviot (; ), or Teviot Water, is a river of the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, and is the largest tributary of the River Tweed by catchment area. The Teviot is an important river for wildlife, especially the Atlantic salmon, but ...

– 29 April 1870 in Bank End,

Jedburgh Jedburgh ( ; ; or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire. History Jedburgh began as ''Jedworð'', the "worth" or enclosed settlem ...

) was a Scottish poet born to parents from

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England.

Life

Thomas's education was at a number of village schools then - after showing an early interest in reading and poetry-writing - from 1854 at the Nest Academy at Jedburgh and from 1855 to 1859 at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. At university, in 1859, he won second prize in rhetoric for ''Ariadne at Naxos'', a poem sent to

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 ...

by one of Thomas's friends and published in the

Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian literature, Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill, London, Cornhill in London.Laurel ...

's December issue the following year. After university, in 1859, Thomas acted on his early callings to the Christian ministry and began the first of the United Presbyterian Church's prescribed five autumnal sessions of the theology course, and was licensed as a preacher on 2 February 1864. He continued to write poetry in this time (working as an assistant schoolmaster at

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

and in Dr Douglas's School,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

), with some works published in

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

. In accordance with church regulations, he spent the first years of his ministry travelling widely to preach at various Scottish, English and Irish churches, and what he experienced on his travels inspired several more poems. These included the humorous ‘Yang-Tsi-Kiang’, which became popular as a student song and was used by

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

's supporters in his bid to become lord rector of the university. However, Davidson caught a cold in June 1866 which had a severe effect on his health and he was forced to retire to Jedburgh in December that year. During his 4-year recuperation he wrote more mournful songs like the love ballad "Myspie's Den" and "Auld Ash Tree", and continued to be published in The Scotsman, but never fully recovered and died of TB on 29 April 1870 at Bank End, Jedburgh. He was buried at Jedburgh's new cemetery.

Reception

James Brown, Minister of St. James' Street Church in Paisley, wrote a memoir of Davidson in 1877, and this included republication of some of Davidson's poems.J. Brown, ''The life of a Scottish probationer, being a memoir of Thomas Davidson with poems and extracts from his letters'' (1877)

Notes

External links

DNB entry for Thomas Davidson
*C. Rogers, ''The modern Scottish minstrel, or, The songs of Scotland of the past half-century'', 6 vols. (1855–7) {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Thomas 1838 births 1870 deaths 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish poets Writers from the Scottish Borders Anglo-Scots Tuberculosis deaths in Scotland English male poets 19th-century English poets 19th-century English male writers Ministers of the United Presbyterian Church (Scotland)