Biography
Samuel Davies was born on November 3, 1723, on a farm in New Castle County, Delaware, in a family of Welsh descent. His parents, David and Martha Davies, were devout Presbyterians, and they lived by hard labor on their land. His mother had longed for a child, and, like Hannah in the Old Testament, she asked God for a son and dedicated him to the Lord. She named him Samuel. As a boy, he was taught by his mother to read the Bible and to pray. He was a lively and serious child, who was fond of books. He was sent to a school run by Samuel Blair, a Presbyterian minister at Fagg's Manor, in Pennsylvania, who was a leader in the revival of the Great Awakening. Under Blair, he was converted, and he felt a call to the ministry.
He was licensed to preach in 1746 and ordained in February 1747, at the age of twenty-three. He had been in poor health, with a chronic weakness of the lungs, and the doctors thought that he would not live long. He married Sarah Kirkpatrick in 1746. She died in childbirth in 1747, along with the child. He was heartbroken. He later wrote a long poem to her memory. He remarried in 1748, to Jean Holt, who was a good companion, and the couple had six children. He was sent by the presbytery to Hanover County, in Virginia, where a group of people, who had been influenced by the revival, had asked for a minister. Virginia was an Anglican colony, and the Church of England was the established church. Dissenters were not welcome.
He arrived in Hanover County in 1747, and he found a number of settlers who met in homes to read sermons and pray. They had been prosecuted for refusing to attend the parish church. He took out licenses for seven meeting houses under the English Act of Toleration, which allowed dissenters to worship in licensed places. The royal governor, William Gooch, and the Anglican clergy objected to this. They argued that the Act did not apply to the colony. He went to Williamsburg and argued his case before the governor and council. He was courteous and clear, and he won the right. It was a victory for religious liberty in Virginia, and it opened the door to the growth of the Presbyterians and later the Baptists.
He was a great preacher. He had a voice of unusual power and sweetness, and a manner that was dignified and warm. He spoke without notes, with passion, and his sermons were full of feeling. People came from miles to hear him, and many were converted. He rode through the counties of Virginia, from Hanover to Louisa, Caroline and Henrico, preaching in the meeting houses and in the open air. He kept a heavy schedule. He also was a poet. He wrote hymns, some of them in the manner of Isaac Watts, whom he admired. He wrote verse about the Lord's Supper and about the Christian life. He also wrote a famous elegy to the king.
He was one of the first ministers in America to take a deep interest in the evangelization of the slaves. In Virginia, the slaves were mostly left outside the church, as the planters feared that Christianity would make them restless. He taught them to read, using the Bible and the Psalter, and he baptized many of them. He wrote to friends in England and asked for Bibles and Watts's hymnbooks for them. He observed with joy how eagerly they learned. He rejoiced over their conversion. He also spoke out against the cruelty of masters. Yet he held slaves himself and did not call for the end of the system, which is a plain fault in his record.
In the French and Indian War, he took the side of the colonists. He preached sermons that called on the young men of Virginia to take up arms for their country and their faith. In a sermon of 1755, he spoke of a young colonel, George Washington, whom he said that Providence had so signally preserved for some important service. It was a remark that people remembered when Washington rose to fame. In 1753, he went to Britain with Gilbert Tennent, to raise funds for the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. He was a success. He raised about three thousand pounds, and he preached in many of the great pulpits of England and Scotland.
In 1759, he was called to be president of the College of New Jersey, after the death of Jonathan Edwards. He moved to Princeton and took up the work. He was a good administrator. In February 1761, after a cold, he fell ill. He died on February 4, 1761, at the age of thirty-seven. Among his hearers in Virginia had been a young lawyer, Patrick Henry, who said later that Davies was the greatest orator that he had ever heard. His life shows the effect of a frail young minister who won freedom of worship for a colony and gave himself to preaching.