Biography

Davidson was born in Elkton, Maryland

Elkton, Maryland

The town of Elkton is the county seat of Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 11,893 as of the 2000 census and 14,842 according to current July 2008 census estimates. It is the county seat of Cecil County...

 in 1750; he died 13 December, 1812. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 in 1771, appointed instructor there in 1773, and in 1774 was given the chair of history and belles-lettres

Belles-lettres

Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category of writing. A writer of belles-lettres is a belletrist. However, the boundaries of that category vary in different usages....

. In the latter year he was also licensed to preach, and a year later was ordained by the second Philadelphia presbytery, becoming Dr. Ewing's assistant in the first church. In 1775 he composed a metrical dialogue, which was recited at commencement before the Continental congress

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....

, and in July of the same year, one month after the battle of Bunker Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...

, delivered before several military companies a sermon from the text “For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God.” In 1777 the occupation of Philadelphia by the British compelled him to retire to Delaware. In 1784 he was appointed vice-president of the newly organized Dickinson College

Dickinson College

Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...

, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...

, and given the chair of history and belles-lettres there, also acting as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Carlisle. He held this last office till his death, and succeeded by his tact in harmonizing the discordant elements in his congregation. In 1794 he preached twice before troops on their way to suppress the whiskey insurrection

Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in the 1790s, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented...

, and in 1799 delivered a eulogy of Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

. After Dr. Nisbet's death in 1804, Dr. Davidson discharged the duties of president of the college till 1809, when he resigned.

He had a high reputation as a scholar, but was especially fond of astronomy, and invented an ingenious cosmosphere or compound globe. He was also a skilful draughtsman, and was the composer of several pieces of sacred music. Besides numerous sermons, he published an “Epitome of Geography, in Verse,” for the use of schools (1784); “The Christian's A, B, C,” or the 119th psalm in metre, each stanza beginning with a different letter (1811); and a “New Metrical Version of the Psalms,” with an- notations (1812). — His son, Robert, clergyman, b. in Carlisle, Pa., 23 Feb., 1808; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 6 April, 1876, was graduated at Dickinson college in 1828, and at Princeton theological seminary in 1831. He was pastor of the second Presbyterian church in Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

, in 1832-'40, and in the latter year became president of Transylvania University

Transylvania University

Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...

 there. After his resignation in 1842 he held pastorates in New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

, in 1843-'59, New York city in 1860-'4, and Huntington

Huntington, New York

The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...

, Long Island, in 1864-'8, removing to Philadelphia in the last-named year. Mr. Davidson was for a quarter of a century a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...

, was permanent clerk of the General Assembly in 1845-'50, and in 1869 was a delegate to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland

Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)

The Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the "Disruption of 1843"...

, in Edinburgh.