Charles Henry Davis

Charles Henry Davis (18 May 1815 – 17 May 1854) was an English Benedictine bishop of the Catholic Church. He served as the first Bishop of Maitland and first Coadjutor Archbishop of Sydney.

Early life Davis was born in Usk, Wales in 1815, to Michael and Jane Davis. He had eight siblings, two of whom died as infants. He was the second youngest of six boys. All six were educated by the monks of Downside Abbey and three of them, including Charles, became Benedictine priests.

Davis concluded his studies at Downside Abbey in 1833 and immediately joined the Benedictine Order. On 1 March 1833, he was clothed in the Benedictine habit by Dom George Turner OSB. The future Archbishop of Sydney, John Bede Polding, was the novice master and subprior at Downside Abbey while Davis was a novice.

Following his ordination, he was given a raft of responsibilities in the Abbey. He was cellarer (1841 to 1847), Prefect of Students (1839 to 1847), infirmarian (1840 to 1847), organist (1834 to 1847) and cantor. In 1844, he was made parish priest of St Benedict's Church, Downside.

In 1832, Polding had been appointed Vicar Apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, Australia and he arrived in the colony in 1835. He began petitioning for a new diocese to be created in Newcastle to assist in the pastoral care of Catholics in the region.

Episcopate On 16 April 1847, Polding, then Archbishop of Sydney, wrote to the Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni to petition for the erection of an episcopal see at Maitland. He recommended Placid Burchall, Superior of the Anglo-Benedictine Monastery of Saint Edmond in Douai, France, as a suitable candidate as bishop for the new diocese.

On 9 July 1847, the Holy See announced Burchall would become the first Bishop of Maitland and also be Coadjutor Bishop of Sydney. Burchall refused the appointment on grounds of ill-health, however correspondence from Polding to the Holy See suggested it was instead because the order had refused to lose another priest of such high calibre.

Burchall instead recommended Davis for the position, writing: "[he] has been under the guidance of Monsignor Polding who gives him a very honourable testimonial; and whilst he has praiseworthily held different positions for 13 years in the Convent of St Gregory in England, he has kept longing for the Australian Mission." He became the first Catholic bishop to die in the colony.

He was buried in the mortuary chapel at Subiaco Convent.

The Diocese of Maitland remained sede vacante for 11 years following Davis' death, until the appointment of Bishop James Murray in 1865.