John Davison

John Davison (1777–1834) was an English clergyman and academic, known as a theological writer.

Life He was born at Morpeth, where his father was a schoolmaster, but brought up in Durham. He was educated at Durham cathedral school, and in 1794 entered Christ Church, Oxford. There he obtained a Craven scholarship in 1796, and was elected Fellow of Oriel College in 1800. In 1810 he became one of the tutors of Oriel.

In 1817 Davison was presented by Lord Liverpool to the vicarage of Sutterton, near Boston, Lincolnshire. Subsequent preferment was to the rectory of Washington, Durham, in 1818, and in 1826 to that of Upton-upon-Severn. For a few years he held the prebend of Sneating in St Paul's Cathedral, and in 1826, on the recommendation of Lord Liverpool, he was made a prebendary of Worcester Cathedral. Davidson, with Coplestone and Whately, formed a group in the Noetics of political economists in the sense of Robert Malthus.

Works In theology Davison was a conservative. Finding radical and views on political questions in his parish, he opposed them in a tract, Dialogue between a Christian and a Reformer.

Davison was an occasional contributor to the Quarterly Review. Another of his publications was Considerations on the Poor Laws. He maintained that the law according relief to able-bodied poor should be gradually repealed. He felt that changes in law might become detrimental to the poor if too rapidly introduced. His proposal was that the law should cease to be operative in ten years, and that then a voluntary contribution should be made for cases of great need. Some Points on the Question of the Silk Trade stated, in a letter to George Canning, took a similar line, prompted by the collapse of the silk English industry. He also published sermons preached on public occasions.