Was born in the year 1786, at Kingston, in Jamaica. His father was Mr.
Attorney-General Davidson, a man of considerable legal knowledge and
talent. He had several children.
William, his second son, was sent to England when very young, for the
purpose of receiving an education suitable to the rank of his father,
and his own prospects. His mother was a native of the West-Indies, a
woman of colour: she opposed her son being sent to England; but her
husband was resolved: he wished William to be brought up to his own
profession--the law. William was therefore sent to Edinburgh to be
educated.
Having learned the first rudiments of education, he was sent to the
academy of Dr. ----, where he studied mathematics. Having left school,
he went to his father’s agent, a friend who resided near Liverpool.
After some time he was apprenticed to a respectable attorney at
Liverpool, at whose office he remained near three years, when he became
tired of confinement. He had for some time felt great inclination to go
to sea, and the captain of a vessel, to whom he disclosed his wishes
upon the subject, promised to take him out as his clerk on his next
voyage.
Without taking leave of the gentleman to whom he was articled, he
entered on board the merchant vessel, and soon had cause to repent, for
after the vessel had left the port, he was compelled by the captain to
perform duty.
On the voyage a king’s ship stopped the vessel, and impressed
Davidson and many of the crew. He arrived in England about six months
afterwards, and wrote to his father’s friend a supplicatory letter.
His father’s friend sent for him, and at his own particular desire,
apprenticed him to a cabinet-maker, in Liverpool.
Davidson was a personable young man, and was upon the point of marriage
to the daughter of a respectable tradesman at Liverpool; but her
friends sent her off, and prevented the match taking place. Davidson
being somewhat disappointed, determined to leave England, and to visit
his relatives at Kingston, in Jamaica.
He took a passage on board of a West India merchantman, and on his
voyage again experienced the misfortune of being impressed into the
King’s service. He took the first opportunity of running away from the
vessel on its arrival in port, and having obtained some money from his
friends, he got work at his trade as a journeyman.
About twelve months after, his mother allowed him two guineas per week,
which was paid him regularly through her agent. Davidson was employed
by Mr. Bullock, a cabinet-maker at Litchfield. He was a most excellent
workman, and was able to get three or four guineas a week, being a
man of considerable taste in his profession, and chiefly employed in
fitting up the houses of noblemen and gentlemen in the neighbourhood.
With his mother’s allowance he was able to live and dress very
genteelly; and the company he kept was highly respectable. By some
accident he met a young lady of the name of Salt, who resided at
Litchfield; she was only sixteen years of age. She imbibed a strong
regard for Davidson, and, unknown to her family, she allowed him to
visit her. Miss Salt had at her own disposal, when of age, the sum of
7,000_l._ She communicated to her mother her passion for Davidson. Her
mother objected to it; but finding that nothing could wean her from her
attachment, she consented to allow Davidson to visit her daughter.
He frequently paid visits unknown to the young lady’s father: the
latter, however, at length obtained information of these clandestine
interviews, and laid wait for him; and, as he entered the garden late
one evening, he fired a pistol at his head, and the ball it contained
passed through Davidson’s hat. A constable was sent for, and Davidson
was taken before a magistrate, charged with attempting to commit a
robbery; but upon Davidson stating the simple facts of the case,
precisely as it occurred, that he was courting the daughter, with
the privity of Mrs. Salt, though against the desire of Mr. Salt, he
immediately set Davidson at liberty, and committed Mr. Salt to prison
for shooting at him.
While Mr. Salt was in prison, he sent for Davidson, and promised him
his daughter, if he would not prosecute him. Davidson did not appear
against him, and he was set at liberty.
Mr. Salt afterwards repented of his promise, and, to evade the pledge
he had given, he told Davidson that he would not object if he would
only wait till she was of age. Davidson communicated to Miss Salt the
wish of her father. She replied, “You know my sentiments towards you
now. I cannot say, if I remain single till I am of age, what they may
be then;” and expressed herself angry that Davidson should be inclined
to agree to her father’s proposal for deferring their union. Davidson
had previously written to Jamaica, to his mother, and informed her of
his intended union, and she had remitted 1200_l._ to a banking house in
London, and placed it at his disposal.
Miss Salt was sent by her father to see a relative in a distant part
of the country, and before she had been many months there, she married
another suitor.
Davidson, who had entertained very great affection for the lady, upon
hearing that she had broken her faith with him, went to a chemist’s
shop at Litchfield, and in a fit of despair, purchased some poison,
and took it; he had not swallowed it long before he communicated to
a friend the rash act he had committed, when the latter immediately
procured a powerful antidote, which Davidson took, and which destroyed
the effect of the poison in a great degree, though he was unwell for
a considerable time after. When he recovered, he left the place, and
took a large house near Birmingham.
With the money his mother had sent him he entered into an extensive way
of business; but being, from the disappointment in his marriage with
Miss Salt, rendered quite unsettled in his mind, he did not attend to
his business, and in a short time the whole of his money was expended.
Previous to his acquaintance with Miss Salt, he was employed by Lord
Harrowby to fit up his house, and had frequent conversations with the
Noble Lord upon the plan of decorating the interior of the mansion.
After Davidson’s failure in business, near Birmingham, he came to
London, and was employed as a journeyman by Mr. Cox, a cabinet-maker,
in the Haymarket, to whom he had been strongly recommended, by some
gentlemen forming part of the congregation of a Chapel at Walworth,
which Davidson frequented, and where he also made himself active as
a teacher to the Sunday-school attached to the Chapel. It was during
the period of his service with Mr. Cox, that the circumstance happened
alluded to by Davidson on his trial, of an indelicate attack on
the person of one of the female teachers at the school; but we are
compelled to state, that his account of the affair is directly the
reverse of the truth. The fact was, that he habitually indulged in
attempts of a gross and indelicate nature on the persons, not only
of the teachers, but even of the children of the school; way-laying
them on their return home, particularly in the evening after their
attendance on divine worship, and taking improper liberties with them.
The outward sanctity of the man screened him from suspicion, and the
indelicate nature of his attacks silenced for too long a period the
virtuous and innocent females, who were the objects of his vile
attempts; but at length his conduct became too gross for endurance,
and one of the ladies communicated it to the committee. This led
to enquiry, and the result was the most perfect unmasking of the
hypocrite, who was expelled with contempt and indignation from that
society and religious community, which he had so long disgraced by
making it the means of indulging his brutal propensities.
After this detection and exposure, his conduct was more narrowly
observed, and his habitual lying, prevarication, and intrigue, became
notorious. Indeed he seemed to delight in evasion, and scarcely ever
spoke the plain truth.
About four years ago he entered into business for himself at Walworth,
and then married a Mrs. Lane, the widow of a respectable man, who had
left her with four small children; for a short time he appeared to be
doing well. At length trade fell off, and he was obliged to remove to
London. He then took a lodging in Mary-le-bone.
He had known Harrison (one of the transported conspirators) for several
years previous to his coming to Walworth, and by him he was introduced
to Thistlewood, and by the latter to Edwards, the spy.
Edwards frequently called upon Davidson at his lodgings during the
getting up of the Cato-street plot, and was, for several weeks before,
his and Thistlewood’s constant companion. Edwards breakfasted with
Davidson on the morning before the Cato-street plot was discovered; and
on the same evening, in the presence of Mrs. Davidson, gave him money
to get a blunderbuss out of pawn.
On the Sunday night, when Davidson parted, for the last time, with
his distressed wife, he expressed himself very strongly against Lord
Sidmouth.
After he had kissed her, he said, “If I should betray a weakness when
I come out on the scaffold, I hope the world will not attribute it to
cowardice, but to my intense feelings for you and my dear children.
Farewell, love! pray that God will take mercy on me, and receive my
soul.” Mrs. Davidson then left him.
This unfortunate woman is left with six children; four by her former
husband, and two fine boys by Davidson, both under four years of age.
The following letter was written by Davidson to his wife, enclosing the
notice served upon him by the solicitor for the prosecution, that the
indictment for high treason had been found by the Grand Jury.
“My dear Sarah,--According to the promise your entreaties caused
me to make to you concerning matters of counsel, _&c._
I have sent you here the order I received last night--an order for
application to either of the several justices therein mentioned,
whereby an order will be granted to the applicant for the free
admission of counsel, solicitors, _&c._ But I would rather, for
my part, use such an order for you and my dear children, in
preference to counsel, _&c._; and would now retain my integrity
of not having any, only as it is the first time you ever ask the
favour of being dictator, and as in such considerations I did
grant you that request, I will not now fall from such a promise,
to one whose sole interest and young family entirely depends
on the result of this trial. Therefore, you can be advised how
you are to act; for my own part, I am careless about it, as I
am determined to maintain my integrity as a man against all
the swarms of false witnesses, and I hope you will never be
persuaded, or suffer the public to be led away with a belief, that
I am fallen from that spirit maintained from my youth up, and
had so long been in possession of the ancient name of Davidson
(Aberdeen’s boast), and is now become feeble. Death’s countenance
is familiar to me. I have had him in view fifteen times, and
surely he cannot now be terrible. Keep up that noble spirit for
the sake of your children, and depend that, even in death, it will
be maintained, by your ever affectionate husband,
“WM. DAVIDSON.”
“Mrs. Sarah Davidson,
“12, Elliott-row, Mary-le-bone.”
The following is a copy of the letter, which he wrote to Lord Harrowby,
referred to in page 357, it is evidently a rank falsehood, written in
the hope, perhaps, of obtaining a respite:
“My Noble Lord,--It is with the greatest pleasure I write to
inform your lordship of my innocence of the charge wherein I am
shortly about to suffer death. My Lord, permit me to inform your
lordship, from the personal knowledge I have of your lordship’s
family, it is impossible I could be guilty of the slightest
intention to harm your lordship in any way. My lord, I have had
the honour of working at your lordship’s seat, in Sandon-hall,
Staffordshire, wherein I worked for Mr. Bullock, of Rugeley, and
would at any time rather lose my life in your defence than to be
an accomplice to harm you, or any other man, be his condition
ever so poor, much more so many illustrious persons, and among
them one I had so great a respect for, from personal knowledge,
as your lordship. I declare now to your lordship, as I hope to
be saved, that Edwards was the man who gave me the money to
redeem the blunderbuss, which Adams carried away to Cato-street;
I gave it to him not knowing of any plot: and, as I related
to the Privy-Council, Mr. Goldworthy met me in John-street,
Portland-road; he gave me a sword to take to Cato-street, and a
bundle, which contained belts. When I found I was entrapped, I
naturally attempted to escape, but never fired. I never had any
pistols in my possession; and, in truth my lord, Mr. Edwards must
know that I am not that man of colour that was in their party, if
he will do me the justice to say so.”