Sir John Davie, 1st Baronet

Origins

Davie was the son and heir of John Davie of Sandford and Crediton, Devon by his wife Margaret Southcote, daughter of George Southcote, of Calverley, Devon.

Career

He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 22 February 1605, aged 16. In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for the newly enfranchised constituency of Tiverton in Devon. He served as Sheriff of Devon from 1629 to 1630 and was created a baronet on 9 September 1641.

Marriages and children

Davie married twice:

Firstly to his second cousin Juliana Strode (died 1627), 5th daughter of Sir William Strode (1562–1637), MP, of Newnham, Plympton St Mary, Devon, by his 1st wife Mary Southcott (died 1617), daughter of Thomas Southcott (died 1600), of Indio, Bovey Tracey. She was a sister of William Strode (1594–1645), MP, one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in the House of Commons by King Charles I in 1642 sparked the Civil War. She died on 14 May 1627 and was buried at Sandford on 25 May 1627. She is shown as one of his seven daughters sculpted in relief on the mural monument of Sir William Strode in Plympton St Mary Church. By Juliana he had children including:

Sir John Davie, 2nd Baronet (1612–1678), eldest son and heir, MP for Tiverton.

William Davie (1614–1663) of Dar.(?), 2nd son, barrister-at-law, who married Margaret Clarke (died 1702), daughter of Sir Francis Clarke (1622/3-c.1690), a merchant of the City of London and member of the Levant Company, by whom he had children including:

Sir John Davie, 3rd Baronet (1660–1692), eldest son, MP for Saltash 1679–85, Sheriff of Devon in 1688, died unmarried.

Sir William Davie, 4th Baronet (1662–1707), 2nd son and heir to his brother.

Secondly he married Isabel Hele (died 1656) of Gnaton, Devon, by whom he had a daughter:

Isabell Davie (1631–1673), who in 1649 married Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet (c. 1625 – 1670), MP, of Colyton, Devon.

Monument to wife

A mural monument to his first wife Juliana Strode (died 1627) survives in Sandford Church, inscribed in verse as follows:

Here buried lyes the body of Julian,Sur William Strode's daughter of Newingham,Of John Davie Esquire the late deare wife,Who did Maye's fourteenth day depart this life,In the sixteene hundred twenty & seventh yeare,Of the Lord Christ her saviour most deare.She worthy was by byrth, she was by grace,Berean-like of a more noble race,In that she ready was to here, to try,God's preached word and in synceritie,The same to keepe which made her during life,A good, kinde, carefull mistres, mother, wife.Syncerity she livinge did embrace,And dyinge did exhort all to that grace.To husband, children, servants, neighbours, frends,Her death brought losse unspeakable yet tends,To her great gayne who now for earthly pleasure,Most heavenly joyes partaketh without measure".

Death and burial

Davie died in 1654 at the age of about 66 and was buried at Sandford on 13 October 1654.