Author: Davan, Kingsmill
Biography:
DAVAN, Kingsmill (d 1816: ancestry.co.uk)
According to his will, written 15 Aug. 1814, he was born in the parish of St. Andrew’s, Dublin, “formerly called St. Lazarus Hill, Roman Catholic church, now Townsend’s church,” the son of James Davan (d. 1763) and Margaret Stone (d. 1758), both of College Green, Dublin. In 1778 he was on a Catholic Qualifications roll at Corbalas, Dublin, so he must have been born before 1757. His death notice recorded him as Captain Kingsmill Davan but again there is no record of his military service. At various points in his life he is described as “Gentleman.” He seems to have set up as a trader in Liverpool and exported various goods to Andrew Clow (1750-93) of Philadelphia. He also spent time in Hagarstown PA and after Clow’s death set up in partnership with Luke Tiernan (1757-1839), an Irish-born Baltimore merchant, importing hardware, tools, Japanned goods and other manufactured products (often known as “Manchester Goods”). They were both founder members of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland, established in 1790. The partnership was dissolved on 1 Aug. 1794 and by 1797 Davan had gone to London, where he was recorded living in Great Marlborough Street, Westminster, and had joined the freemasons. In Jan. 1799 he wrote the preface in London to An Essay on the Passions (1799), a standard catalogue with late-eighteenth-century additions: “Fancy or Imagination,” “Genius,” etc. Original Poems (1799) was also published in London, with poems written in Ireland, America and England, and ranged from occasional verse to aesthetics (“The Errors of Genius,” “On Mental Beauty”) and politics (“Picture of the Infancy of the French Revolution”). He died at his lodgings in Rathmines, Dublin, on 24 Nov. 1816. He left his property to nieces and nephews, two boys and five girls who were “all grown up and if alive, in Dublin.” This probably indicates that he did not marry or have children of his own. (ancestry.co.uk 23 Apr. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 23 Apr. 2024; Dublin Evening Post 28 Nov. 1816; Charles B. Tiernan, The Tiernan and Other Families [1901], 56-7) AA