Author: Davidson, Margaret
Biography:
DAVIDSON, Margaret (d c. 1781: RPW)
Little is known of her life beyond what can be gleaned from her book. She was the daughter of uneducated parents and born in Killinchy, Co. Down, Ireland. At the age of two, she became blind because of smallpox. She later lived near Comber where, despite strong opposition from her family, she became a devout Methodist after hearing a preacher, James Oddie, in about 1757. In 1765 she heard Charles Wesley preach at Newtown and she moved to Lisburn in about 1766 and met the Rev. Edward Smyth (q.v.) who encouraged her to speak at meetings where she became a popular figure. Their later correspondence led to his editing of her book, The Extraordinary Life and Christian Experience of Margaret Davidson, which is mainly in prose but includes ten pages of hymns. She supported herself by spinning flax. (RPW; C. H. Crookshank, The History of Methodism in Ireland [1885]; Goodridge) SR