Author: Davis, Richard Bingham
Biography:
DAVIS, Richard Bingham (1771-99: ancestry.com)
The primary source of information about Davis is the affectionate "Sketch" of his life that prefaces the posthumous collection of his poems. That collection was prepared for the press by an anonymous editor; the publishers Thomas and James Swords held the copyright. The editor notes that the poems cannot have been intended for publication as a group because they had to be gathered from scattered mss which neither the author nor the editor chose to revise. Davis was born on 21 Aug. 1771 in New York City and attended Columbia College for three years. He became a woodcarver like his father (also Richard), and later a merchant. In 1796 he was the editor for a year of a daily gazette, The Diary, but found that editing did not suit him. He belonged to a literary club in New York and under the pseudonym "D" or "Drone" he contributed some verses to the New York Magazine. He died on 10 Sept. 1799 of yellow fever in New Brunswick NJ, where the family had gone to escape the epidemic raging in New York. He never married; his editor describes him as having been sensitive but shy and retiring. (ancestry.com 21 Aug. 2025; Appleton; "Sketch" in Poems [1807]) HJ
Other Names:
- Richard B. Davis