WD966-969, WD2414, WD1261, Mss Eur D1120, WD3267-3271, WD4389-4390

DAVIS, SAMUEL (1756/7-1819)

Davis went to India in 1780 in the Madras Infantry and fought against Haidar ‘Ali. In 1783 he was admitted to the Company’s civil service and accompanied Samuel Turner’s embassy to Tibet, but did not himself proceed beyond Bhutan. Davis was a keen amateur artist, and some of the drawings made by him on this expedition were later used to illustrate Turner’s ‘Account of an embassy to the court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet’ (London, 1800); seven were engraved and published by William Daniell as ‘Views in Bootan’ (London, 1813). From 1784 to 1793 he held posts in Bhagalpur district. While there he entertained Thomas and William Daniell for a day in October 1788 and for a whole year from 1790 to 1791. From 1793 to 1795 he was Collector of Burdwan and in 1795 went to Benares, as District judge and Agent to the Governor-General, where he built himself an observatory. While stationed there in 1799, he warded off an attack on his house (now Nandesar House) by Wazir ‘Ali, the deposed Nawab of Oudh, by standing at the top of a narrow staircase armed with a pike. In 1800 he became Magistrate and Superintendent-General of Police in 24 Parganas, in 1801 he was third member of the Board of Revenue and in 1804 Accountant-General. He resigned in 1806 and from 1810 to 1819 was a Director of the East India Company.

Davis also had antiquarian interests and in his early years in India produced papers on Hindu astrology and on the Indian cycle of Jupiter.

An engraving from one of his drawings, ‘A View of Calcutta from Fort William’, formed part of a set of views published by Orme between 1805 and 1807. His drawings were also engraved by William Daniell for Major-General Beatson’s ‘Tracts relative to the Island of St. Helena’ (London, 1816).

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WD966-969

4 drawings. Purchased 18 February 1957.

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WD2414; WD1261; Mss Eur D1120

Two further drawings and an album.

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WD3267-3271

Five drawings of Bhutan made during the embassy of Captain Samuel Turner to Tibet in 1783, see S. Turner, ‘An account of an embassy to the Court of Teshoo Lama, in Tibet’, London, 1800.

Davis was appointed by Warren Hastings to join the embassy as surveyor and draughtsman and twelve of his drawings were engraved to illustrate Turner’s account. A further six water-colours were published by William Daniell as ‘Views in Bootan: from the drawings of Samuel Davis Esq.’, London, 1813. When Turner’s book was published Davis’s drawings were in the possession of Warren Hastings but later the collection was split up and groups of drawings are now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, and the Paul Mellon collection, Yale Center for British Art. The present five were acquired from the Royal Geographical Society, and were originally part of a large collection of Davis water-colours presented by a descendant of the artist to Lord Curzon. For descriptions of many of the drawings see M. Aris, ‘Views of medieval Bhutan’, London, 1982.

Water-colour.

Purchased 1974.

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WD4389-4390

Portrait heads of the artist and his wife Henrietta., probably taken by Davis himself.

Inscribed on labels on the back of original frames.

Purchased 1994.