Family and Education

m.(1) bur. 1569; (2) Mary (d.1621), da. of Thomas (‘Customer’) Smythe I; at least 3s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Receiver of crown lands in S. Wales by 1567.2

Biography

In 1569 Davy became a churchwarden of St. Mary Aldermanbury, where he had lived for at least five years. For many years he was one of the farmers of the impropriate rectory, which was leased to the parish by the Crown. His brother-in-law Thomas Fanshawe I probably got him his Welsh offices. For over 30 years—beginning in 1562—Davy invested in church and crown lands in Wales, and he would have been well placed to obtain a Welsh borough seat in 1571. He left no traces upon the known records of the House.3

By 1589 Davy was sufficiently prosperous to enjoy a country residence at Barnes, as well as his London house. In the subsidy assessment of 1593-4 his goods were valued at £20. He may have been the Robert Davies whose house in Farringdon, London was assessed at 40s. in August 1596, and who refused to contribute towards ships for the Queen’s service, saying that he had paid his subsidy elsewhere. His will, drawn up a decade before his death, contained bequests to the poor of London, Norwich and Barnes. He left £400 to each of the two surviving children of his second marriage and his Norfolk and Carmarthen lands to his son by his first marriage. This Robert Davy, aged 35 on his father’s death, was also left £200 to procure the ‘reversion of mine office’. The widow was executrix and the overseers were Thomas Fanshawe, two brothers-in-law, and a nephew. Davy was buried in St. Mary Aldermanbury 13 Mar. 1599.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: H.G.O.

Notes

• 1. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. cix, cx), 17 and n. 6; Par. Reg. St. Mary Aldermanbury (Harl. Soc. lxi), 26, 32, 39, 41, 103.
• 2. Augmentations, ed. Lewis and Davis Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law (ser. xiii), 419, 486, 504; Exchequer, ed. E. G. Jones (same ser. iv), 103, 112, 225. 314.
• 3. P. C. Carter, Hist. St. Mary Aldermanbury, 39, 40 58; CPR, 1566-9, p. 186; PCC 31 Kidd; Exchequer, 32, 35, 103, 112, 255, 265; Augmentations, 213, 215-231, 270, 418-21, 451, 485, 491, 501, 524, 526-7.
• 4. Surr. Arch, Colls. xviii. 199; PCC 31 Kidd; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. cix, cx), 17; Landsd. 81, f. 81; Par Reg. St. Mary Aldermanbury, 66, 103.