John Davie (activist)

For other people named John Davie, see John Davie (disambiguation).

John Davie
Davie in Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born(1800-03-13)13 March 1800
Butterflat, Stirling, Scotland
Died4 March 1891(1891-03-04) (aged 90)
Dunfermline, Scotland
Resting placeKirkcaldy Old Kirk Graveyard
Occupations
  • Draper
  • social reformer
Years activec. 1830 – c. 1890
Organizations
Known forTemperance and vegetarianism advocacy
Spouses
Margaret Smith
​
(died 1884)​
Mary Livingston
​
(m. 1890)​

John Davie (13 March 1800 – 4 March 1891) was a Scottish draper and social reformer based in Dunfermline. After retiring from business, he became active in the Scottish temperance movement, including as a founder of the Dunfermline Total Abstinence Society. He was also active in vegetarianism advocacy; he was honorary secretary of the Dunfermline Vegetarian Society and served as secretary, treasurer and later a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. He was also a vice-president of the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination, and was associated with a range of other Victorian reform causes including opposition to vivisection and capital punishment, support for Chartism and women's suffrage, and promotion of hydrotherapy, including as managing director of the Waverly Hydrotherapy Institution at Melrose.

Biography

Early life and education

John Davie was born at Butterflat, a small farm near Stirling, on 13 March 1800.[1] His father was a farmer.[2]

Davie was educated at the parish school of St. Ninians. He was an avid reader from an early age and was described as a gifted scholar.[2]

Business career

Davie showed little interest in an agricultural career and was instead apprenticed to a draper in Stirling. After briefly working as a journeyman in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh, he spent the fifth year of his apprenticeship in Dunfermline. There he entered into a business partnership with David Reid, which proved sufficiently successful for Davie to retire from business 14 years later.[1]

Social reform

Davie served as a vice-president of the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination and was a member of the Anti–Corn Law League.[3][4]

In 1830, Davie and other members of the Dunfermline Temperance Society formed the Dunfermline Total Abstinence Society, the first of its kind in Scotland.[5]

He opposed alcohol, tobacco, vaccination, vivisection, and capital punishment.[6]: 62 [7]: 141  He supported Chartism, peace, women's suffrage, and hydrotherapy.[8][9]

Vegetarianism

At the age of 46, Davie became a vegetarian after reading John Smith's Fruits and Farinacea and on the advice of a doctor, who suggested a vegetarian diet to help his dyspepsia.[4][6]: 35 

Davie was honorary secretary of the Dunfermline Vegetarian Society.[6]: 30  For a period he served as secretary of the Vegetarian Society.[6]: 35  He also served as treasurer and later as a vice-president.[10][11] Davie distributed vegetarian literature and arranged for the Society's brochures to be inserted into periodicals by booksellers.[7]: 141 

He was one of the originators of the Waverly Hydrotherapy Institution at Melrose and served as its managing director. He promoted vegetarianism at the institution.[7]: 24 

In 1874, The Graphic described Francis William Newman, Isaac Pitman, W. Gibson Ward as "four leading vegetarians" in England.[9]

The Vegetarian Society presented an address to Davie in March 1890 to mark his 90th year. In September of that year, he attended the second International Vegetarian Congress in London.[12]

Personal life and death

Davie married three times.[1] His wife, Margaret Smith, was born in Kirkcaldy in 1799 and died on 22 February 1884. She was buried in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Graveyard.[13] His third wife was Mary Livingston, the daughter of Archibald Livingston, a Glasgow writer; they married in September 1890.[1][14]

Davie served as an elder in the United Presbyterian Church.[15]

Davie died at his home, Newlands Hill House in Dunfermline, on 4 March 1891, aged 90, after an illness of about a week.[1][16] He was buried in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Churchyard alongside his wife, Margaret Smith.[17] His books were bequeathed to a public library.[4] Mary Livingston died on 4 March 1892 and was buried alongside him.[14][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Death of Mr John Davie, Dunferline". Dunfermline Journal. 7 March 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b Winskill, P. T.; Lees, Frederic Richard (1891). The Temperance Movement and Its Workers: A Record of Social, Moral, Religious, and Political Progress. Vol. 3. London: Blackie. pp. 28–29 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Taylor, P. A. (1881). Vaccination: A letter to Dr. W. B. Carpenter, C. B., &c., &c., &c. London: E. W. Allen. p. 1 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b c Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (Thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. p. 32. Retrieved 2 October 2022.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ Stewart, Alexander (1889). Reminiscences of Dunfermline and Neighbourhood (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Scott & Ferguson, and J. Menzies & Co. p. 272.
  6. ^ a b c d Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform. London: The Ideal Publishing Union.
  7. ^ a b c Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (2002). The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF). Vol. 1. University of Southampton. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  8. ^ Durie, Alastair J. (2006). "Hydrotherapy in Scotland, 1840–1900". In Warwick, Alex; Clifford, David; Wadge, Elisabeth; Willis, Martin (eds.). Repositioning Victorian Sciences: Shifting Centres in Nineteenth-century Scientific Thinking. Anthem Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-84331-212-3.
  9. ^ a b "Four Leading Vegetarians". The Graphic. Vol. 10. July–December 1874. pp. 19–21.
  10. ^ "The Vegetarian Society". The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger (XCVIII). 1 February 1880 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ "The Vegetarian Society". The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger (CLXXL). 1 March 1886 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ "The International Vegetarian Congress". The Vegetarian. London. 20 September 1890.
  13. ^ "Notices and Correspondence". The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger. 148: ix. 1 April 1884 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ a b "Estates of the Deceased Mrs. Mary Livingston or Davie" (PDF). The New York Herald. 12 January 1920. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  15. ^ Durie, Alastair J. (2017). Scotland and Tourism: The Long View, 1700–2015. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-317-52069-6.
  16. ^ "Death of a Veteran Temperance Reformer". Perthshire Advertiser. 6 March 1891. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ^ a b "Kirkcaldy Old Parish Church: Memorial: 241". Kirkcaldy Old Kirk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.

Further reading

  • Media related to John Davie at Wikimedia Commons
  • John Davie at Find a Grave
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.