Australian Dictionary of Biography entry:
Charles Henry Davis (1815–1854)
by R. A. Daly

This article was published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, 1966, online in 2006.

Charles Henry Davis (1815-1854), Catholic bishop, was born on 18 May 1815 at Usk, Monmouthshire, England, a member of an old Catholic family. At 11 he entered the Benedictine College at St Gregory's Monastery, Downside. When his schooling was completed Davis petitioned to join the Benedictine Order, received the habit on 1 March 1833, pronounced vows in June 1834 and was ordained priest on 8 November 1840. John Bede Polding had been his prefect in the college and his novice master in the monastery. After ordination Davis was himself prefect of the college and also precentor; he possessed considerable talents as an organist, a tenor singer and a composer of sacred music. In 1846-47 he had missionary charge of the parochial district at Downside. Davis's brothers, Richard (1805-1889) and Edwin (1819-1880), whom he ordained before leaving for Australia, were both monks of Downside.

The see of Maitland created by Papal Brief of 27 May 1847 was a titular one confined to the small township of East Maitland: the appointee was to be coadjutor to the archbishop of Sydney. The choice of Maitland was intended to match the erection of an Anglican see at Newcastle in 1847. The briefs appointing Davis were dated 24 September 1847 and he was consecrated by Bishop William Ullathorne at Bath on 25 February 1848.

Davis arrived in Sydney on 8 December 1848. His health had been satisfactory in England, but in Sydney he was seriously ill with a heart condition in May 1849 and again late in 1852. His work as coadjutor, for which he was often praised by Polding, was characterized by a vigour and thoroughness that gave little indication of his ill health. When he assumed office the business affairs of the archdiocese were disordered, partly through Polding's deliberate concentration on missionary work in preference to administration. Davis was appointed to help with administration and in about a year had diocesan affairs in much better order as a result of his attention to detail and a gentle but firm manner of transacting business. People found him easy to approach whereas they were inclined to be overawed by the stately manner of the archbishop.

With Davis in Sydney, Polding made further missionary tours into inland New South Wales and visited other colonies and Rome; he was away from Sydney for a third of the time between December 1848 and May 1854, and Abbot Henry Gregory, his vicar-general, and prior of the Benedictine Monastery attached to St Mary's Cathedral, was absent for half the same period. This left Davis in authority over the monastery for long periods, and the monks and students found him a sympathetic and amiable superior, but loyalty bound him to the existing order and he was unable to dispel permanently the discontent that developed within the monastery as Polding's vision of its function in the colonial church was increasingly questioned. A growing number of Catholic clergy and laity considered that the expanding and dispersed population could be best served by secular priests who were not bound by monastic rules.

Davis made frequent visits to the convent of the Benedictine nuns at Subiaco, near Parramatta, but beyond that made only one trip away from Sydney, when he went to Hobart early in 1850 in an unsuccessful attempt to mediate in the dispute between Bishop Robert Willson and Father John Joseph Therry.

Davis's most enduring work was in the field of education. On 10 February 1852 St Mary's College, Lyndhurst, was opened by Polding with an enrolment of nine boys. As first president of this college, Davis superintended it in the first two years, usually spending two or three days there each week. Lyndhurst provided a classical and literary education for sons of wealthier Catholics, and enabled students to matriculate for entry to the University of Sydney, inaugurated in October 1852. When Lyndhurst was closed in 1877 it had prepared for matriculation thirty-five of the forty-five Catholics who had graduated at the university by that time. Davis was also an original fellow of the senate of the university (1850-54). When the initial proposal to exclude clergy from any part in the management of the university had raised a widely held fear that the university would become 'Godless', William Charles Wentworth at length agreed to the nomination to the senate of one clergyman from each of the four main denominations. Davis was nominated as a representative of Catholics, William Purves of Presbyterians and William Boyce of Methodists. The Church of England stood apart until 1855, its leaders by then being satisfied with provisions for setting up colleges within the university but attached to religious denominations. Davis played a leading part in formulating these provisions although he did not live to see them become legally effective. As Francis Merewether said in moving the second reading of the affiliated colleges' endowment bill in November 1854, to Davis perhaps next to Charles Nicholson, 'the university was indebted more deeply than to any other individual. The sound views, the liberal opinions which he had ever advocated had done very much to promote that cordial co-operation on behalf of the objects of the university amongst all sects and parties on which its beneficial operations so mainly depended'. Everyone apparently spoke well of Davis and his work both in his lifetime and for years after. This was the more notable as Davis was English and most colonial Catholics at that time were Irish, and when it is taken into account that Polding and Gregory were so severely criticized that they went together to Rome in March 1854, Polding to offer his resignation to Pius IX.

Davis died on 17 May 1854 and was buried in the mortuary chapel at Subiaco Convent; his remains were transferred to St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, in August 1945.

Select Bibliography

P. F. Moran, History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (Syd, 1895)
H. N. Birt, Benedictine Pioneers in Australia, vol 2 (Lond, 1911)
M. Shanahan, ‘Bishop Davis: 1848-1854’, Manna, no 6, 1963, pp 50-62
R. A. Daly, ‘The Founding of St John's College’, Australasian Catholic Record, vol 35, no 4, Oct 1958, pp 284-306.

Citation details
R. A. Daly, 'Davis, Charles Henry (1815–1854)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davis-charles-henry-1963/text2367, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 25 June 2025.

This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (Melbourne University Press), 1966.

Reproduced by permission of Australian Dictionary of Biography. Original biography: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/davis-charles-henry-1963.

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Death of the Right Rev. Dr. Davis, Bishop Coadjutor, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 20 May 1854, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115554181:

It is our sad and painful duty to record the Death of this estimable and indefatigable Prelate, which took place on last Wednesday at half past three o'clock p.m., at St. Mary's Cathedral. The good Bishop, although of a weak and impaired constitution, still continued to discharge his sacred and arduous duties with untiring zeal and punctuality until Thursday evening the 12th instant, when he was obliged to keep his bed from a severe attack of dysentery. His medical attendants seemed to look on his case as a very dangerous one from their first visit to his Lordship. If the prayers and tears of an afflicted flock could have aided the constant and unremitting attention of the physicians, then we might have looked for a favourable termination to the Bishop's disease. But it seemed fit to the Author of Life and to a wise Providence to ordain otherwise, and our duty now is to bow down in submission to the adorable and inscrutable will of God. "May his holy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven."

The kind, constant, and anxious enquiries made at St. Mary's regarding his Lordship's health, since it was known that he was seriously ill, by persons of every rank in society, and of every shade of religious belief, shewed in what respect and esteem the good Bishop was held by every member of the community.

We give a short Biographical Notice of the Bishop, taken from the Catholic Almanac of this year, from which it appears he had just completed the Thirty-ninth year of his age, and that he departed this life on the eve of his Birth Day, the 18th of May, 1815, to enter, as we humbly hope and earnestly pray, on a "life" that will never end, in the realms of bliss.

We may truly say of Dr. Davis that a good and faithful High Priest has fallen in Israel, and that this City now sits solitary bewailing the death of a true servant of God and of an edifying ornament of the Church of God. Knowing that "it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins," and aware that the shadow of the least venial sin cannot find admittance into the kingdom of heaven, we fervently recommend the soul of the departed Bishop to the prayers of the faithful, that the Father of Mercies may purify him and admit him to the company of the blessed angels and saints, there to receive "the reward promised to the good and faithful servant," and such a one indeed was the Right Rev. Charles Henry Davis, O.S.B. Requiescat in Pace. Amen.

The Right Reverend Charles Henry Davis, Bishop of Maitland, and Coadjutor to His Grace the Archbishop of Sydney, was born at Usk, in Monmouthshire, on the 18th May, 1815. On the 15th August, 1826, he entered the College of St. Gregory, Downside, a village near Bath, where, having completed the usual course of studies, he associated himself with the Religious Community directing the government of the College, and received the habit of the Benedictine Order at the hands of the Prior, the Rev. G. Turner, O.S.B., on the 1st March, 1833. After the ordinary noviciate, on the 24th June, 1834, he made his Religious Profession in the presence of the Rev. J.B. Polding, the present Archbishop of Sydney. On the 8th November, 1840, he was ordained Priest, and on the 23rd of the same month celebrated his first Mass. The Bull for his Consecration bears date September 24, 1847, the Feast of the B. V. De Mercede. His consecration took place on the 26th of February, 1848, the Feast of St. Matthias. For nine years previous to his consecration he occupied the responsible office of Prefect of the College, and for the greater portion of this period he discharged the duties of Precentor. For two years anterior to his episcopal elevation he was occupied in the missionary duties of the village in which the College is situated.

On the 15th August, 1848, he left England for Australia, and on the 8th December of the same year arrived at Sydney.

Circumstances of more than ordinary interest conspired to render his arrival a source of high felicitation to His Grace the Archbishop. Under the spiritual instruction of the latter, His Lordship had the happiness of making his First Communion; at a more advanced period of his life, his Religious Profession was made in the presence of His Grace, under whom his novitiate had been passed, and it was a consoling manifestation of the providential tenderness of heaven that he should be ultimately permitted to co-operate with his Grace in the promotion of religion in Australia.

His departure from England had been the occasion of general grief amongst his numerous friends, whose sorrow was in some degree mitigated by the holy vocation of Missionary duty which his Lordship was obeying. On his arrival he immediately applied himself to the discharge of his laborious functions with the same unbending perseverance which had characterised his application to duty in England.

Although frequently overpowered by illness of an aggravated form, his Lordship did not cease to attend personally to the discharge of every duty; and in addition to the ordinary functions of the Episcopate, he used to be actively engaged as a practical member of the Senate of the University of Sydney, and to supervise as President, the progress of St. Mary's College, Lyndhurst, and St. Mary's Seminary, Sydney.

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Funeral of Bishop Davis, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 May 1854, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12957587:

Notwithstanding the early hour—half-past seven o'clock appointed for the funeral—we anticipated, in our last number, that the attendance would be amply sufficient to testify the honoured estimation in which the much-respected prelate was held. That anticipation was not only realized, but far exceeded, for the funeral procession was by far the largest that was ever assembled in Sydney to pay that tribute of respect to departed worth, which such a ceremonial is designed to indicate. As Parramatta, Windsor, and the several towns in the county of Cumberland, contributed their respective contingents to augment the cortège, there could not have been less than from seven to ten thousand persons assembled, who joined the procession from the time of its leaving Sydney until it reached the cemetery of Subiaco, attached to the Benedictine Monastery of St. Benedict.

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Bishop Davis Re-interred in Cathedral, Catholic Weekly, Sydney, 30 August 1945, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146480550:

Last Friday the mortal remains of the Most Rev. Charles Henry Davis, O.S.B., first Bishop of Maitland and Coadjutor of Sydney, were transferred to the crypt of the Holy Souls at St. Mary's Cathedral.

They had lain, since his death in 1854, in the Benedictine cemetery at Subiaco, near Parramatta.

His Grace the Archbishop of Sydney (Most Rev. N.T. Gilroy, D.D.) received the remains at the main door of the crypt, and performed the final absolutions before the main altar, where Holy Mass was celebrated next morning.

A lead coffin had been especially fashioned to encase the original one, and nine men were required to lift it into position on the bier.

The remains were finally interred on Saturday morning in a vault to the right of the main altar.

Living relatives of Bishop Davis include the Very Rev. Dean Thomas P. Davis, of Kingswood, S.A. (nephew), and Mr. G.A. Davis, of the Commonwealth Disposals Committee (great-grand-nephew).

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 129-130:

Davis, Charles Henry, Most Rev., OSB, English
First Class Musician and Liturgist
It will be noted by the astute that the order of appointment of bishops for the Australian Mission was: Polding, Willson (Hobart), Brady (Perth), Murphy (Adelaide), Goold (Melbourne), and Davis. The latter was the first to be appointed a Coadjutor. His appointment can be regarded as a tribute to Polding, and his demise a tragedy for the Old Master. The name of Charles Henry figures in several histories, so this write-up will be curtailed. Among the sources that the researcher should look into are: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 1, 1788-1850, in an article by R.A. Daly; 'Manna' (University publication in Sydney), 1963, P. 50; Cardinal Moran s 'History of the Church in Australasia'.

In 'The Men of '38' (op. cit.) Mgr. Hartigan rightly sums up the status of Davis: "Dr. Davis was styled Bishop of Maitland, but he never saw the place. It was for him a Titular See and was confined to the township of East Maitland, which is interesting in that it is the only instance in our history where an Auxiliary Bishop was not given as his nominal diocese one of the decadent but once illustrious Sees of olden times. Perhaps Dr. Polding, as Vicar Apostolic, had suffered so much embarrassment over his Hierocaesarensis when the bigots dubbed him a foreigner, that he saw to it that his coadjutor did not carry a similar handicap ..."

Charles Henry was born on 18 May 1815 in Usk, Monmouth. Education was received at Downside Abbey where he became well acquainted with his Old Master, John Bede Polding. He received the Benedictine habit on 1 March 1833 and was professed on 24 June 1834. Ordination was conferred on 8 November 1840 and the subject stayed on the College staff, becoming later the Prefect of Studies. Consecration as Bishop of Maitland and Coadjutor of Sydney was conferred at Bath on 25 February 1848, and he arrived in Sydney on 8 December of the same year. His accomplishments were many: a lover of liturgy which flowered at St. Mary's as it hadn't had the chance to do so before; good organist, a lovely tenor voice, very successful to teaching Gregorian Chant, a helpful administrator to the Master who was tardy in answering correspondence. On the educational level: a prominent member of the University Senate, and founder of Lyndhurst College. Perhaps the course of history would have been changed had he lived on. Perhaps Lyndhurst would not have failed as a Catholic place of learning. The dispositions of Providence intervened for reasons that have intrigued historians ever since. His early death took place short of a day to the age of 39, on 17 May 1854. Remains were first interred at Subiaco Convent, Parramatta, and transferred in August 1945 to the crypt in St. Mary's Basilica.
(Footprints, Vol. 3, No. 7)