Item 0001 - Letter, 1 February 1872

Benjamin Davies was born in 1814, near St. Clears, Carmarthenshire, Wales.

He was a Welsh Hebraist. In 1830, he entered Bristol Baptist College, England. He subsequently studied in Dublin, Glasgow, and Leipzig where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1838, and developed friendships with several eminent German Hebraists. The same year he returned to London where he was ordained, before taking up the post of Principle of Montreal Training College for North American Missionaries (1838–1844). He trained missionaries under the auspices of the Canada Missionary Society. In 1844, he was appointed President and theological tutor of Stepney Baptist College, London, where he stayed until becoming Professor of Semitics at McGill College, Montreal in 1847. He returned to London in 1857, where he taught oriental and classical languages at the then Regent's Park Baptist College till 1875. His favourite study was Hebrew, and he published translations of Gesenius's “Student's Hebrew Grammar” and “Student's Lexicon of the Hebrew Language”, and an annotated edition of E. Robinson's “Harmony of the Gospels”. He was a member of the company for revising the translation of the Old Testament. He received an honorary LL.D. degree from Trinity College in Dublin.

In 1839, he married Eliza Try. He died on July 19, 1875, in Frome, Somerset, England.