Australian Dictionary of Biography

Arthur Davies (1786?-1853), naval officer and landowner, joined the navy as a first-class volunteer in June 1800 and served in various ships in the Channel Islands, Baltic and the East and West Indies. He was twice wounded, and warmly recommended for his good services, especially for destroying pirates at Jamaica in 1804. He was promoted lieutenant in 1807 and returned to England in the Belliqueux in 1811. After three years in European waters, he went to the Newfoundland Station and in 1816 was invalided home from the West Indies. In 1817-23 he served in the Water Guard service against smugglers. On 6 May 1824 at St Pancras New Church he married Elizabeth, second daughter of George Matcham (1754?-1833) of Ashfold Lodge, Slaugham, Sussex, and Catherine, sister of Lord Nelson.

Hoping to improve his fortune in order to retire with respectable comfort, Davies decided to emigrate. Through his wife his thoughts turned to Australia where her relations in the Matcham, Pitt and Wilshire families were already growing in number and her brother Charles Horatio Nelson Matcham (1805-1844) was about to take up a maximum grant in New South Wales. Armed with strong testimonials from several admirals and captains, he was given a letter of recommendation by the Colonial Office, and arrived in Hobart Town with his wife and two children in the Lang in December 1828. His naval service entitled him to a maximum grant, but so great an area of good land was not available near Hobart, and his own and his wife's health made residence in the interior inadvisable. He agreed to accept a smaller grant located on an isolated tract of rich land on the Derwent five miles (8 km) from New Norfolk near Mount Dromedary, and called it The Lawn. Improvements to his farm entitled him within six months to another 1000 acres (405 ha), but the order for this was revoked on the report of a surveyor that Davies should be made to accept the full 2560 acres (1036 ha) of the original order at that place, taking good and bad land alike, and not to select only the small area of rich land. For eight years Davies contested the withdrawal with great pertinacity and occasional abusiveness, and on the strength of his influence, colonial investment and naval service he succeeded in obtaining appointment of a commission to inquire into his case. Independent appraisers supported his claim to the limited amount of useful land available, and he was awarded 2000 acres (809 ha) both as compensation and as a reward for the large capital he had spent in improvements at The Lawn. It must have been with some relief that he finally received the title deeds to his several properties in 1839. These he added to judiciously, so that by 1840 he had nearly 8000 acres (3238 ha) in the new country at the River Nive. This estate he called Bronti (later Bronte) reputedly after the dukedom which had been bestowed on Nelson. After an initial start with sheep, he found that his properties combined well for the fattening and sale of prime cattle, an enterprise little affected by the shortage of labour. Limestone was quarried on the Derwent property, kilns were erected, and with water carriage available his ventures flourished, and his fortunes were boosted in October 1834 when he inherited money from his father-in-law.

At the end of 1840 the claims of a grown-up family made a move to Hobart expedient, and in June 1841 he took the position of immigration agent for Van Diemen's Land there. Two years later he was given leave to return to England where parliament had granted £10,000 to Nelson's two sisters and their heirs. Davies did not return to Australia. In 1848 he was promoted commander and in 1851 his eldest daughter, Catherine Elizabeth, married the son of Captain Charles Swanston at Calcutta. Davies died on 13 July 1853 in London, aged 67. His wife had predeceased him in November 1851.