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John Davie (activist)

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

John Davie
Portrait of Davie by John MacLaren Barclay
Born(1800-03-13)13 March 1800
Stirling, Scotland
Died4 March 1891(1891-03-04) (aged 90)
Dunfermline, Scotland
Resting placeKirkcaldy Old Kirk Churchyard, Scotland
Occupation(s)Draper, activist
Spouses
Margaret Smith
​
(died)​
Mary Livingston
​
(m. 1890)​

John Davie (13 March 1800 – 4 March 1891) was a Scottish draper and activist for temperance, vegetarianism and several other causes. He was a leading figure in the Scottish temperance and vegetarianism movements.

Life and career

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John Davie was born at Butterflat, a small farm near Stirling, on 13 March 1800. He showed no interest in an agricultural career and was instead apprenticed to a draper in Stirling. The fifth year of his apprenticeship was spent in Dunfermline, after briefly working as a journeyman in Kircaldy and Edinburgh. There he formed a business partnership with Mr David Reid, which was prosperous enough that Davie was able to retire from business life 14 years later.[1]

Davie served as vice-president of the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination[2] and was a member of the Anti–Corn Law League.[3] In 1830, Davie and other members of the Dunfermline Temperance Society formed the first Total Abstinence Society in Scotland.[4] He opposed alcohol, tobacco, vaccination, vivisection,[5]: 62  and capital punishment.[6]: 141 He advocated for Chartism, peace, women's suffrage,[7] and hydrotherapy.[8]

At the age of 46,[5]: 35  Davie became a vegetarian after reading Fruits and Farinacea and on the advice of a pro-vegetarian doctor that it would help his dyspepsia.[3] For some time he was secretary of the Vegetarian Society[5]: 35  and also served as vice-president.[9] Davie distributed vegetarian literature and arranged for the Society's brochures to be inserted into periodicals by booksellers.[6]: 141  He was one of the originators of the Waverly Hydrotherapy Institution at Melrose and served as managing director.[8] He steered the clinic to support vegetarianism.[6]: 24 

In 1874, Davie, W. Gibson Ward, Isaac Pitman, and Francis William Newman were described as "four leading vegetarians" in England.[8] The Vegetarian Society presented an address to Davie in March 1890, to celebrate him reaching his 90th year. In September of the same year, Davie attended the 2nd International Vegetarian Congress in London.[10]

Davie died at his home, Newlands Hill House, Dunfermline, on 4 March 1891. He was buried in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Churchyard.[11] Davie's books were left to a public library.[3]

Personal life

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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 Churchyard.[12] His third wife was Mary Livingston,[13] the daughter of Archibald Livingston, a Glasgow writer, whom Davie married in September 1890.[1] She died in 1892[13] and was also buried in Kirkcaldy Old Kirk Churchyard, along with her husband.[11]

Davie served as a United Presbyterian elder.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Death of Mr John Davie, Dunferline". Dunfermline Journal. 7 March 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  2. ^ Taylor, P. A. (1881). Vaccination. A letter to Dr. W. B. Carpenter, C.B., &c., &c., &c. London: E.W. Allen. p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (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). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. p. 32. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  4. ^ Stewart, Alexander (1889). Reminiscences of Dunfermline and Neighbourhood (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Scott & Ferguson, and J. Menzies & Co. p. 272.
  5. ^ a b c Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform. London: The Ideal Publishing Union.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ a b c "Four Leading Vegetarians". The Graphic. Vol. 10. July–December 1874. pp. 19–21.
  9. ^ "The Vegetarian Society". The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger. CLXXL. 1 March 1886 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ "The International Vegetarian Congress". The Vegetarian. London. 20 September 1890.
  11. ^ a b "Kirkcaldy Old Parish Church: Memorial: 241". Kirkcaldy Old Kirk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Notices and Correspondence". The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger. CXLVIII: ix. 1 April 1884 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ a b "Estates of the Deceased Mrs. Mary Livingston or Davie" (PDF). The New York Herald. 12 January 1920. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  14. ^ Durie, Alastair J. (2017). Scotland and Tourism: The Long View, 1700–2015. Taylor & Francis. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-317-52069-6.

Further reading

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