DAVIDSON, DANIEL G [SSNE 967]
- Surname
- DAVIDSON, DAVISSON
- First name
- DANIEL G
- Title/rank
- BURGESS
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Region
- ZAMOSC
- Social status
- BURGESS
Text source
Daniel Davidson was born in Zamosc in 1647 the son of Andrew Davidson [SSNE 5460] and his wife Anna Iwaszkiewicz. His siblings included Isabel [SSNE 6500], Elizabeth [SSNE 6501] and Andrew [SSNE 6499]. He attended Zamosc Academy in 1654 and claimed to have learned Latin and Greek there. When he was 16 in 1660 he moved to Danzig to learn to become a trader and learn German. In 1668 he travelled to Breslau/Wroclaw and Leipsig. He married Catherine Aidie [SSNE 6509] the daughter of Danzig merchant Alexander Aidie [SSNE 6510] in 1677. They had 9 children who were educated by a Scottish student of theology, Alexander Chalmers [SSNE 6512]. Daniel G Davidson became a burgess of Danzig in 1682 and eventually he became one of 4 well-known Scottish shipowners in the port. His export trade consisted of rye, wheat, linseed and potash to Amsterdam, Bayonne, Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Lisbon. He imported wine, cloth, spices, paper amongst other things. Daniel was also engaged in civic duties such as the old people's home, the Church of Peter and Paul, and the parish school. His success as a merchant resulted in his establishment of a fund for poor widows and orphans and establishing a legacy for providing scholarships for university study in 1688. Davidson died in or after 1697. Cf. [SSNE 960]S. Seliga and L. Koczy, Scotland and Poland a chapter of forgotten history, (Scotland, 1969), p.8; T. Fischer, The Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia (Edinburgh, 1903), p.196; C. Ozog, "Scottish Merchants in Poland 1550-1750" in Journal of the Sydney Society for Scottish History, vol.3 (1995), p.72; see also A.F. Steuart, Scots in Poland, p.295; A. Bieganska, "Andrew Davidson (1591-1660)and his descendants" in Scottish Slavonic Review, 10 (1988), pp.7-18; A. Bieganska, The Learned Scots in Poland (From the Mid-Sixteenth to the close of the Eighteenth Century) in 'Canadian Slavonic Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1, March 2001, p.4.
Service record
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, ZAMOSC
- Arrived 1654-01-01
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, DANZIG
- Arrived 1660-01-01
- Departed 1667-12-31
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose MERCANTILE
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, BRESLAU, LEIPZIG
- Arrived 1668-01-01
- Departed 1668-12-31
- Capacity MERCHANT, purpose MERCANTILE
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, DANZIG
- Arrived 1682-01-01
- Departed 1697-12-31
- Capacity BURGESS, purpose CIVIC, MERCANTILE