Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davies, Benjamin
DAVIES, BENJAMIN, LL.D. (1814–1875), Hebraist, was born at Werne, near St. Clears, Carmarthenshire, in 1814. He studied for the baptist ministry in Wales at the Bristol Baptist College, at Glasgow, and at Leipzig, where he received in 1838 the degree of Ph.D. He proceeded to Montreal, where for six years he trained missionaries under the auspices of the Canada Missionary Society. In 1844 he returned to England as president of Stepney Baptist College, but he remained only two and a half years, accepting a professorship of McGill College, Montreal, and returning to Canada in 1847. He came back to London in 1857, and accepted the professorship of oriental and classical languages in his old college, then newly removed to Regent's Park. His favourite study was Hebrew, and he published translations of Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, which had a wide circulation. He was a member of the company for revising the translation of the Old Testament. The Paragraph Bible issued by the Religious Tract Society was largely his work, and he edited various publications. Davies was a man of great simplicity of character, and successful as a teacher. He died at Frome of hæmorrhage of the lungs, 19 July 1875.
[Baptist, 30 July 1875; Baptist Handbook for 1876.]