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Sir William Davidson of
Curriehill (c.1640-1683), Baronet and Privy Councillor and Resident
Agent/Ambassador of Charles II in Amsterdam. Davidson moved to the Dutch
Republic in 1640 in which country he was twice married to Dutch women.
He was a man of wide business interests who corresponded in Dutch with
the Swedish based Dutch Momma-Reenstierna family in 1648 on a wide
variety of subjects. He makes reference to an English captain, Peter
Murdoch (Pieter Modrich?) in 1650, and he also refers to William Strang
[SSNE 807]. It is very probable that he also knew Alexander Bruce [SSNE
6623], 2nd Earl of Kincardine, during his Dutch exile of 1657-1660. In
1660, William Thomson wrote a letter from Breda noting that he had
borrowed money from his old friend Sir William Davidson.
Davidson at Veere-
On 27 February 1662, Davidson was approved by the convention of Burghs
in Edinburgh to serve as the Conservator at the Scottish Staple at Veere.
Letters from the Aberdeen Council among others note that Davidson wished
the staple moved to Rotterdam, but Charles II blocked any such move. In
November 1664 he was involved in the collection of money for Charles I
in response to a letter from an agent of the distressed churches, but it
is not known what the outcome of this business was. Little information
survives of his actual position as conservator after 1665 due to the
Anglo-Dutch war. Davidson had to leave Amsterdam and move to Hamburg,
and from there to England. During this time Davidson assumed a more
political role and his duties to the burghs lost out. From his base in
Antwerp throughout the winter of 1666-67, Davidson used his Dutch
contacts to keep the British king informed of Dutch intent, including a
planned invasion of Scotland in support of the Pentland Rising. The loss
of his position as British Anbassador in the Dutch Republic meant that
he had to pay ordinary taxes on his business interests there, and this
proved a crippling blow which he refused to pay. After the war, Davidson
returned to Amsterdam, but there he was less popular with the
authorities than before. By December 1667, Davidson was back in
Edinburgh where, on 5 March 1668, he produced a patent from the King
under the Great Seal appointing him Conservator and granting reversion
of the office to his son, Peter Davidson. Once more, Davidson tried to
get the staple moved away from Veere to Dordrecht with some initial
success - the staple remained in Dortrecht between 1669-1676. As the
deal was being considered, the City of Amsterdam lodged a formal
complaint against Davidson for leaving the town without paying his taxes
with the result that the Dordrecht deal effectively fell through. In any
case, Davidson appointed Mr Johan Bain to Rotterdam to collect his taxes
there, and more Scottish ships reported there than had ever gone to
Veere. Complaints from Scots were brought to the attention of the
Burghs. Indeed, Davidson became increasingly unpopular with both the
Dutch and the Scottish burghs and by May 1671 he resigned his position.
Roosenboom believed that Davidson returned to Scotland after this. He
lodged a will in Edinburgh in July 1692.
Davidson in Norway-
Around this time Davidson also appears in Norwegian sources. In July
1656 he invested 1000 riksdaler in the iron works that Bernt Burnsmand
established at Mostadmarken and the following year he invested a further
400. Davidson placed his agent Alexander Wishart as the director and
boss of the iron works in 1658. Wishart and Brunsmand did not get on
well, although Brunsmand died in 1659 just after submitting an official
complaint about Wishart to the Master of Mining. Specifically, on 11 May
1661 the president and council in Trondheim were ordered by Frederik III
to instruct the late Berent Brunsman's inheritors to satisfy a claim
madeagainst them by Davidson. Claus von Ahlfelt was ordered by Frederik
III repeatedly to ensure that Davidson's legal clerk (factor), Jacob
Madsen got help in his business affairs and the running of the works. By
May 1664, another order was issued to ensure that some form of agreement
was put in place between Burgermester Laurits Bastiansen and Davidson
regarding the running of the ironworks which could not run without
employing local labour again. The problem arose because Bastiansen had
held the farms within the grounds of the ironworks and had lost them to
Davidson. Bastiansen agreed to give up Mostadmarken's and Hommevikens
smallholdings and woods in exchange for other land elsewhere. The king's
commissioners were told in no uncertain terms that Davidson had to be
helped in this case, highlighting the importance of the ironworks to
Frederik III. On the same day as this order was issued, Davidson's
privileges were formerly recognised by the king. Within months, Reinholt
von Hoven received an order from the king to ensure that Davidson
received his privileges and was told that his factor in this matter
would be one Alexander Wishart who had already begun correspondence with
Norwegian officials in July. Despite earlier agreements, Laurits
Bastiansen and others continued to cut wood from within the grounds of
the ironworks, and Von Hoven and Hans Wesling were ordered in August
1665 to intervene to prevent such actions happening again, although the
matter was still not resolved in April 1667. Davidson obtained a
statement of productivity at the iron works from Wishart in 1665: a
total expenditure of 21,589 riksdaler and a profit of 4333 riksdaler -
the majority of produce had been 571 shippounds of bar-iron, and the
price of bar-iron was 7 riksdaler to the shippound. Apart from Wishart
there were 13 people employed at the works that year. Davidson's
signature on a letter as a director of the Royal Salt Company in March
1666 suggests that after moving from Amsterdam he spent at least some of
his time in Norway. On 17 December of the following year, Frederik III
sent a note to Nils Toller to the effect that he was a partner to the
value of 3,200 daler in Davidson's share of the Royal Salt Company. He
must have done well from his Norwegian interests. Two letters from the
Danish king in 1670 included variously demands for payment of 37,541
dalers and demands to pay 21,541 dalers to William Davidson. These were
followed by an extension to Davidson's privilages for a further 20 years
for an annual price of only 12 dalers per annum. Davidsen also took
possession of Leira (Strinda) and Draksen sawmills and Draksen farm in
Klaebu from Commissioner Paulsen. For these places, Davidson installed
David Jacobsen (based in Trondheim) as his factor. Soon after this,
Laurits Bastiansen's inheritors agreed to live up to his contract with
Davidson which had been broken as a result of the previous Anglo-Dutch
war during which Denmark-Norway sided with the Dutch. It appears that
Davidson continued to develop his business network. In 1675 Davidson
sold all his Norwegian property, including Mostadmarken ironworks. Not
all went well and his factor, William Hunter, began proceedings against
him in December 1681 and commissioners were appointed to intervene in
the dispute. Among Davidson's other partners was the British resident in
Copenhagen, Jean Paul [SSNE 1177]. Letters dated between 10 February
1683 and 13 June 1685 show that Paul wished to secure guarantees to
cover his investment in Davidson's various factories. A Wellam Davidsson
applied at some point to join the service of Prince Carl Gustaf (Karl X)
in Sweden. It may have been this man or [SSNE 2434]. Among other Swedish
contacts of Davidson's was Georg Stiernhielm. a man who in turn had
influenced G. W. Leibniz in his pansohic studies. Siernhielm considered
Davidson a "fellow illuminist" along with Francis Bacon, Robert Fludd,
Meric Casaubon and Thomas Vaughan. Davidson was also a friend of the
Freemason, and founder of the Royal Society, Sir Robert Moray [SSNE
6599], as well as Constantijn Huygens and several prominent Jews. Of his
two Dutch wives, one was called Elizabeth and with her had a son called
Peter. We know that one of them was the sister of Dr Janus Klenckius, a
professor of logic who had been knighted by Charles II. The English
traveller Philip Skippon recorded this in his travel journal in 1663.
This may be the same William Davidson noted in 1646 in the Liber
Causarum at Riksarkivet in Stockholm which records Davidson, a Scottish
merchant, Willaim Heij and his colleagues, involved in an unspecified
case. Another (or the same?) William Davdison was involved in a legal
case against David Pfeiff in 1647, but no source for this information
was provided.
The above taken from
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/ssne/item.php?id=5382 |
