| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Flintshire | [Nov. 1678], [1679 (Mar.)], [1679 (Oct.)] |
Commr. for assessment, Flints. Aug. 1660–80, Denb. 1661 – 80; freeman, Denbigh 1665, common councilman 1667 – d., alderman 1676 – 77, 1679 – 80; j.p. Denb. and Flints. 1669 – d.; sheriff, Flints. 1669 – 70; dep. lt. Denb. and Flints. 1674 – d.; commr. for encroachments, Denb. 1684.2J. Williams, Recs. of Denbigh, 136, 138–9, 141; Cal. Treas. Bks. vii. 1132.
Davies came from a minor gentry family which could trace its descent to the early 13th century. His father, an active Royalist, compounded in 1648 for £646. Davies himself went abroad during the Interregnum, gaining military experience in France and the Low Countries. He took part in the royalist rising of 1659 led by Sir George Booth as a captain of horse under Roger Whitley. With the failure he was imprisoned in Chester Castle, from which he was released on 28 Jan. 1660. At the Restoration his father was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak, with an estate valued at £2,000.3Cal. Comm. Comp. 1717.
Davies himself assisted (Sir) John Carter in an affray with two alleged smugglers of Irish cattle, and obtained the protection of the House in 1667. He gained the Flintshire seat on the death of Sir Thomas Hanmer in 1678, when none of the more influential families of the shire was in a position to provide a candidate of its own. Shaftesbury saw no reason to alter the rating of ‘doubly vile’ which he had given to his predecessor. During the last weeks of the Cavalier Parliament he was named only to the committee for the bill to facilitate the conviction of Popish recusants. Classed as ‘vile’ in Shaftesbury’s list he nevertheless voted for the committal of the exclusion bill on 11 May, but was otherwise inactive in the first Exclusion Parliament. He retained his seat in the second election of 1679, although challenged by Sir John Hanmer. Moderately active in the second Exclusion Parliament, he was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges and to those on bills for burial in woollen and the regulation of hackney coaches. He did not stand in 1681, feeling it better not to affront the Court by opposing Hanmer again; but a few days after the election he was present at a dinner at which the King (he informed a Welsh friend) expressed his desire to see not only the Papists suppressed, but also the Presbyterians. He died on 29 Oct. 1684 and was buried at Mold, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.4CJ, ix. 52; HMC 3rd Rep. 259; HMC 4th Rep. 425; HMC Portland, i. 684; A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 204, 206.