Born on December 29, 1822, in Worcester, Massachusetts,[1] Davis read law in 1844 and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1847 from Harvard University.

[citation needed] He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Orange County, 1st District) in 1869 but vacated his seat on March 26, 1869 to accept a federal post.

[1] Davis was nominated by President Chester A. Arthur on December 13, 1882, to the seat on the Court of Claims vacated by himself.

Why Bancroft Davis's role in the controversy is worth mentioning is that he noted in the headnote to the court's opinion that the Chief Justice Morrison Waite began oral argument by stating, "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations.

"[5] In a published account of Bancroft's collected Supreme Court reports and notes from 1885 to 1886,[6] he wrote of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case that, "The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

"[7] Journalists and authors such as Thom Hartman have since cited Davis's prior position as president of Newburgh and New York Railway as evidence of a conflict of interest in the corporate personhood interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling dealing with a railroad.