He was educated at a private school in the town before being contracted to John Wilson of York as an apprentice for five years on 17 July 1816.

During Joseph's study later, he purchased some of the human remains from Brooke's collection after it was sold to phrenologist James De Ville.

[1] Joseph early settled at Albion Street Shelton, Staffordshire (now Hanley), and was a medical practitioner till his death on 19 May 1881.

In 1856 he began with John Thurnam, the publication of Crania Britannica: delineations and descriptions of the skulls of the aboriginal and early inhabitants of the British islands, with text, plates and an accompanying atlas.

In 1867 he published a catalogue of the collection called Thesaurus Craniorum, describing and figuring many specimens, and giving 25,000 measurements.

[2][7] As well as his collection of human remains, Davis was an avid collector of books, photographs, prints, drawings and artefacts relating to many cultural groups.

[8] Davis also bought art works relating to Tasmanian Aborigines directly from the artist John Skinner Prout.

He published a detailed article on these, "Some Account of Runic Calendars and Staffordshire Clogg Almanacs", Archaologia, Vol.

Many works relating to Oceania, Asia, the Americas and Africa were purchased by A W Franks and given to the British Museum in the late 1880s and 1890s.