He was a grandson of Maj. Gen. William Preston of the Confederate Army who was a member of Congress and U.S. Minister to Spain, and a descendant of William Richardson Davie, the 10th Governor of North Carolina and U.S. Minister to France who was a General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

[1] Davie amassed a large collection of historical documents over the course of his life, pertaining to the early settling of the United States.

These include The Preston Davie Collection of Early Americana housed at University of North Carolina.

[1] In 1930, he married his second wife Eugenie Mary "May" Ladenburg (1895–1975), who was a prominent activist in the Republican Party.

[1] This biographical article related to the United States Army is a stub.