[2] His father, John Davies, was rector of Kingsland, Herefordshire, and prebendary of Hereford and St Asaph Cathedrals.
His particular crony was Timothy Thomas, rector of Presteigne, Radnorshire, in his neighbourhood, who joined him in translating the Essay on Man into Latin verse; he died, aged 59, in 1751.
Davies became known in the literary circles of Lichfield; Anna Seward, then a girl, thought him a spirit "beatified before his time".
Davies left the living of Kingsland and his whole fortune to Richard Evans; he was the nephew of his brother-in-law Henry Morgan of Henblas.
Thomas Pennant's Tour in Wales contains a poem on Caractacus, delivered at an annual meeting on Caer Caradoc.