DAVIS, HON. ROBERT T. (M. D.), born in County Down, Ireland, 1823; died in Fall River, Mass., October 29, 1906. He was the son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Davis. His father was a Presbyterian and his mother a member of the Society of Friends. They came to America in 1826 and settled in Amesbury, Mass. Doctor Davis was educated in the Friends’ School at Providence, R. I., and at Amesbury Academy, and began the study of medicine with Dr. Thomas Wilbur, well remembered as a leading physician in Fall River. He passed two years at Tremont Medical School in Boston and was graduated from the medical department of Harvard in 1847. In 1850 he went to Fall River and began the practice of his profession, winning a high rank as a skillful physician. When a young man he was active in the anti-slavery movement and in 1851 made a speech in favor of instructing the local representatives to vote for Charles Sumner for United States senator. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1853, and in 1858 and 1861 was a state senator. He was a member of the national Republican convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and also in 1876 when Rutherford B. Hayes was nominated. At the request of Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, he introduced the resolution for the appointment of peace commissioners to attend a convention in Washington in an endeavor to preserve peace between the North and the South. During the early days of the Civil War he assisted in the formation of the Seventh Massachusetts Regiment, intending to accompany them to the front as surgeon, but gave way to a relative of the colonel of the regiment, who was desirous of securing the appointment. He was later appointed by Governor Andrew medical examiner of recruits for his district, and later examiner of applicants for exemption from military duty on account of physical disability. He was one of the three local surgeons who, in obedience to a call from Washington, after the second battle of Bull Run, went to Alexandria and assisted in treating the wounded. In 1863 Governor Andrew appointed him a member of the State Board of Charities, and in 1869 he was appointed a member of the State Board of Health by Governor Claflin, and when the two boards were consolidated he was appointed as a member of the new board by Governor Talbot. In 1873 he was elected mayor of Fall River without opposition, and at the close of his term he donated his salary to the Children’s Home. He was elected to Congress in 1882 and re-elected in 1884 and 1886 and was afterwards appointed by Gov. Oliver Ames a member of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission. Doctor Davis in his long life had been prominent and successful in so many different fields that his early life as a physician and