Sir John Francis Davis (16 July 1795 – 13 November 1890), also rendered in Chinese as 德庇時, 爹核士 and 大衛斯, was a British sinologist, diplomat and colonial administrator, born in London as the eldest son of Samuel Davis, a director of the East India Company and an amateur artist. He joined the Company's Canton factory as a writer in 1813, aged eighteen, and was assigned to study Chinese, for which he showed great aptitude. He accompanied Lord Amherst's embassy to Peking in 1816, chaired the Company's Select Committee at Canton in 1832, and that year became a Fellow of the Royal Society; in 1834 he became Deputy Chief Superintendent of Trade in China and in 1835 Chief Superintendent. His English translation of the Chinese novel The Fortunate Union and his writing on Chinese poetry made him one of the leading figures of the Canton school of early British sinology. He arrived in Hong Kong on 7 May 1844 and took office the next day as the second Governor of Hong Kong and minister to China, and he tried, without success, to win the right for foreign merchants to enter the city of Canton to trade. His term was dominated by severe fiscal strain as London cut its subsidy year after year, forcing the government to rely on land sales and fees, and he introduced public land auctions to raise revenue. In May 1844 he issued the first ordinance governing the Chinese population, adapting the traditional baojia mutual-responsibility system to village policing, and in August the Legislative Council passed the Registration Ordinance, which required inhabitants to register and pay a fee and triggered a Chinese strike, shop closures and an exodus, and had to be suspended. He also tried drawing on Chinese community leaders to help keep order, foreshadowing later rule through Chinese elites. He left office in March 1848, being succeeded by Samuel George Bonham; he then continued his Chinese studies, was created a baronet in 1854, and died on 13 November 1890.
Facing a tight fiscal position, Davis kept his administration running on land sales and fees, and after the Registration Ordinance provoked Chinese protests he adjusted his approach, setting a precedent for the colonial government's later practice of ruling through Chinese community leaders; he was also the first sinologist to become Governor of Hong Kong.
Achievements
- 1816 · Accompanied Lord Amherst's embassy to Peking.
- 1834 · Became Deputy Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, rising to Chief Superintendent the following year.
- 1844 · Became the second Governor of Hong Kong; that year the Legislative Council passed the Registration Ordinance.