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11 Facts About Nathaniel Davison

1.

Nathaniel Davison discovered a space in the Great Pyramid, now known as "Davison's Chamber", or "first relieving chamber".

2.

Nathaniel Davison was the fourth son of George Davison of Little Mill, Longhoughton, Northumberland; his sister Jane was mother of John Yelloly the physician.

3.

Nathaniel Davison had been hoping for Naples, asking Thomas Percy for the influence of the Duke of Northumberland in support.

4.

Nathaniel Davison died in Alnwick on 23 February 1809, aged 72 or 73, and was buried at Longhoughton.

5.

Sir Henry Taylor, brought up in County Durham where his father was a friend of Nathaniel Davison, recollected that he wore a pigtail, one of the last men of his generation to do so.

6.

Nathaniel Davison sold the home farm Little Mill to Lord Grey.

7.

In 1763 Nathaniel Davison travelled to Egypt with Wortley Montagu, whom he knew through the London bookseller Thomas Becket.

8.

Nathaniel Davison himself spent 18 months at Alexandria, and then the same length of time at Cairo, and visited the pyramids.

9.

Nathaniel Davison later conjectured about the architectural role of the chamber he discovered, in a letter to Joseph White of 1779, coming to conclusions comparable with those later published by Richard William Howard Vyse.

10.

Extracts from Nathaniel Davison's journals were published in 1817 by Robert Walpole, in his collection Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey.

11.

Nathaniel Davison helped to bring up his nephew John Yelloly, after his father died.