William Davison (physician)
Scottish physician, chemist and biologist (1593-1669)

William Davison, or Davidson, (fl. 1635–1660) was a Franco-Scottish chemist and physician.
Biography
Davison was of Scottish descent, but at an early period settled in Paris, and, through the patronage of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, was named physician to the king of France.
Lord Scudamore, English ambassador in Paris, writing to Secretary Windebank, promises to ‘signify to Dr. Davison his majesty's [Charles I] gracious favour. He has been rightly informed concerning the worth of this man, and the benefit his Majesty's subjects receive by him’ (Cal. State Papers, Charles I, Dom. Ser. 1635–6, p. 321).
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2578435. VIAF identifies the subject as 76680640. The Library of Congress control number is no2009007018. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1635 and 1660.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Davison (physician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.