William Davison was born in Alnwick on November 16, 1781. In 1802, Davison set up a pharmacy and by 1803 was working in partnership with a printer named Joseph Perry. A year later Davison expanded his business to include books, paper, drawing materials, and musical instruments in addition to the usual pharmacy goods.

Davison is most known for his work in printing, a career he hadn’t planned for. His transition into printing began officially when he went into partnership with John Catnach. After two years the partnership dissolved but Davison maintained his printing business.

Davison’s first venture in printing was with stereotyping. This is a method that uses replaceable letters to create a full page of text. This allowed for the easy printing of multiple pages. Davison used metal removable type and began producing his own plates at a small foundry on Bondgate Street in Alnwick. There he employed Thomas Bewick, who illustrated his books and publications.

Davison worked hard and proved to be very innovative with his work in printing. He produced a wide variety of items from broadsheets and pamphlets to school books. He also created several guide books for Alnwick and attempted to create a comprehensive history of the area, which turned out to be a failure.

Davison’s most significant contribution to printing was his Book of Common Prayer and his folio Bible. He attempted to sell The Bible as 100 sections with commentary for a shilling each, but the venture turned out to be a financial disaster.

However, his Bible has since been recognised as an innovative attempt at support for learning the Christian faith. The Bailiffgate Museum holds a copy that in 2013 was designated by Arts Council England as one of the Top 100 Objects in the North East of England.

After Infant Schools became established in England in the 1830’s, Davison became a national supplier of educational books. They ranged from primers for new readers to illustrated short stories. The book consisted of 8 vignette panels with text printed on both sides of the paper. This would then be cut and folded to produce a child-size, 16-page book. It proved cheap to produce and was accessible to the masses.

He would go on to produce several school textbooks, the most successful being his edition of Charles Hutton’s Complete Treatise on Practical Arithmetic and Book-Keeping, printed in 1828.