DAVIS, Richard Bingham, poet, born in New York City, 21 August 1771; died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1799. He was educated at Columbia, but was not graduated. He pursued the business of his father, woodcarving, until 1796, when he became editor of the "Diary," a daily gazette published in New York, for which he wrote about one year. He then engaged in mercantile business. In appearance he is said to have been somewhat like Oliver Goldsmith awkward in manner and person, as well as in speech, His poems are expressions of personal sentiment, tinged with melancholy. They were collected and published by the "Calliopean Society," of which he was a member (New York, 1807). An" Ode to imagination" shows his earnestness, and an "Elegy on an Old Wig, found in the Street," his humor. He was also a contributor to the " Drone Papers," published in the "New York Magazine," for which he wrote a well-drawn character sketch of himself, under the name of "Martlett."