Grace Davy (Millet)

Humphry Davy's mother was born Grace Millett. She came from a old formerly wealthy family, but her parents died within hours of each other from malignant fever. Grace and her two sisters were adopted by a man named John Tonkin who was a surgeon who lived in Panzance, Cornwall.

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Mrs. Davy was left a widow at the age of thirty-four, when her son Humphry was just sixteen years of age. Mrs. Davy was left with an income of one hundred and fifty pounds a year, but with a debt of thirteen hundred pounds, due to some unfortunate mining investments made by her husband Robert. Not only did Mrs. Davy succeed in giving her family a good education, but she determined to pay off the debt which her husband had left. To this end she went into partnership with a French lady who, with her sister, had fled to England from France because of the French Revolution. These ladies established a millinery business, in which Mrs. Davy remained a partner for some years, until she came into possession of a family estate which brought her an income of three hundred pounds per annum, whereupon she retired from business. But what is of special interest is that she succeeded in paying off the whole of her husband's debt.