John Davies was born in London on June 10, 1814.

He was sent to Hobart, Australia as a convict in August 1831, for ordering candles on someone elses account. His father had been sent to New South Wales as a convict only a few years before.

On July 5, 1854 he and Auber George Jones , a Tasmanian pastoralist, published the first edition of The Mercury.

In June, 1872, Davies opened up the theatre building (which he then owned) to homeless people seeking temporary shelter due to floods. He caught a chill from which he later died, on June 11, 1872.