As an adult, Davies said:

I am a son of pray­er, like my namesake, Samuel the prophet, and my mother called me Samuel, because, she said, I have asked him of the Lord.

Davies joined the Pres­by­ter­i­an church at age 15. He be­came a li­censed Pres­by­ter­i­an min­is­ter in 1746. The next year he was li­censed as an evan­gel­ist and sent to Vir­gin­ia. A court in Wil­liams­burg grant­ed him a li­cense as a “dis­sent­ing” min­is­ter, the first such li­cense giv­en in the col­o­ny of Vir­gin­ia.

Davies’ wife and son died in 1747, and in 1748 he ac­cept­ed a call to be­gin a min­is­try in Han­o­ver Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia. Like the Wes­leys, he tra­veled through­out his “pas­tor­ate” by horse­back. He preached to thou­sands, in­clud­ing the slaves. He be­came so well known that King George II of Eng­land in­vit­ed him to preach at the roy­al cha­pel when he and Gilbert Ten­nent were in Eng­land rais­ing funds for the Coll­ege of New Jer­sey. Dur­ing that ser­mon, Davies re­port­ed­ly stopped and spoke di­rect­ly to an as­ton­ished George II:

When the lion roars, all the animals in the jungle fall silent; and when the Lord speaks, the kings of the earth shut their mouths.

In 1759, Davies ac­cept­ed a call to be­come pre­si­dent of the Coll­ege of New Jer­sey (lat­er re­named to Prince­ton Un­i­ver­si­ty). He served in that po­si­tion un­til his death 18 months lat­er.

Sources

Hymns

1. Eternal Spirit, Source of Light
2. Great God of Wonders
3. How Great, How Terrible That God
4. Jesus, How Precious Is Thy Name
5. Lord, I Am Thine, Entirely Thine
6. What Strange Perplexities Arise
7. While o’er Our Guilty Land, O Lord