Joshua Davis, Jr., was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina in about 1749. A Quaker, he, with the rest of his family, moved to Wayne County in about 1772. In 1780 he signed a petition from the Wayne County Quakers to the North Carolina General Assembly, asking for a reconsideration of the tax amounts levied on Quakers. He died in Wayne on May 30, 1802.