His earliest mezzotint print dates to 1642 and is a portrait of Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg.
27 October - The ship Dublin Trader (Captain White) leaves Parkgate, Cheshire, for Dublin, and founders in the Irish Sea; she carries 70,000 Irish pounds in money and £80,000 in goods, while among the 60 passengers lost are Edward, fifth Earl of Drogheda, Theophilus Cibber, the actor, and (probably) the Irish mezzotint engraver Michael Ford.
27 October - The ship Dublin Trader (Captain White) leaves Parkgate, Cheshire, for Dublin, and founders in the Irish Sea; she carries 70,000 Irish pounds in money and £80,000 in goods, while among the 60 passengers lost are Edward, fifth Earl of Drogheda, Theophilus Cibber (the English actor, bound for a season at the Smock Alley Theatre), and (probably) the mezzotint engraver Michael Ford.
His mezzotints included The Trial of Queen Caroline, after George Henry Harlow; a portrait of the William Pitt, after John Hoppner; a portrait of Margaret, Lady Dundas, after Thomas Lawrence; a portrait of Miss Siddons, again after Lawrence, and a print after a self-portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
He was the son of Philip Dawe, a successful mezzotint engraver who also produced political cartoons relating to the events of the Boston Tea Party.
D'Agoty was born in Marseille, and became a pupil of the painter and engraver Jacob Christoph Le Blon, with whom he invented a method of etching and mezzotint print which incorporated for the first time colors (blue, yellow and red).
He worked in England, and it has been suggested that he borrowed from the work of Robert Robinson (c. 1651 – 1706), who was a popular English mezzotint engraver, painter, and stage designer.
He reproduced some forty works of Reynolds, some of which ranked among the masterpieces of mezzotint, and he was appointed engraver to the Prince of Wales.
He painted portraits of Queen Mary (engraved in mezzotint by Robert Williams), Caius Gabriel Cibber the sculptor, and others; his self-portrait by himself showed the scars resulting from injuries received in a street quarrel.
The painting was engraved in 1772 by Valentine Green and like many of Wright's paintings its strong dark and light areas made it ideal for a mezzotint.
He was brought up as an engraver, and produced mezzotint portraits, including John Thomas, bishop of Rochester, and Miss Penelope Boothby, after Sir Joshua Reynolds; Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse, after John Hoppner; and a Magdalen after Ubaldo Gandolfi.
It was Davey's reproductions of historical paintings which brought him to prominence: such as Eastward Ho! August 1857 by Henry Nelson O'Neil (showing British soldiers taking leave of their loved ones as they embark at Gravesend for India, in the wake of the Indian Mutiny), its companion Home Again, and the acclaimed large engraving in mixed mezzotint of Lady Butler's painting Return from Inkerman.