Almost nothing is known of Robert Davenport's life except that he is the author of three extant plays, a prose character, several poems, and commendatory verses in Nathanael Richards's The Tragedy of Messallina and Thomas Rawlins's The Rebellion, both published in 1640. Seven other plays are doubtfully associated with Davenport: Henry the First (lost), licensed by the Master of the Revels in 1624; The Pedlar (probably an erroneous attribution), entered in the Stationers' Register, 1630; The Pirate (lost), mentioned in Samuel Sheppard's Epigraphs, Theological, Philosophical and Romantic (1651); Henry the Second (lost), entered in the Stationers' Register, 1653; The Woman's Mistaken, attributed to Thomas Drew and Davenport (lost), entered in the Stationers' Register, 1653; The Fatal Brothers (lost), entered in the Stationers' Register, 1660; and The Politick Queen (lost), entered in the Stationers' Register, 1660.

No other information about Davenport exists, but from his work and a few records connected with it, some conjectures can be...