Who is Barnabas Davies from The Egyptologist and what is their importance?

Barnabas Davies is an old rich man who hires detectives to find his illegitimate children scattered across the globe from his sailing days. He wants the children to change their names to Davies, thus assuring that his name carries on, an attempt at immortality. This brings Harold Ferrell, a detective, and Paul Caldwell, one of the illegitimate children, into the story.