Edda (1842); Popular Tales from the Norse (1859); The Story of Burnt Njal, or Life in Iceland (1861); A Selection from Norse Tales (1862); The Story of Gisli the Outlaw (1866). Meanwhile he was called to the Bar 30 Jan. 1852, and became an Advocate at Doctors' Commons on 2 Nov. of the same year. He was also actively engaged in other literary work, being for some time assistant editor of the Times (1845), and in 1853, Professor of English Literature at King's College. In 1870 he was made a Member of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and in 1894, in conjunction with his son, he issued a translation of the Icelandic Sagas of the British Isles for the Rolls Series, his last work. He also published some Essays, and The Annals of an Eventful Life (1870), an Autobiographical Novel. He died 11 June, 1896.
Admitted 10 February, 1587.
Third son of John Davies of Tisbury, Wilts, where he was born 16 April, 1569. According to Wood, after having laid a considerable foundation of academical literature at Queen's College, Oxford, he passed to New Inn, and from thence removed to the Middle Temple, where he was called to the Bar in July, 1595. " But so it was that he, being a high spirited young man, did, upon some little provocation or punctilio, bastinado Richard Martin (q.v.) in the Common Hall of the Middle Temple, while he was at dinner." For this he was, of course, expelled; but afterwards, by favour of Lord Ellesmere, on his apology to the Bench and to Mr. Martin, he was restored, and became a Counsellor and Member of Parliament at Westminster (1601). He was a favourite with James I., whose attention he had attracted by a treatise entitled Nosce Teipsum, published in 1599, and who made him his Solicitor and Attorney-General in Ireland, and knighted him in 1607. In 1606 he became Serjeant-at-Law, and in 1626 was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, but died before his installation into office. He was held in greater esteem as a scholar than as a lawyer, and is known as the author of the following works: Nosce Teipsum (1599); Hymns of Astroea [printed with the former]; Orchestra: a Poem … of Dancing [printed with the former]; Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never brought under obedience to the Crown of England (1612); Declaration concerning the title of his Majesty's son Charles (1614); Le Primer Reports des Cases et Matters en Ley (1615); Perfect Abridgment of the eleven Books of Reports of Sir Edward Coke (1651); Jus imponendi Vectigalia (1656); The Question concerning the Imposition of Tonnage and Poundage (1656).
Admitted 2 October, 1741.
Son and heir of the Hon. Henry Dawkins, of the Island of Jamaica. He was educated at Oxford, where he obtained the degree of D.C.L. in 1749. He was a Jacobite and a supporter of the Pretenders. Being wealthy, he was able to follow the bent of his tastes, which were towards the study of antiquities, and in this pursuit travelled much in Greece and the East, studying their monuments and copying inscriptions. The result of his expeditions was the publication, in conjunction with Robert Wood (q.v.), his travelling companion, of the works mentioned under that author, The Antiquities of Athens (1762), and the Ruins of Palmyra (1753), and Balbec (1757). In 1754, having given up the Jacobite cause as hopeless, he returned to England and was elected to Parliament for Hindon Borough, in Wiltshire, which he represented till his death in Dec. 1757.
