in diameter, procured from him in 1854. His ‘Catalogue of Micrometrical Measures of Double Stars,’ chiefly afforded by observations from 1839 to 1854, with an appendix giving the scantier results down to 1867, formed part of the thirty-fifth volume of the Astronomical Society's ‘Memoirs.’ A description of the different kinds of micrometer used in the compilation, and ‘Remarks on the Use of various Telescopic Apertures,’ were prefixed; and its value was increased by the addition of notes and the record of previous measures. A list of fifteen new double stars discovered by him 1840–59 was published in 1864 (ib. xxiv. 117). The Royal Society elected him a fellow in 1865.
[Monthly Notices, xxix. 116; Astr. Register, vi. 73; Royal Soc. Cat. of Scientific Papers.]
DAWKS, ICHABOD (1661–1730), printer, eldest son of Thomas Dawks the younger [q. v.], born at Westerham in Kent 22 Sept. 1661, was apprenticed on 16 May 1673 to Mrs. Maxwell, a printer, to whom his father was overseer. He afterwards commenced business for himself as printer and publisher. ‘He is very obliging and diligent, and reasonable in his prices,’ says Dunton, and ‘has a very rich invention; witness his new letter, with which he printed his newspaper’ (Life and Errors, i. 250). The new letter was a type resembling writing, now called script, and was used in ‘Dawks's News-Letter,’ of which the first number was issued on 4 Aug. 1696. This was printed on writing-paper in the script type, with a blank space left for manuscript correspondence. The ‘News-Letter’ continued for a considerable time. The ‘Tatler’ for 21 May 1709 playfully remarks that ‘the judicious and wary Mr. Ichabod Dawks hath … got himself a reputation from plagues and famines;’ and again, on 30 May 1710, ‘honest Ichabod is as extraordinary a man as any of our fraternity, and as particular. His style is a dialect between the familiarity of talking and writing, and his letter such as you cannot distinguish whether print or manuscript.’ The ‘Spectator’ of 14 Aug. 1712 also refers to ‘Dawks's News-Letter.’ When it came to an end is not known; Nichols quotes a number for 14 Jan. 1714–15. A complete set would be valuable and interesting. Dawks died 27 Feb. 1730 in his seventieth year, and was buried at Low Leyton with his wife Sarah, who died 6 June 1737, aged 60.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 3, 72, 118, 373, ii. 161, iii. 176, 290–1, iv. 9; Andrews's Hist. of British Journalism, 1859, i. 87, 94, 101; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 579, 660.]
DAWKS, THOMAS, the elder (d. 1670), printer, died at Low Leyton in Essex 11 May 1670. By his wife Frances, who died at the same place 1 May 1667, he had one son, also named Thomas.
Dawks, Thomas, the younger (b. 1636), printer, born at Kelmscott in Oxfordshire 8 Oct. 1636, was admitted at Merchant Taylors' School 2 April 1649. Two years later he was apprenticed to a printer of the name of Dugard. Between 1653 and 1657 he was employed as a compositor on Walton's Polyglott bible. In May 1673 he was overseer to a Mrs. Maxwell, and in the same month of the ensuing year he set up as a master in Blackfriars. He married his wife Anne in December 1660, and had eleven children, of whom the eldest was Ichabod [q. v.] His daughter Dorothy married first a bookseller of the name of Allport, and afterwards William Bowyer the elder [q. v.]
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 3, iii. 290–1, iv. 9; Timperley's Encyclopædia, p. 660; Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, i. 191.]
DAWSON, ABRAHAM (1713?–1789), biblical scholar, came of an old nonconformist family in Yorkshire. Joseph Dawson (d. June 1709, aged 73) was ejected from Thornton Chapel, near Bradford, Yorkshire. He had six sons: Abraham, Joseph, Obadiah, Eliezer, Samuel, and Eli, of whom Abraham, Joseph, and Eli became nonconformist ministers. Eli, the youngest son (d. 1744), was presbyterian minister at Morley, near Halifax, then at Horton, near Bradford, lastly (from 1728) at Halifax, and had seven sons: Abraham, Samuel, Eli, Joseph, Thomas [q. v.], Benjamin [q. v.], and Obadiah. Except Obadiah, who was brought up to business, all were educated for the nonconformist ministry, but eventually left it. Thomas (a physician at Hackney) and Obadiah (a merchant at Leeds) remained dissenters; the rest conformed. Samuel became a schoolmaster, Eli was chaplain to a man-of-war, and died as a clergyman in the West Indies, Joseph became vicar of Paull, or Paghill, near Hull.
Abraham, the eldest son of Eli Dawson, was probably born at Horton in 1713. For several years he was a presbyterian minister; he had the degree of M.A. Late in July or early in August 1754, he was instituted to the rectory of Ringsfield, near Beccles, Suffolk, and here he remained till his death. He died on 3 Oct. 1789, aged 76, and was buried at Ringsfield on 8 Oct.
He published: 1. ‘A New English Translation of the Three First Chapters of Genesis; with … Notes,’ &c., 1763, 4to. 2. ‘A
