The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Sir William Dawes, Baronet

Sir William Dawes, Baronet
(Archbiſhop of York.)

This revd. prelate was deſcended from an ancient, and honourable family in the county of Eſſex; he was educated at Merchant-Taylor’s ſchool, London, and from thence elected to St. John’s College in Oxford, of which he was afterwards fellow.

He was the youngeſt of four brothers, three of whom dying young, the title, and eſtate of the family fell to him. As ſoon as he had taken his firſt degree in arts, and upon the family eſtate devolving to him, he reſigned his felloſhip, and left Oxford. For ſome time he gave his attention to the affairs of his eſtate, but finding his inclination lead him more to ſtudy, than rural affairs, he entered into holy orders. Sir William did not long remain in the church without preferment; his fortune, and family aſſiſted him to riſe; for it often happens that theſe advantages will do much more for a man, as well in the eccleſiaſtical, as in other claſſes of life, than the brighteſt parts without them. Before he was promoted to the mitre, he was made maſter of Catherine Hall in Cambridge, chaplain to Queen Anne, and dean of Bocking.

In the year 1708 he was conſecrated biſhop of Cheſter, and in 1713 was tranſlated to the archbiſhopric of York. While he was at the univerſity, before he went into orders, he wrote the Anatomy of Atheiſm, a Poem, dedicated to Sir George Darcy Bart, printed in the year 1701, 8 vo.

The deſign of this piece, as his lordſhip declares in the preface, ‘is to expoſe the folly of thoſe men, who are arrived at that pitch of impudence and prophaneneſs, that they think it a piece of wit to deny the Being of a God, and to laugh at that which they cannot argue againſt.’ Such characters are well deſcribed in the following lines,

See then our Atheiſt all the world oppoſe,
And like Drawcanſir make all men his foes.
See with what ſaucy pride he does pretend,
His miſer father’s notions to amend,
Huffs Plutarch, Plato, Pliny, Seneca,
And bids even Cicero himſelf give way.
Tells all the world, they follow a falſe light,
And he alone, of all mankind is right.
Thus, like a madman, who when all alone,
Thinks himſelf King, and every chair a throne,
Drunk with conceit, and fooliſh impudence,
He prides himſelf in his abounding ſenſe.

This prelate is ſaid to have united the gentleman, and the divine, which both ſhone out with equal luſtre in him. He was eſteemed in his time a very popular preacher; his piety was great, and conſpicuous; his charity and benevolence equalled by few, and his good nature, and humanity the moſt extenſive.

Our author died in the 53d year of his age, April 30, 1724. We have no account of any other of his grace’s poetical works, probably the buſineſs of his high ſtation diverted his mind from the amuſements of poetry.

The archbiſhop has written ſeveral ſermons upon the Eternity of Hell Torments, a doctrine which he has laboured to vindicate; alſo ſermons upon various other ſubjects.