lish) would at least come under the plan of your work. Those of the celebrated Ellis, whose life I have written in Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia, and those of Peter Collinson, whose life in that work is also of my writing, are peculiarly interesting. I have also Ellis's own correspondence entire, and copies of the letters he wrote, all given me by his daughter the late Mrs. Watt, highly curious.

"Can you suggest any means of publishing a selection of these? I would supply needful explanations and notes.

"What could be done with Latin letters? I would translate them if you thought it best. Was Gronovius's letter, in your vol. I. p. 815, written in Latin or English? It is from the great author' himself, the friend of Linnæus, not from a descendant.' I have numerous Latin letters of his, as well as many from Boerhaave, Hallen, Dillenius, Garden (see Rees's Cyclopædia, G.).

"My name probably is not unknown to you. I visit London for a few weeks every spring; and shall be happy to confer personally with you some time in April or May next. Meanwhile allow me to subscribe myself, Sir,

"Your very faithful servant,

J. E. SMITH."

2. To Mr. J. B. NICHOLS.

"DEAR SIR, Norwich, Jan. 22, 1828. "Your accompt of the Linnæan Correspondence' is deplorable*. Irelied originally on your promoting the sale of this work as a sequel to what you had previously published, especially to the letters of Sherard. I know the work is much esteemed by scientific people. The very good review of it in the Gentleman's Magazine I should have thought must have insured the sale of any book. There is much besides Natural History that is curious, especially about the beginning of discontents in America; and I hear from that country that the families of Colden, Garden, and others are much interested in reading some of these letters. I believe I could get from thence some corresponding letters, if our undertaking had prospered.

"I could do nothing with the work myself, being no bookseller, nor in mercantile connexion with any. It were absurd for me to dictate to you in a matter of which you know so much more than I can. I have deeply lamented your worthy father. His name will live! Believe me, dear Sir,

"Your faithful and obedient servant,

See p. 839.

J. E. SMITH."

851

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF THE

DAWSON FAMILY.

If, according to a remark of an eminent moralist, "a life has rarely passed, of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful," the following Notices respecting the Family of Dawson, which will serve to concentrate, extend, and corroborate the accounts that have already appeared in the "Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century *,” the "Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature +," and Wilson's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches," may, with confidence, be presented to the public, as neither useless nor uninteresting.

The first of this family, of whom there is any notice on record, is the Rev. JOSEPH DAWSON, who was ejected in 1662 from Thornton Chapel in Yorkshire. After his ejectment he resided in the vicinity of Halifax, and preached near Burstall. In the year 1688 he was chosen Minister of the Chapel at Morley, about four miles distant from Leeds; a chapel which has this peculiarity belonging to it, viz. that it was for many years the parochial church; but in the year 1650 the Earl of Sussex, then Lord of the Manor and Impropriator, granted a lease for five hundred years to a number of feoffees of the chapel, chapel-yard, parsonage-house, and two small closes, for the use of a preaching minister, on payment for the same of twenty shillings per annum.

* Vol. VIII. pp. 380, 381; vol. IX. p. 694.

+ Vol. V. pp. 324, 474. This account of the Dawsons was communicated by an accurate and laborious writer, the Rev. William Turner, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with memoirs of other gentlemen who had been pupils of Dr. Rotheram, of Kendall. Vol. IV. p. 315–317. '

Mr. Dawson died in June 1709, and in the 73d year of his age. He was a very pious and learned man; of a venerable aspect and a good report, being greatly esteemed for his prudence and integrity, his humility and meekness. He was a severe student and an affectionate preacher; unwearied and successful in his ministerial labours, and naturally solicitous for the welfare of the souls entrusted to his care. Even in his advanced age he travelled to a considerable distance at all seasons of the year to preach to a poor people, whom he took as much care to serve as if they had paid him the largest salary. He suffered considerably from the narrowness of his circumstances, having a numerous family; yet he never repented of his non-conformity, but was ever distinguished for his patience and submission, his faith and self-denial.

Mr. Dawson brought up four sons to the ministry, viz. Abraham, Joseph, Samuel, and Eli; and three of them survived him. The youngest of these,

The Rev. ELI DAWSON, was minister at Halifax, or at Little Horton near Bradford; but I suspect that he had the charge, in whole or in part, of both these Societies of Dissenters. He had seven sons; and the order of their births stands thus, according to the Baptismal Register of their uncle, Joseph Dawson, who was the Minister of Rochdale, viz. Samuel, born in 1713; Abraham in 1714; Joseph in 1719; Eli in 1723; Thomas in 1727; Benjamin in 1729; and Obadiah in 1731.

The six eldest of these sons were educated for the ministry, at a very great expense to the funds possessed for that purpose by the Dissenters; and all of them deserted the profession: and what is more remarkable, four of them conformed. I have heard, says Mr. J. Hunter, that Dr. Leigh, the Vicar of Ha

* Palmer's Non-Conformists' Memorial, vol. III. p. 452.

lifax, was the principal instrument in reclaim the conformists of this family to the Established Church. He was once asked by a Dissenter, "Why he did it; and if it was to make them better men?" To which he immediately and handsomely replied, "No, Sir, it was to make us better."

I shall now notice each of these sons according to their respective priority.

I. SAMUEL was born in 1713; and, after his conformity to the Established Church, kept a school, and is complimented by one of his pupils, the late Mr. Scholefield, of Birmingham, in the dedication of a Sermon preached at Cockermouth in 1769, as "one of the Clergy of the Establishment, from whose exertions a reformation in the Church might be expected." He expired in an apoplectic fit, whilst sitting at the table of his brother Thomas, during a visit to him at Hackney. Whether he had any preferment I know not; but he seems to be the person mentioned in the Obituary of the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LI. p. 444, as follows: "Sept. 26, 1781. Rev. Mr. Dawson, late Rector of Ightham in Kent," to which, according to the Historian Hasted, he was presented by William James, Esq. in 1763.

II. ABRAHAM was born in 1714; and, after his conformity to the Established Church, was presented in 1755, by Miles Barne, Esq. to the Rectory of Ringsfield, with Redisham annexed; in 1786, by the same patron, to that of Satterley, both in the County of Suffolk; and in 17... was licensed, on the nomination of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich, to the Perpetual Curacy of Aldeby in Norfolk. He deceased on the 3d of October 1789, and was interred in the Church-yard of Ringsfield, but without any memorial, as he had expressly ordered, to designate the place of his interment.

Mr. Dawson was one of the Secretaries to the

Meetings of the Petitioning Clergy at the Feathers' Tavern in London *.

He published, at three different periods, a new and valuable translation from the original Hebrew, by way of specimen, of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, with notes critical and explanatory, in which he ably attacks the doctrines of the Trinity and of original sin. The first part was intituled, "A New English Translation from the Original Hebrew of the three first Chapters of Genesis; with Marginal Illustrations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. London, 1763." 4to.

"I have endeavoured," says Mr. Dawson, in his Preface, " to translate faithfully and exactly my author, whoever he was; and whether you suppose him to have written the following account of the formation of things, and of the state of our first parents, under the immediate direction and inspiration of God, or not. The discussing these, and the like theological questions, was no part of my design, much less was the presuming to decide them. What I have attempted is merely to give a new English version, as accurate a one as I could, of the three first Chapters of Genesis; and in the notes to account for, and justify, that version."

A view of the work itself can alone afford a just and complete idea of the manner in which this de

* In 1772 a Society was formed at the Feathers' Tavern in London by numbers of the Clergy of the Established Church, to frame a Petition to Parliament for the removal of all subscriptions to Human Formularies of Religious Faith. The Petition was agreed on, and signed by the following Clergy of the County of Suffolk, viz. John Boldero, A. B. Rector of Ampton; John Carter, A. M. Rector of Hengrave; Abraham Dawson, A. M. Rector of Ringsfield; Benjamin Dawson, LL.D. Rector of Burgh; William Fonnereau, LL. B. of Christ Church, Ipswich; John Gent, A. B. Vicar of Stoke juxta Neyland; Christopher Holland, LL.B. Rector of Cavenham; William Holmes, A. B. Curate of Holton; John Jebb, A. M. Rector of Homersfield; Joseph Lathbury, jun. A. M. Rector of Livermere; James Lambert, A. M. Fellow of Trinity-college, Cambridge; Michael Marlow, A. M. Rector of Lackford; Thomas Pudden, M. A. Bungay; Humphrey Primatt, A. M. Minister of Higham St. Peter; A. Luther Richardson, LL. B. Rector of Felsham; George Rogers, A. M. Rector of Horningsheath, who, in a green old age, and in the full enjoyment of his intellectual faculties, is now (1830) the only one surviving.