Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/226

 Fourth and Fifth Chapter of Genesis translated … with … Notes,’ &c., 1772, 4to. 3. ‘The Sixth and Eleven following Chapters of Genesis translated … with … Notes,’ &c., 1786, 4to.

[Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 1803, iii. 452 sq.; Monthly Repos. 1810, p. 324 sq.; Hunter's Life of O. Heywood, 1842, p. 255; James's Hist. Litig. Presb. Chapels and Charities, 1867, p. 684; Halifax Northgate End Chapel Mag., 1886, pp. 15, 46; information from Rev. F. M. Arnold, rector of Ringsfield cum Redisham Parva.] 

DAWSON, AMBROSE, M.D. (1707–1794), physician, son of William Dawson of Langcliff, Yorkshire, was born at Settle, Yorkshire, in 1707. After education at Giggleswick school, he entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, and graduated in that university M.B. 1730, M.D. 1735. In 1737 he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, was censor four times, and delivered the Harveian oration in 1744. His oration was printed in the following year, and is a respectable piece of Latin prose. He was elected physician to St. George's Hospital, 27 April 1745, and held the office for fifteen years. His house was in Grosvenor Street, London, and he was famous for his kindness to the poor. When he gave up practice in 1776, the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, presented him with a piece of plate in recognition of his services to the poor of the parish. He retired to his paternal estate of Langcliff Hall, but did not give up interest in his profession, for in 1778 he published ‘Thoughts on the Hydrocephalus Internus’ (London) and ‘Observations on Hydatids in the Heads of Cattle’ (London). Little was then known of the anatomical changes which accompany effusion into the cavities of the brain and nothing of the natural history of the entozoa, so that neither work is now read, nor had they many readers when published. The books were perhaps first indications that their author found time hang heavy on his hands in the country. Want of his usual occupations affected his health, and a little later he removed to Liverpool, where he continued to reside till his death on 23 Dec. 1794. He was only ill for a few days, and was at the time of his decease the oldest fellow of the College of Physicians. He was buried at Bolton, Yorkshire, the home of his maternal ancestors.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 134; MS. Admission Book of Christ's College, Cambridge.] 

DAWSON, BENJAMIN, LL.D. (1729–1814), divine and philologist, sixth son of Eli Dawson, presbyterian minister, and brother of Abraham Dawson [q. v.], was born at Halifax in 1729. In 1746 he and his elder brother Thomas entered the nonconformist academy at Kendal, under Caleb Rotheram, D.D., as exhibitioners of the London Presbyterian Board. From Kendal in 1749 they went to Glasgow, remaining there four years as scholars on Dr. Williams's foundation. Benjamin defended a thesis de summo bono, on taking his M.A. degree. In 1754 he succeeded Gaskell as presbyterian minister at Leek, Staffordshire, but soon removed to Congleton, Cheshire, probably to assist in the school of Edward Harwood, D.D. [q. v.] Shortly afterwards he followed his brother Thomas to London, and in 1757 was assistant to Henry Read, presbyterian minister at St. Thomas's, Southwark. Thomas conformed in 1758, and Benjamin followed his example. In 1760 he was instituted to the rectory of Burgh, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, which he held for the long period of fifty-four years. He still kept up relations with dissenters. In 1763, being now LL.D., he accompanied a young Yorkshire baronet, Sir James Ibbetson of Leeds, to the Warrington Academy as his private tutor, and joined the literary coterie of which John Aikin, D.D. [q. v.], was the head. In 1764 he was Lady Moyer's lecturer, and defended the doctrine of the Trinity ‘in a manner perfectly new,’ to use his own expression. As against Arianism his argument left nothing to be desired, but the Socinians have reckoned him on their side. Dawson's position makes it a fair conjecture that his conformity was a protest against the somewhat pedantic Arian orthodoxy much in vogue with the liberal presbyterians of his day. That he was not satisfied with the terms of conformity is evident from the strenuous efforts he made in support of the Feathers' petition (1771–2) for relaxation of the conditions of subscription. He had previously signalised himself as a pamphleteer in defence of Blackburne's ‘Confessional’ [see (1705–1787)]. Blackburne styles him ‘an incomparable writer.’ There can be little doubt that his theological tendency was towards the Priestley school. In 1764 he followed Bishop Law in reducing the intermediate state to the sleep of the soul, and in 1783 he wrote strongly in refutation of the moral objections to the doctrine of necessity, censuring the language of the articles. Personally he was not on good terms with Priestley, who gave him no credit for high principle; but other dissenters were glad of his help towards an enlargement of the Toleration Act, which they obtained in 1779.

In later life Dawson turned his attention