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{{Short description|Jamaican-born politician, antiquarian and planter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
⚫
[[File:Hamilton Palmyra.JPG|thumb|380px|''James Dawkins and [[Robert Wood (engraver)|Robert Wood]] Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra'', by [[Gavin Hamilton (artist)|Gavin Hamilton]] (1758) - Hamilton portrays them and their Ottoman escort discovering the ruins as if it was a scene from [[history painting|classical history]]. Dawkins and Wood are in togas, and one of them is wearing the upper-class yellow boots otherwise reserved in the [[Ottoman Empire]] for Muslims]]
:''For other people of this name, see [[James Dawkins (disambiguation)]].''
| name = James Dawkins
| image = Dawkins, James (1722-1757) photo of print in Abingdon School.jpg
'''James Dawkins''' (1722, [[Jamaica]] – 6 September 1757, Sutton's Plantation, Jamaica) was a British [[antiquarian]] and [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]].
| caption = Print of James Dawkins in the Abingdon School archives
| office = Member of the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]] for [[Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hindon]]
| term_start = 1754
| term_end = 1757
| predecessor = [[Francis Blake Delaval (politician)|Francis Delaval]]
| successor = [[James Calthorpe (Yeoman of the Removing Wardrobe)|James Calthorpe]]
| birth_date = 1722
| birth_place = [[Jamaica]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1757|9|6|1692|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Jamaica]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
| alma_mater = [[St John's College, Oxford]] ([[Doctor of Civil Law|DCL]])
}}
'''James Dawkins''' (1722 – 6 September 1757) was a Jamaican-born politician, antiquarian and planter.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Summary of Individual {{!}} Legacies of British Slavery|url=http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146633416|access-date=2021-12-27|website=wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref>


==Early life and education==
==Life==
The Dawkins family settled on Jamaica shortly after its seizure from the Spanish in 1655.
The Dawkins family settled on Jamaica shortly after its seizure from the Spanish in 1655.
James was the eldest son born to Henry Dawkins (1698–1744), who was a wealthy sugar planter of [[Clarendon, Jamaica]], and his wife, Elizabeth (1697?–1757, third daughter of Edward Pennant of Clarendon, chief justice of the island).
James was the eldest son born to Henry Dawkins I (1698–1744), who was a wealthy sugar planter and slave owner<ref>{{Cite web|title=Summary of Individual {{!}} Legacies of British Slavery|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146633416|access-date=2021-12-27|website=www.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref> of [[Clarendon, Jamaica]], and his wife, Elizabeth (1697?–1757), third daughter of Edward Pennant of Clarendon, chief justice of the island and of Elizabeth Moore. His brothers were major slave owner William Dawkins (d. 1753)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sheridan|first=Richard B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUV98bwrqscC&dq=colonel+richard+dawkins+plantation+jamaica+slave&pg=PA224|title=Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775|date=1994|publisher=Canoe Press|isbn=978-976-8125-13-2|language=en}}</ref> and [[Henry Dawkins|Henry Dawkins II]].

He went to England for his education, attending [[John Roysse]]'s free school in Abingdon (now [[Abingdon School]]) (then headed by the [[Tory]] Thomas Woods)<ref>{{cite book|last=Hinde/St John Parker|first=Thomas/Michael|title=The Martlet and the Griffen|year=1977|pages=56/57|publisher=James and James Publishers Ltd|isbn=0-907-383-777}}</ref> and matriculating at [[St John's College, Oxford]] on 7 December 1739. His father died in 1744 bequeathing to James 14,300 acres (and making smaller bequests to the two younger sons William and [[Henry Dawkins|Henry]]). His plantations included Parnassus Estate, Dawkins Caymanas, Dawkins Salt Pond Pen, Friendship, Leicesterdfields and Old Plantation.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Summary of Individual {{!}} Legacies of British Slavery|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146633416|access-date=2021-12-27|website=www.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref>


James graduated with a [[Doctor of Civil Law|DCL]] in 1749.
He went to England for his education, attending [[Abingdon School]] (then headed by the [[Tory]] Thomas Woods) and matriculating at [[St John's College, Oxford]] on 7 December 1739. His father died in 1744 bequeathing to James 14,300 acres (and making smaller bequests to the two younger sons William and [[Henry Dawkins|Henry]]).


==Career==
⚫
James graduated [[Doctor of Civil Law|DCL]] in 1749. He embarked on a continental [[Grand Tour]] to [[Paris]] then [[Rome]], meeting more Jacobite sympathisers along with the experienced traveller [[Robert Wood (engraver)|Robert Wood]]. On 5 May 1750, Wood, Dawkins, Dawkins' Oxford friend [[John Bouverie]] and the Italian draughtsman [[Giovanni Borra]] set off from Naples in the ''Matilda'' to tour and study the Aegean, the coast of Asia Minor, Egypt, Nazareth, Syria (including the ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek), Tripoli and Cyprus, returning in Naples on 7 June 1751. Borra, Wood and Dawkins returned to England, where Dawkins funded Wood's publication of as well as that of [[James Stuart (1713-1788)|James Stuart]] and [[Nicholas Revett]]'s ''The Antiquities of Athens'' (it was on Stuart's suggestion that, in 1755, Dawkins was elected to the [[Society of Dilettanti]]).
⚫
[[File:Hamilton Palmyra.JPG|thumb|380px|''James Dawkins and [[Robert Wood (engraver)|Robert Wood]] Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra'', by [[Gavin Hamilton (artist)|Gavin Hamilton]] (1758) - Hamilton portrays them and their Ottoman escort discovering the ruins as if it was a scene from [[history painting|classical history]]. Dawkins and Wood are in togas, and one of them is wearing the upper-class yellow boots otherwise reserved in the [[Ottoman Empire]] for Muslims]]
⚫
He embarked on a continental [[Grand Tour]] to [[Paris]] then [[Rome]], meeting more Jacobite sympathisers along with the experienced traveller [[Robert Wood (engraver)|Robert Wood]]. On 5 May 1750, Wood, Dawkins, Dawkins' Oxford friend [[John Bouverie]] and the Italian draughtsman [[Giovanni Borra]] set off from Naples in the ''Matilda'' to tour and study the Aegean, the coast of Anatolia, Egypt, Nazareth, Syria (including the ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek), Tripoli and Cyprus, returning in Naples on 7 June 1751. Borra, Wood and Dawkins returned to England, where Dawkins funded Wood's publication of as well as that of [[James Stuart (1713-1788)|James Stuart]] and [[Nicholas Revett]]'s ''The Antiquities of Athens'' (it was on Stuart's suggestion that, in 1755, Dawkins was elected to the [[Society of Dilettanti]]).


In May 1753 Dawkins travelled to Berlin to meet [[Frederick the Great]], in an inconclusive attempt to gain his support for a Jacobite conspiracy by [[William King (St Mary Hall)|William King]] of Oxford, the [[John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland|earl of Westmorland]], and the Prussian ambassador [[George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal|Earl Marischal]]. The British government issued a warrant for Dawkins's arrest in retaliation, but it was not put into effect when he returned to England in 1754. Once back, he bought an estate in [[Laverstoke]] and was elected MP for the open borough of [[Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hindon]]. He also owned, with his brother, the {{convert|25000|acre|km2|sing=on}} Sutton's Plantation in Jamaica.
In May 1753, Dawkins travelled to [[Berlin]] to meet [[Frederick the Great]], in an inconclusive attempt to gain his support for a Jacobite conspiracy by [[William King (academic)|William King]] of Oxford, the [[John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland|earl of Westmorland]], and the Prussian ambassador [[George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal|Earl Marischal]]. The British government issued a warrant for Dawkins's arrest in retaliation, but it was not put into effect when he returned to England in 1754. Once back, he bought an estate in [[Laverstoke]] and was elected MP for the open borough of [[Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hindon]], he held the position until 1757. He also owned, with his brother Henry, the {{convert|25000|acre|km2|adj=on}} Sutton's Plantation in Jamaica.


The anonymous 1756 pamphlet, ''Reflections physical and moral upon the ... numerous phenomena ... which have happened from the [[History of Lima#Colonial period|earthquake at Lima]]'', attributed to Dawkins, shows his philosophy to have been opposed to that of [[Descartes]] and [[Isaac Newton]]. On his death in Jamaica in 1757, unmarried, he was buried in Old Plantation, Clarendon before he and his parents' remains were reburied in St Paul's Church, Chapelton, Jamaica when the family estates were sold in 1922.
The anonymous 1756 pamphlet, ''Reflections physical and moral upon the ... numerous phenomena ... which have happened from the [[History of Lima#Colonial period|earthquake at Lima]]'', attributed to Dawkins, shows his philosophy to have been opposed to that of [[René Descartes|Rene Descartes]] and [[Isaac Newton]]. On his death in Jamaica in 1757, unmarried, he was buried in Old Plantation, Clarendon before he and his parents' remains were reburied in St Paul's Church, Chapelton, Jamaica when the family estates were sold in 1922.


==See also==
==See also==
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before=[[Francis Blake Delaval (1727–1771)|Francis Blake Delaval]] | before2=[[Bisse Richards]] |
before=[[Francis Blake Delaval (1727–1771)|Francis Blake Delaval]] | before2=[[Bisse Richards]] |
title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hindon]] | with=[[Bisse Richards]] 1754–1756 | with2=[[William Mabbott]] 1756–1757 |
title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hindon]] | with=[[Bisse Richards]] 1754–1756 | with2=[[William Mabbott]] 1756–1757 |
years=[[British general election, 1754|1754]]–1757 |
years=[[1754 British general election|1754]]–1757 |
after=[[William Mabbott]] | after2=[[James Calthorpe (Yeoman of the Removing Wardrobe)|James Calthorpe]]
after=[[William Mabbott]] | after2=[[James Calthorpe (Yeoman of the Removing Wardrobe)|James Calthorpe]]
}}
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[[Category:People educated at Abingdon School]]
[[Category:People educated at Abingdon School]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:British MPs 1754–61]]
[[Category:British MPs 1754–1761]]
[[Category:Jamaican slave owners]]
[[Category:People from Laverstoke]]
[[Category:18th-century Jamaican people]]
[[Category:Dawkins family|James]]

Latest revision as of 23:58, 28 September 2024

James Dawkins
Print of James Dawkins in the Abingdon School archives
Member of the British House of Commons for Hindon
In office
1754–1757
Preceded byFrancis Delaval
Succeeded byJames Calthorpe
Personal details
Born1722
Jamaica, Great Britain
Died6 September 1757(1757-09-06) (aged 64–65)
Jamaica, Great Britain
Alma materSt John's College, Oxford (DCL)

James Dawkins (1722 – 6 September 1757) was a Jamaican-born politician, antiquarian and planter.[1]

Early life and education

[edit]

The Dawkins family settled on Jamaica shortly after its seizure from the Spanish in 1655. James was the eldest son born to Henry Dawkins I (1698–1744), who was a wealthy sugar planter and slave owner[2] of Clarendon, Jamaica, and his wife, Elizabeth (1697?–1757), third daughter of Edward Pennant of Clarendon, chief justice of the island and of Elizabeth Moore. His brothers were major slave owner William Dawkins (d. 1753)[3] and Henry Dawkins II.

He went to England for his education, attending John Roysse's free school in Abingdon (now Abingdon School) (then headed by the Tory Thomas Woods)[4] and matriculating at St John's College, Oxford on 7 December 1739. His father died in 1744 bequeathing to James 14,300 acres (and making smaller bequests to the two younger sons William and Henry). His plantations included Parnassus Estate, Dawkins Caymanas, Dawkins Salt Pond Pen, Friendship, Leicesterdfields and Old Plantation.[5]

James graduated with a DCL in 1749.

Career

[edit]
James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering the Ruins of Palmyra, by Gavin Hamilton (1758) - Hamilton portrays them and their Ottoman escort discovering the ruins as if it was a scene from classical history. Dawkins and Wood are in togas, and one of them is wearing the upper-class yellow boots otherwise reserved in the Ottoman Empire for Muslims

He embarked on a continental Grand Tour to Paris then Rome, meeting more Jacobite sympathisers along with the experienced traveller Robert Wood. On 5 May 1750, Wood, Dawkins, Dawkins' Oxford friend John Bouverie and the Italian draughtsman Giovanni Borra set off from Naples in the Matilda to tour and study the Aegean, the coast of Anatolia, Egypt, Nazareth, Syria (including the ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek), Tripoli and Cyprus, returning in Naples on 7 June 1751. Borra, Wood and Dawkins returned to England, where Dawkins funded Wood's publication of as well as that of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's The Antiquities of Athens (it was on Stuart's suggestion that, in 1755, Dawkins was elected to the Society of Dilettanti).

In May 1753, Dawkins travelled to Berlin to meet Frederick the Great, in an inconclusive attempt to gain his support for a Jacobite conspiracy by William King of Oxford, the earl of Westmorland, and the Prussian ambassador Earl Marischal. The British government issued a warrant for Dawkins's arrest in retaliation, but it was not put into effect when he returned to England in 1754. Once back, he bought an estate in Laverstoke and was elected MP for the open borough of Hindon, he held the position until 1757. He also owned, with his brother Henry, the 25,000-acre (100 km2) Sutton's Plantation in Jamaica.

The anonymous 1756 pamphlet, Reflections physical and moral upon the ... numerous phenomena ... which have happened from the earthquake at Lima, attributed to Dawkins, shows his philosophy to have been opposed to that of Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton. On his death in Jamaica in 1757, unmarried, he was buried in Old Plantation, Clarendon before he and his parents' remains were reburied in St Paul's Church, Chapelton, Jamaica when the family estates were sold in 1922.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery". wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  3. ^ Sheridan, Richard B. (1994). Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775. Canoe Press. ISBN 978-976-8125-13-2.
  4. ^ Hinde/St John Parker, Thomas/Michael (1977). The Martlet and the Griffen. James and James Publishers Ltd. pp. 56/57. ISBN 0-907-383-777.
  5. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

Sources

[edit]
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hindon
1754–1757
With: Bisse Richards 1754–1756
William Mabbott 1756–1757 		Succeeded by
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