Rev. John Frederic Dawson

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

(1802 – 11 October 1870

Clapham, Bedfordshire Clapham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. It had a population of 3,643 as at the 2001 census, increasing to 4,560 at the 2011 Census. Points of interest RAF Twinwood Farm, a disused airfield o ...

) was an English entomologist and taxonomist from 'The Woodlands' near

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

best known for his work on the

Carabidae Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it is one of the 10 most species-rich animal ...

beetles "Geodephaga Britannica; a Monograph of the Carnivorous Ground-Beetles indigenous to the British Isles" (London, 1854). He became a member of the

Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological S ...

in 1852, and was mainly active in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

and the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. He obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from Trinity College in July 1827. He was the son of John Thomas Dawson, former mayor of Bedford, and Mary Higson Leach, who were married at Goldington church. John Frederic was twice married – his first wife Hester Wade-Gery (1804–1860), whom he married on 1 May 1827, producing a son, William Henry Dawson. After his first wife's death John Frederic married his housekeeper, Alice Procter, and fathered a son, John Frederic, who was baptised at Clapham in 1864. and a daughter, Ada Eliza Dawson, later the wife of Henry Fuller. In his will he left an annuity to his first son William, the estate of Woodlands to the second son, and amply provided for his widow, Alice, who was later recorded as living at 1 Vernon Terrace, Brighton, Sussex. The London Standard of 27 September 1876, says: "Much excitement was caused yesterday morning in the village of Clapham, near Bedford, by the exhumation of the remains of Rev. John Frederic Dawson, LL.B., of Woodlands in that parish, who died in October, 1870, at the age of sixty-eight, and who was buried in the parish churchyard. It would appear that in 1812 the state of Woodlands...." John Frederic Dawson was buried in the churchyard of the Church of Saint Thomas à Becket in

. From the records it appears that Rev. Dawson kept a well-stocked wine cellar; in 1859 one of his staff, Charles Gascoin, was brought before the court accused of stealing 30 gallons of wine. He had helped stack more than 27 dozen bottles of port and sherry and over the course of some 15 months had pilfered from the cellar.

External links

A review of "Geodephaga Britannica; a Monograph of the Carnivorous Ground-Beetles indigenous to the British Isles"Clerical errorsRecords pertaining to John Frederic DawsonWoodlands Manor

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, John Frederic English entomologists English taxonomists 1802 births 1870 deaths