James Dawkins (MP, died 1766)

James Dawkins (c. 1696–1766) was an English landowner and politician.[1]

Life

He was the second son of Colonel Richard Dawkins of Clarendon, a plantation and slave owner[2] in Jamaica, member of the Assembly (died c. 1698/1701/1705,[3] of a Leicestershire family), and his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth Masters (d. 1702).[4] He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 28 March 1713, at age 16.[1][5][6]

Dawkins, of Rusley Park, Bishopstone, Wiltshire, bought land at Over Norton in Oxfordshire, the Busby estate.[7] In the general election of 1734 he campaigned to become Member of Parliament for Oxford, but withdrew before the poll, despite having spent heavily. He was brought in unopposed, however, for New Woodstock, with the support of the Duchess of Marlborough.[1] In 1747 he lost his seat, to John Bateman, 2nd Viscount Bateman, who was backed by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough.[8]

In the 1750s, Dawkins was considered a Jacobite. He died unmarried on 10 May 1766. His Over Norton Park estate went to Henry Dawkins, his nephew.[1]

Notes
  1. "Dawkins, James (?1696–1766), of Over Norton, Oxon., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  2. 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.
  3. Burke, Bernard (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison.
  4. Burke, Bernard (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison.
  5. Vere Langford Oliver (2000). Caribbeana: Being Miscellaneous Papers Relating to the History, Genealogy, Topography, and Antiquities of the British West Indies. CanDoo Creative Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-894488-02-0.
  6. 'Dabbe-Dirkin', in Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, ed. Joseph Foster (Oxford, 1891), pp. 366-405. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp366-405 [accessed 11 June 2016].
  7. "bodley.ox.ac.uk, Papers of the Dawkins family". University of Oxford. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  8. "Bateman, John, 2nd Visct. Bateman [I] (1721–1802), of Shobdon, Herefs., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 11 June 2016.
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