Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dawes, Lancelot
DAWES, LANCELOT, D.D. (1580–1653), divine, was born at Barton Kirk in Westmoreland of poor parents. When seventeen he became a student of Queen's College, Oxford, and a few months later became a servitor. He took the degree of B.A. in 1602, and was then made tabarder, and in 1605 proceeded to his M.A. degree, became a fellow, and subsequently took orders. He continued to reside in the college, of which his studious retired life and simple habits had caused him to be considered an ornament, till, in 1608, he was preferred to the living of Barton Kirk, his birthplace, by John Featherston, whose right, however, being challenged, another clergyman was presented, and a long dispute took place, which ended in favour of Dawes, who held the living till his death. In the year 1619 he was preferred to a prebendal stall in Carlisle Cathedral, ‘to the general liking of all the knowing and pious divines in his diocese, with whom, for a comprehensive and orthodox judgment, adorned with all variety of learning, he was ever held in just estimation.’ In 1618 he had obtained the living of Ashby in Westmoreland, and was instituted on the king's presentation. A charge of simony was brought against him, which not being held proven, a mandate was issued to the archdeacon to induct him. About this time the university of St. Andrews conferred the degree of D.D. upon him. During the civil war Dawes submitted to the party in authority, but took no active part on either side. He is said to have built the greater part of the parsonage at Ashby. He died in February 1653–4, and was buried under the communion table in Barton church. His ‘Sermons preached on several occasions,’ in two parts, the first called 'God's Mercies and Jerusalem's Miseries,' and containing two sermons preached at Carlisle in 1614, and the second, 'The Healing of the Plague of the Heart,' was published after his death in 1653. A printed copy of Dawes's sermon entitled 'God's Mercies is dated 1609. It was preached at Paul's Cross 26 June 1609, and was dedicated to Henry Robinson, bishop of Carlisle. A copy is in the British Museum.
[Kennet's Register and Chronicle; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 349; Nicolson and Burn's Westmoreland, i. 404, 606; Bullen's Cat. of Books.]