Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dawson, George (1637-1700)

by Thompson Cooper

DAWSON, GEORGE (1637–1700), jurist, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1658–9, M.A. in 1662, and was presented by his college to the vicarage of Sunninghill, Berkshire, where he died in 1700, aged 63.

He wrote: ‘Origo Legum; or a Treatise of the Origin of Laws, and their obliging power; as also of their great variety; and why some laws are immutable, and some not; but may suffer change, or cease to be, or be suspended, or abrogated. In seven books,’ London, 1694, folio. Dedicated to King William and Queen Mary.

[Ashmole's Berkshire (1723), ii. 446; Addit. MS. 5867, f. 8 b; Cantabr. Grad. (1787), p. 112; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 604; information from the Rev. H. R. Luard, D.D.]

T. C.