William Dawes

William Dawes

Contents

Introduction

This website is dedicated to William Dawes, 1762 - 1836, Marine, surveyor / astronomer on the “First Fleet” to Australia, teacher, Governor of Sierra Leone, and missionary to Antigua.

Disclaimer

The information contained herein has been accumulated from a number of origins, including family history, a variety of genealogy and historical reference sources and from a other dedicated researchers. While every attempt has been made to verify the information, the passage of time and the tyranny of distance make it difficult to completely confirm all details. However such verification is ongoing.

Purpose

William Dawes was a man of many talents, but more importantly he was a man of great compassion, one of the first to recognise the injustice of slavery. His efforts in this respect were reputedly passed on to his daughter Judith Dawes.

In 1930, William’s great grand-daughter Annie Currer-Jones (nee Taylor) wrote a book on the life of William, but this book was not widely distributed.

Our family, which contains some of William’s few, known, living descendants, are initiating this website to make his life, works and genealogy more accessible and hopefully attract additional information to confirm, fill in the gaps and complete the picture.

Life Story

We will include a synopsis of William’s life and some of his descendants and will indicate where more complete details may be found. Meanwhile the following Timeline is offered.

Timeline of Significant Events during William Dawes’ Life

Genealogy

Our intention is to include everyone who died before 1980, and, with the permission of those still living, those who died since then and those still living.

Uncertain/Undocumented/To be verified

Information needing further authentication will be noted. Anyone wishing to contribute to this website or who can offer clarifications or further insights into William’s life and/or activities is invited to contact us at <contact@williamdawes.com>.

Other William Dawes

There have been a number of quite famous people who carried the name William Dawes. We will identify them and reference sources of further information about them.

Credits/Acknowledgements/Sources

We have been greatly aided in our efforts so far by a number of people who will be acknowledged when the Website is completed, but in particular by Rowena Routh-Kärki, another descendant of William Dawes from a different branch to ours.

Contact

If you have any information to add, find any inaccuracies, would like us to link to your site, or have any other comments, please email us at <contact@williamdawes.com>.

NYI