302:, Dawson worked until he was about twenty as a shepherd on his father's freehold, developing an interest in mathematics in his spare time with the aid of books that he bought with the profits from stocking knitting or borrowed from his elder brother, who had become an excise officer. Despite being entirely self-taught he worked up his own system of conic sections and began to establish himself as a teacher of mathematics, often spending two or three months at a time in the houses of his pupils.
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361:, who read with him in 1804 before going up to Cambridge and subsequently during vacations, recalled, Dawson would seat his pupils, often a dozen or more, at tables about the house and move constantly from one to another, correcting and advising. Dawson's method achieved remarkable results. Between 1781 and 1794, at least seven, possibly eight, of the fourteen
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undergraduates who read with him during the long vacation and others who were preparing for entry to the university. For a fee of about 5 shillings a week for unlimited tuition, in addition to the cost of accommodation and food, sometimes in Dawson's house but more commonly in a local inn, pupils were taught in a characteristic peripatetic fashion. As
616:"Four Propositions,&c. Shewing, not only, that the distance of the sun, as attempted to be determined from the theory of gravity, by a late author [i.e. M. Stewart], is, upon his own principles, erroneous; but also, that it is more than probable this capital question can never be satisfactorily answered by any calculus of the kind"
543:, 1781, pp. 66–8), which he answered in an appendix to a second edition of the work in 1803. Although Dawson is said to have retained the respect of Priestley and his other adversaries, his contribution lacked the sophistication that the debate demanded at the highest level and it made little lasting mark.
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between 1781 and 1807. Although he published little original work, he was skilled in correcting errors in the work of others. He studied the orbit of the Moon and the dynamics of objects in central force fields, correcting serious errors in the calculations of the distance between the Earth and the
334:
to study medicine and mathematics. Despite his frugality he could not stay long enough to take a degree and he returned to
Sedbergh to resume his practice and save in preparation for another austere period of study, this time in London. His stay in the capital was brief, but he gained experience in
356:
For over twenty years Dawson maintained his medical practice while also pursuing his work as a mathematician, and it was only from about 1790 that he devoted himself exclusively to mathematical teaching. By then his fame as a teacher was attracting a regular stream of pupils, including
Cambridge
555:
in 1817 of a sombre and very elderly Dawson, went to private hands. Striking though Dawson's appearance was, however, he was revered above all for his simplicity of manner and a cheerful, benevolent temperament that left him, in Adam
Sedgwick's words, ‘without any stiffness or affectation of
423:
urged the university to recognize his status as the first mathematician of
England by awarding him an honorary degree. But his original contributions to mathematics were not numerous, and the only formal honour they brought him was election as a corresponding member of the
643:"Miscellanea Mathematica: Consisting of a Large Collection of Curious Mathematical Problems, and Their Solutions. Together with Many Other Important Disquisitions in Various Branches of the Mathematics. Being the Literary Correspondence of Several Eminent Mathematicians"
339:, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, that was to be important for his future work as a mathematician. Returning to Sedbergh with a diploma, he made his general practice the best in the north-western dales and soon enjoyed security, even prosperity.
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in 1809 and showing Dawson teaching a seated pupil, had already been lost by the mid-nineteenth century, but it survived in the form of a copy by the vicar of
Sedbergh, the Revd D. M. Peacock, and an engraving by W. W. Barney. The other, a watercolour painted by
241:, walking 150 miles there with his savings stitched into his coat. Despite a very frugal lifestyle, he was unable to complete his degree, and had to return to Garsdale until he earned enough as a surgeon and as a private tutor in Mathematics at
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Dawson maintained his active engagement in mathematics into his seventies. But from 1812, with his memory and physical strength failing, he took no further pupils. An anonymous correspondent writing from
Trinity College, Cambridge, in the
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On 3 March 1767 he married Ann
Thirnbeck of Middleton, near Sedbergh. The one daughter of the marriage, Mary, born on 15 January 1768, was to be an important companion to Dawson in his later years, following the death of his wife in 1812.
491:, by offering an independent analytical demonstration of the existence of an error in Newton's treatment of precession, passed off less agreeably, with Emerson disabusing Dawson as roundly as he had Simpson, according to the report in
546:
The impact that Dawson had on those who knew him was heightened by a commanding physical presence well conveyed in the portraits that survive of him. The original of one of the portraits, painted by
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for
December 1881. Pupils who went on to Cambridge and did not achieve the rank of senior wrangler included, in addition to Richard and Adam Sedgwick and Haygarth, the lord chief justice Sir
439:, the professor of mathematics at Edinburgh, to overestimate the distance between the Earth and the Sun by more than a quarter. He pursued his argument vigorously when he was attacked by
531:(1777), which he regarded as immoral in tendency and false. His 24-page pamphlet outlining his views on the damaging consequences and unsure foundations of an acceptance of determinism,
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his other mathematical publications were slight. The most important of them was a series of rather combative letters signed ‘Wadson’ and published in
Charles Hutton's
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455:, 1770, pp. 452–3) made no concessions and reinforced the respect in which he was held by several Edinburgh mathematicians and natural philosophers, including
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Dawson's interests also embraced metaphysics and theology, subjects that he explored in correspondence with a favourite early pupil, the Rev.
322:, read with him before going up to Cambridge. But the profession on which Dawson embarked was that of a surgeon. In this he was influenced by
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515:. Described by Adam Sedgwick as ‘a firm believer and a good sober practical Christian of the old school’, Dawson abhorred the doctrines of
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405:, who was at Sedbergh School, and several bishops. Among those whose medical interests took them to Edinburgh rather than Cambridge were
393:, whose vivid account of the journey of almost five days between London and Sedbergh and his introduction to Dawson was published in
53:
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at
Cambridge had been taught by him, as had four others between 1797 and 1807. Among these were the future chancery barrister
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What began as a purely local reputation spread quickly, from 1756, when three young men, including the future physician
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on the velocity of water emerging from vessels in motion (this exchange is dated to 1773 and 1774; the parts of
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were gathered in a volume with title=page year, 1775). An earlier exchange, in which Dawson took the side of
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the London hospitals, attended surgical and medical lectures, and made a contact, with
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https://books.google.com/books?id=h1pMAAAAcAAJ&q=Hutton's+Dawson
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https://books.google.com/books?id=5bI8AAAAIAAJ&q=spite+blunder
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He died, on 19 September 1820, and a monument high in the nave of
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Sun, and confirming an error in Newton's precession calculations.
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https://books.google.com/books?id=6XNEAQAAMAAJ&q=1773+Sedberg
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John Dawson (1734–1820). Portrait by William Whiston Barney.
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The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated
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The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated
467:, all of whom visited him in Sedbergh. By comparison with
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in Sedbergh was erected, in the form of a bust of him by
535:(1781), elicited a dismissive, unsigned rejoinder in the
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and many other public figures of the nineteenth century.
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His earliest and most substantial publication was his
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to enable him to complete his MD from London in 1765.
797:People associated with the University of Cambridge
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445:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
209:(1734 – 19 September 1820) was both an English
705:. Vol. 14. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
493:Life and Letters of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick
507:, headmaster of the grammar schools first in
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426:Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
237:for a year, then went to study medicine at
294:After a rudimentary education at the Revd
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72:19 September 1820 (aged 85–86)
16:For other people with the same name, see
233:of Lancaster, he worked as a surgeon in
529:The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity
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802:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
711:The Life and Letters of the Reverend
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266:where his pupils included twelve
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570:Robert William Sievier
409:, Thomas Garnett, and
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782:People from Sedbergh
449:Gentleman's Magazine
401:, the mathematician
465:Henry Lord Brougham
447:; his reply in the
375:Royal Naval College
737:Dawson at Sedbergh
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566:St Andrew's Church
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469:Four Propositions
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207:John Dawson
181:Miles Bland
157:James Inman
87:Nationality
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18:John Dawson
761:Categories
752:Dawson bio
658:>; <
580:References
517:David Hume
379:Portsmouth
691:(1888). "
574:John Bell
513:Clitheroe
509:Slaidburn
367:John Bell
332:Edinburgh
290:Education
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215:physician
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129:Physician
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300:Garsdale
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58:Garsdale
699:(ed.).
618:. 1769.
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695:". In
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