William Rutter Dawes

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William Rutter Dawes
A photograph, c. 1863
Born(1799-03-19)19 March 1799
City of London, Great Britain
Died15 February 1868(1868-02-15) (aged 68)
CitizenshipEnglish
AwardsGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1855)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy

William Rutter Dawes (19 March 1799 – 15 February 1868) was an English astronomer.

Biography[edit]

Dawes was born at Christ's Hospital[1] then in the City of London (it moved to Horsham, West Sussex in 1902),[2] the son of William Dawes, also an astronomer, and Judith Rutter.[3] He qualified as a doctor in 1825. On 29 October 1828 he was ordained pastor at an Independent chapel in Burscough Street, Ormskirk, Lancashire,[4] formerly part of a silk factory.[4] A new chapel, in Chapel Street, was opened in 1834.[4] Dawes resigned as pastor in December 1837 due to ill health.[4] When, in 1843, the chapel got into financial difficulties due to the debt owing after its construction, Dawes came to their aid.[4]

Astronomy[edit]

The Thorrowgood Telescope at Cambridge Observatory

Dawes made extensive measurements of double stars as well as observations of planets. He was a friend of William Lassell. He was nicknamed "eagle eyed".[5] He set up his private observatory at his home, Hopefield House, built 1856-7[6] in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. One of his telescopes, an eight-inch (200mm) aperture refractor by Cooke, survives at the Cambridge Observatory, now part of the Institute of Astronomy where it is known as the Thorrowgood Telescope.[7]

A Chart of Mars Laid down on the Stereographic Projection by R A Proctor. From: Other Worlds Than Ours, 1896.

He made extensive drawings of Mars during its 1864 opposition. In 1867, Richard Anthony Proctor made a map of Mars based on these drawings. Proctor named two features after Dawes.[8]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1830 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1865, for his astronomical work.[9] Proposers for his Royal Society Fellowship included G B Airy and J F W Herschel.[9]

Awards[edit]

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1855.[10]

Legacy[edit]

Dawes[11] craters on the Moon and Dawes[12] crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within Saturn's C Ring,[13] formerly labelled 1.495 RS.[14]

An optical phenomenon, the Dawes limit, is named after him.

Family[edit]

Dawes married twice. His first wife was Mary Scott née Egerton (1764-1840). They married on 13 January 1824 at Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.[15] She was the widow of his tutor, Thomas Scott.[16] On 28 July 1842 Dawes married Ann Welsby née Coupland (1805-1860).[16] She was the widow of Ormskirk solicitor John Welsby (1800-1839)[16] whom she had married on 16 January 1824.[17]

William Rutter Dawes' grave, St Mary's Church, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.
REV DR WILLIAM RUTTER DAWES FRAS FRS

BORN 19 MAR 1799 DIED 15 FEB 1868
ASTRONOMER
HE MARRIED TWO WIDOWS MRS THOMAS SCOTT AND MRS JOHN WELSBY AND SURVIVED THEM BOTH

HE BUILT HOPEFIELD IN 1857 AND LIVED THERE UNTIL HIS DEATH

Selected writings[edit]

  • Dawes, William Rutter (1849). The Stars in Six Maps, on the Gnomonic Projection. C. Knight. Bibcode:1849ssmg.book.....D.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "MNRAS..29 Page 116".
  2. ^ Christ's Hospital Museum Retrieved 15 October 2021
  3. ^ Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e Nightingale, Benjamin, Lancashire nonconformity, or, Sketches, historical & descriptive, of the Congregational and old Presbyterian churches in the county. John Heywood, 1890-1893, p200-2
  5. ^ Proctor, R A, "Canals on the Planet Mars", The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 14 April, 1882, p7, column 7.
  6. ^ Sharp, Steve, with Wellby, Michael, "Hopefield House, Station Rd and the Rev Dr WR Dawes", The Haddenham Chronicles, No 2, Autumn 2006, Haddenham Museum Trust, pp40-2
  7. ^ Institute of Astronomy - Thorrowgood Telescope
  8. ^ Proctor, R A, Other worlds than ours; the plurality of worlds studied under the light of recent scientific researches, 1896, opp p105
  9. ^ a b Dawes, William Rutter: certificate of election to the Royal Society
  10. ^ Address delivered by the President, G. B. Airy, Esq. F.R.S., Astronomer Royal, on presenting the Medal of the Society to the Rev. William Rutter Dawes
  11. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Moon - Dawes - crater
  12. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Mars - Dawes - crater
  13. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Ring and Ring Gap Nomenclature - Saturn
  14. ^ Nicholson, Philip D. et al, (October 2014) "Noncircular features in Saturn’s rings II: The C ring", Icarus, Volume 241, p383 ("8. Dawes gap and embedded ringlet")
  15. ^ Buckinghamshire Marriage Index, findmypast (subscription required)
  16. ^ a b c Marriott, R A, Dawes, William Rutter (1799–1868) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (via libraries)
  17. ^ England Marriages 1538-1973, findmypast (subscription required)

Further reading[edit]

  • Ashbrook, Joseph (1984). The Astronomical Scrapbook. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Publishing. pp. 360–365. (Adapted from Sky & Telescope, July 1973, page 27)
  • Hoskin, Michael (1970–1980). "Dawes, William Rutter". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 605–606. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Rutter Dawes.
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