William Rutter Dawes

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

BiographyEdit

Dawes was born at Christ's Hospital<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> then in the City of London (it moved to Horsham, West Sussex in 1902),<ref>Christ's Hospital Museum Retrieved 15 October 2021</ref> the son of William Dawes, also an astronomer, and Judith Rutter.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He qualified as a doctor in 1825. On 29 October 1828 he was ordained pastor at an Independent chapel in Burscough Street, Ormskirk, Lancashire,<ref name="nightingale">Nightingale, Benjamin, Lancashire nonconformity, or, Sketches, historical & descriptive, of the Congregational and old Presbyterian churches in the county. John Heywood, 1890-1893, p200-2</ref> formerly part of a silk factory.<ref name="nightingale" /> A new chapel, in Chapel Street, was opened in 1834.<ref name="nightingale" /> Dawes resigned as pastor in December 1837 due to ill health.<ref name="nightingale" /> When, in 1843, the chapel got into financial difficulties due to the debt owing after its construction, Dawes came to their aid.<ref name="nightingale" />

AstronomyEdit

File:The Thorrowgood telescope - geograph.org.uk - 2358429.jpg

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".<ref>Proctor, R A, "Canals on the Planet Mars", The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 14 April, 1882, p7, column 7.</ref> He set up his private observatory at his home, Hopefield House, built 1856-7<ref>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</ref> 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.<ref>Institute of Astronomy - Thorrowgood Telescope</ref>

File:Proctor Richard Anthony Other Worlds Mars Chart 1896.jpg

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.<ref> Proctor, R A, Other worlds than ours; the plurality of worlds studied under the light of recent scientific researches, 1896, opp p105</ref>

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.<ref name="frs">Dawes, William Rutter: certificate of election to the Royal Society</ref> Proposers for his Royal Society Fellowship included G B Airy and J F W Herschel.<ref name="frs" />

AwardsEdit

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1855.<ref>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</ref>

LegacyEdit

Dawes<ref>Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Moon - Dawes - crater</ref> craters on the Moon and Dawes<ref>Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Mars - Dawes - crater</ref> crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within Saturn's C Ring,<ref>Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Ring and Ring Gap Nomenclature - Saturn</ref> formerly labelled 1.495 R_S.<ref>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")</ref>

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

FamilyEdit

Dawes married twice. His first wife was Mary Scott née Egerton (1764-1840). They married on 13 January 1824 at Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.<ref>Buckinghamshire Marriage Index, findmypast (subscription required)</ref> She was the widow of his tutor, Thomas Scott.<ref name="odnb" /> On 28 July 1842 Dawes married Ann Welsby née Coupland (1805-1860).<ref name="odnb">Marriott, R A, Dawes, William Rutter (1799–1868) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (via libraries)</ref> She was the widow of Ormskirk solicitor John Welsby (1800-1839)<ref name="odnb" /> whom she had married on 16 January 1824.<ref>England Marriages 1538-1973, findmypast (subscription required)</ref>

William Rutter Dawes' grave, St Mary's Church, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire.
<poem> 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 </poem> \|\| \| File:William Rutter Dawes grave Haddenham Buckinghamshire.jpg