[r-t] Dixon & Dawson

[Robert Bennett]

In the 1990s, I used to do a lot of looking up surnames on a computer
database while trying to interpret doctors' handwriting on laboratory
forms. The general opinion (which I shared) was that the soundex was
useless. It would be worse than useless dealing with dialects in 18th
century England.
Dixon or Dickson probably come from Richard/Dick, and Dawson probably comes
from David/Davey.
On the subject of Dawson, the solicitor Charles Dawson was the discoverer
and fabricator of the Piltdown man. He also had a  bad name for plagiarism,
but as far as I know was not a ringer.
RB

On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 9:15 PM, Richard Smith <richard at ex-parrot.com> wrote:

> Ted Steele wrote:
>
> I sent a link to an item that stated Dawson was a schoolmaster in the
>> village. This should be fairly easy to check for anyone with access to
>> genealogy search services and would resolve this issue.
>>
>
> A Charles Dawson was on the electoral roll in Fulbourn in 1780.  At this
> time suffrage in shire constituencies was restricted to men with
> freeholdings in the county worth an annual rent of 40/-.  At this time,
> copyhold was the dominant form of land tenure, and an annual rent of 40/-
> was a significant amount, so few qualified.  A schoolmaster might very well
> qualify, and this could well be him.  He is probably the man who was buried
> at Fulbourn, aged 79, in 1811.  That would make him about 57 when the
> Cambridge Youths rang the extent at St Edward's, which is plausible
> enough.  It also means he was dead well before 1829 when Dixon's Bob Minor
> was supposedly composed.
>
>
> RAS
>
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