James Dawkins, born in Jamaica in 1722, the son of Henry Dawkins (1698-1744) of Clarendon, Jamaica, slave owner and sugar planter, and Elizabeth Dawkins (c.1697-1757, nee Pennant). Educated at Abingdon School and St John’s College, Oxford. Travelled to the Levant with the classical scholar Robert Wood, 1751-3, and supported the publication of Wood’s accounts ‘The Ruins of Palmyra’ (1753) and ‘The Ruins of Baalbec’ (1757). Travelled extensively in Europe, and mixed with Jacobite circles in Paris and Rome. Bought an estate at Laverstoke in Hampshire in 1755 and returned as the MP for Hindon, Wiltshire, but did not play an active role in parliament.
Dawkins is listed on the UCL Legacies of British Slavery database (see: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146633416) as the owner of 25,000 acres of land in Jamaica with his brother, the slave owner Henry Dawkins. He is linked to or listed as the owner of the following estates in Jamaica, all with enslaved labour: Dawkins Caymanas, St Catherine; Dawkins Salt Pond Pen, St Catherine; Friendship, Clarendon; Leicesterfields, Clarendon; Old Plantation, Clarendon; Parnassus Estate, Clarendon. He died at Sutton’s Plantation, Jamaica, in Sept. 1657 and was buried at Old Plantation, Clarendon.