Ichabod Dawks (1661?–1730; fl. 1673–1730)

DAWKS (ICHABOD), printer in London, (1) Blackfriars; (2) Wardrobe Court, Great Carter Lane. 1673–1730. Eldest son of Thomas Dawks the younger. Born at Westerham in Kent, September 22nd, 1661. On May 16th, 1673, he went with his father to work at Mrs. Maxwell's printing office, but in the following year they transferred their services to Mrs. Flesher. Ichabod Dawks married on August 3rd, 1687. In 1694 he petitioned the Court of Assistants of the Stationers Company, representing the inconvenience of the press at Chester, and that it was reasonable to suspect that many of the late pamphlets might be printed there, there being no one to overlook it. The court agreed that a representation be made of it to one of the secretaries of State. [Records of the Stat. Co.] He is chiefly remembered as the founder of the newspaper known as Dawks' News-Letter, which was distinguished from other papers of the time by being printed on writing paper in script type, with a blank space left for correspondences. It continued until 1715, perhaps later; but copies are rare, and complete sets unknown. Dawks was also the printer of a sheet called The Protestant Mercury, issued in 1697. His name rarely appears in the Term Catalogue. He died February 27th, 1730, and was buried at Low Leyton. [D.N.B., Timperley, p. 660; Nichols, Lit. Anecd., I. 3, 72, 118, 373; II. 161; III. 176, 290–1; IV. 9.] 

DAWKS, ICHABOD (1661–1730), printer, eldest son of Thomas Dawks the younger [q. v.], born at Westerham in Kent 22 Sept. 1661, was apprenticed on 16 May 1673 to Mrs. Maxwell, a printer, to whom his father was overseer. He afterwards commenced business for himself as printer and publisher. ‘He is very obliging and diligent, and reasonable in his prices,’ says Dunton, and ‘has a very rich invention; witness his new letter, with which he printed his newspaper’ (Life and Errors, i. 250). The new letter was a type resembling writing, now called script, and was used in ‘Dawks's News-Letter,’ of which the first number was issued on 4 Aug. 1696. This was printed on writing-paper in the script type, with a blank space left for manuscript correspondence. The ‘News-Letter’ continued for a considerable time. The ‘Tatler’ for 21 May 1709 playfully remarks that ‘the judicious and wary Mr. Ichabod Dawks hath … got himself a reputation from plagues and famines;’ and again, on 30 May 1710, ‘honest Ichabod is as extraordinary a man as any of our fraternity, and as particular. His style is a dialect between the familiarity of talking and writing, and his letter such as you cannot distinguish whether print or manuscript.’ The ‘Spectator’ of 14 Aug. 1712 also refers to ‘Dawks's News-Letter.’ When it came to an end is not known; Nichols quotes a number for 14 Jan. 1714–15. A complete set would be valuable and interesting. Dawks died 27 Feb. 1730 in his seventieth year, and was buried at Low Leyton with his wife Sarah, who died 6 June 1737, aged 60.

H. R. T.