Henry Dawkins

Henry Dawkins II (24 May 1728 – 19 June 1814) was a Jamaican plantation and slave owner and Member of the Parliament of Great Britain (MP). Background The Dawkins family settled on Jamaica shortly after its seizure from the Spanish in 1655. William Dawkins (d. 1694) acquired plantations in Jamaica, by grant, in the period 1669 to 1682. These descended to his grandsons James Dawkins I, and the sons of Henry Dawkins I (1698–1744), James Dawkins II and Henry Dawkins II, sons of Henry Dawkins I, all three being MPs. Both James I and James II left property in England to Henry II, who also inherited Jamaican properties from relatives, for an annual income of £40,000 to £50,000. It has been estimated that the gross income of the Jamaican plantations was more than £44,000 in 1775. At his death in 1744, Henry Dawkins I owned in Jamaica Old Plantation, Parnassus, Friendship, Green River, Leicester Fields, Trout Hall, One Eye, Sandy Gully Pen, Windsor, Folly Pen, Bog Hole Pen, Withywood Pastures and Treadways, including 1,315 slaves in total. Life He was born 24 May 1728 in Clarendon, Jamaica. He was the third surviving son of Henry Dawkins I (1698–1744), a slave-owner, sugar planter, and his wife, Elizabeth (1698–1737), daughter of Edward Pennant of Clarendon, chief justice of Jamaica and of Elizabet Moore. His brothers were plantation and slave-owner James Dawkins II, his eldest brother and the elder brother, major slave owner William Dawkins (1726–1753).