William James Dawson (21 November 1854 – 22 August 1928) was an English clergyman, lecturer, poet, hymnwriter, and author. After beginning his ministry as a Wesleyan Methodist, he became a Congregationalist in 1892. He was the pastor of Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church in the 1890s. During that time, his writing and preaching became widely popular in the United States, and he moved there in 1906, eventually settling in Newark, New Jersey.
He was the father of the novelist and poet Coningsby Dawson.
Early life and education
William James Dawson was born on 21 November 1854 at Towcester, Northamptonshire to Reverend William James and Susan (née Waller) Dawson. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset and Didsbury College, Manchester.
Great Britain
He entered the Wesleyan ministry upon graduation from Didsbury in 1875. In 1884, he published his first work, a book of poetry titled, A Vision of Souls. This was followed by a collection of literary and critical essays, Quest and Vision, in 1886.
Wesley's Chapel, London (1887)
He began ministering at Wesley's Chapel, City Road, London in 1887. He found the conditions of South London extremely depressing and later wrote of its poverty in his Autobiography of the Mind, "All around these dismal habitations of the dead, were narrow alleys and foul rookeries, feculent with thronged and neglected human lives. The dilapidated houses looked as though they had known no cleansing or repair since the days of the Great Plague, when Bunhill Fields received the dead in thousands." During this period, he published his first novel, The Redemption of Edward Strahan. It received positive reviews, including praise from William Ewart Gladstone.
