James Dawkins

James Dawkins (c. 1696–1766) was an English landowner and politician.

Life He was the second son of Colonel Richard Dawkins of Clarendon, a plantation and slave owner in Jamaica, member of the Assembly (died c. 1698/1701/1705, of a Leicestershire family), and his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth Masters (d. 1702).

Dawkins, of Rusley Park, Bishopstone, Wiltshire, bought land at Over Norton in Oxfordshire, the Busby estate. In the general election of 1734 he campaigned to become Member of Parliament for Oxford, but withdrew before the poll, despite having spent heavily. He was brought in unopposed, however, for New Woodstock, with the support of the Duchess of Marlborough.

In the 1750s, Dawkins was considered a Jacobite. He died unmarried on 10 May 1766. His Over Norton Park estate went to Henry Dawkins, his nephew.