Manasseh Dawes

Manasseh Dawes (died 1829) was an English barrister and miscellaneous writer.

Life Dawes was a barrister of the Inner Temple. He left the bar and lived quietly at Clifford's Inn for the last thirty-six years of his life. He died 2 April 1829.

Works Dawes took the Whig side on the American War of Independence, and the law of libel; but defended William Blackstone against Jeremy Bentham, had doubts as to abolishing tests, and held that philosophical truth was beyond reach. His major works were: Deformity of the Doctrine of Libels, 1785; this and the previous work refer to the Case of the Dean of St Asaph. Introduction to a Knowledge of the Law on Real Estates, 1814. Epitome of the Law of Landed Property, 1818.

Dawes also edited (1784) a posthumous poem by John Stuckey on The Vanity of all Human Knowledge, with a dedication to Priestley.