(1802 – 11 October 1870 Clapham, Bedfordshire) [1] was an English entomologist and taxonomist from 'The Woodlands' near Bedford best known for his work on the Carabidae beetles "Geodephaga Britannica; a Monograph of the Carnivorous Ground-Beetles indigenous to the British Isles" (London, 1854).
After his death in 1850 the house passed to his eldest son the Reverend John Dawson and it was the clergyman's own demise twenty years later which led to a macabre attempt to settle a dispute over inheritance.
Reporting on the grisly occurrence, the local newspaper revealed "The carpenter who had screwed down the lid averred that previous to this being done the nurse who had attended the deceased in his last illness placed under his body a bundle of documents tied with red tape".
Subsequently the property passed into the hands of the local Justice of the Peace, William Long Fitzpatrick, who may have been related to the Novel Irish Family that inherited Ampthill Park in 1736 and provided three Members of Parliament for Bedfordshire over the ensuing 80 years.
Later it was used as a research establishment for a time before becoming a hotel in 1973.The London Standard of 27 September 1876, says: "Much excitement was caused yesterday morning in the village of Clapham, near Bedford, by the exhumation of the remains of Rev.