Initially minister of a congregation at the Gravel Pit Meeting-house in Hackney parish, he went to Glasgow College in 1749, and graduated M.D.
[1][2] Dawson went into practice in London, occasionally going round the wards of Guy's Hospital.
Two years later (3 October) he was elected physician to the London Hospital, and continued there till 5 September 1770.
[1] In 1774 Dawson published Cases in the Acute Rheumatism and the Gout, with cursory Remarks and the Method of Treatment.
His other work was An Account of a Safe and Efficient Remedy for Sore Eyes and Eyelids, London, 1782.