Born at Burton Agnes in the East Riding of Yorkshire about 1740, he was son of Thomas Dade, vicar of the parish, by his wife Mary Norton.
Portions of the work were printed at York in 1784, with engravings, and the proof-sheets of these fragments, with the author's manuscript notes and corrections, are in the British Library.
[1] Some time after Dade's death, his manuscripts were given to George Poulson, the historian of Beverley, who rearranged and expanded them, publishing The History and Antiquities of the Seignory of Holderness.
[5] There was also published A Series of seventeen Views of Churches, Monuments, and other Antiquities, originally engraved for Dade's "History of Holderness", Hull, 1835.
Those plates were originally published in Poulson's Holderness when it was in part publication, but were later replaced for the complete work; the old engravings were sold separately as the Views.