William Dakins (died 1607) was an English academic and clergyman,

Gresham Professor of Divinity The Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1597, when it appointed seven professors; this has since increased to ten and in addition the c ...

and one of the translators of the '' King James Bible''.

Life

He is conjectured (

Thompson Cooper Thompson Cooper (8 January 1837, Cambridge – 5 March 1904, London) was an English journalist, man of letters, and compiler of reference works. He became a specialist in biographical information, and is noted as the most prolific contributor to t ...

in the '' Dictionary of National Biography'') to have been the son of William Dakins, M.A., vicar of Ashwell, Hertfordshire. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, whence he was elected in 1586 to a scholarship at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he proceeded B.A. in 1591. He became a minor fellow of Trinity on 3 October 1593, and a major fellow on 16 March 1594. In 1594 he commenced M.A., and in 1601 proceeded B.D. He became Greek lecturer of his college (an annual office) on 2 October 1602, and vicar of

Trumpington, Cambridgeshire Trumpington is a village and parish to the south of Cambridge, England. The village is an electoral ward of the City of Cambridge and a ward of South Cambridgeshire District Council. The 2011 Census recorded the ward's population as 8,034. Th ...

, in 1603. On the resignation of Hugo Gray he was chosen to succeed him as professor of divinity in

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

, London, on 14 July 1604. He was recommended by the vice-chancellor and several heads of colleges in Cambridge, but also by some of the nobility and even by King James I himself; Christopher Hill comments that James was probably glad to have a "harmless academic" appointed, after the evangelical Anthony Wotton and Gray. Christopher Hill, ''Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution'' (1965), p. 56. He was one of the learned men employed in the authorised translation of the Bible, a member of the Second Westminster Company, to which the

epistles of St. Paul The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extan ...

and the canonical epistles were assigned. In 1605 he resigned the vicarage of Trumpington, and on 2 October 1606 became junior dean of Trinity College. He died in February 1607.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dakins, William Year of birth missing 1607 deaths Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Translators of the King James Version 16th-century births 17th-century English Anglican priests 17th-century English translators People educated at Westminster School, London 16th-century scholars People from Ashwell, Hertfordshire