“May it please Your Honours,—The subscriber humbly relying on the known goodness and humanity of this honourable house, begs leave to lay his complaint before them, which is briefly as follows. That your petitioner was about six months past taken upon Long Island for a trespass which this house is thoroughly acquainted as by Israel Youngs he was led away to perform an action of which he has sincerely repented and your petitioner was torn away from an only son who was left among strangers without any support, or protection during the inclemency of the approaching winter, as his unhappy father hath since the first day he was taken had but one shirt and one pair of stockings to shift himself, and hath been affected during his imprisonment at White Plains with that worst of enemies hunger, and a nauseous stench of a small room where some twenty persons were confined together which hath introduced a sickness on your distressed subscriber which with the fatigue of travelling hath reduced your unhappy petitioner to a state of despondency—he therefore being weary of such a miserable life as his misconduct has thrown him into begs for a termination by death to be inflicted upon him in what manner the honourable House may see fit. The kind compliance of this honourable House will ever lay an obligation on your distressed humble servent

Henry Dawkins.”

We do not know in what manner the honorable house received this extraordinary petition; but, as book-plates are in existence in his later style, probably it was not granted. Dawkins used three distinct varieties of the Chippendale style. The plates of Benjamin Kissam, the Ludlow and Roome plates, the Whitehead Hicks and the James Duane are examples of the debased



Chippendale. He had also a style which is illustrated by the Hopkinson, Samuels, and Tomlinson plates, which is closely allied to the style of the Bushrod Washington. The same hissing dragon, the same tilt to the whole design, and the similarity in detail and execution have led to the question of his being the engraver of the latter plate. It is not a question easy to decide, and collectors are divided over the question. This style of plate came originally from England, we can be sure; and as Dawkins is seen to be a copyist, it is quite as likely that he copied from the Bushrod Washington plate, as that he designed it. He always used a squarer copper than the Washington plate is engraved upon; but this has evidences of having been cut down after engraving. The present writer does not think the plate can be safely attributed to Dawkins. The Child and Jones plates exemplify the third style.

The debased Chippendale plates which Dawkins made were apparently copied from an English example he had seen.

A LIST OF BOOK-PLATES SIGNED BY DAWKINS.
Gerard BanckerChippendale.
John Burnet, 1754Chippendale.
Francis ChildChippendale.
James DuaneChippendale.
Francis Hopkinson,} one copperChippendale.
Joseph Hopkinson, } one copperChippendale.
Whitehead HicksChippendale.
Archibald Hunter
Samuel JonesChippendale.
Benjamin KissamChippendale.
John Cooke LudlowChippendale.
Gab. Willm. LudlowChippendale.
Jacob RoomeChippendale.
John L. C. RoomeChippendale.
James SamuelsChippendale.
Samuel StringerChippendale.
William SwordChippendale.
John TomlinsonChippendale.
UnidentifiedChippendale.
Josias Short VavasourChippendale.
W —— WhitebreadChippendale.
Peter W. YatesChippendale.