My name is Chris Dawson and I have lived in Elmbridge, Surrey for over thirty years, and have always been interested in history. Unsurprisingly, given the proximity of Hampton Court, my preferred period is the Early Modern 1500-1700 — that is, mainly the Tudors and Stuarts and the major upheavals caused by the Renaissance and the Reformation. I also have an aptitude for technology, and after many years in business, most recently focusing on data management and analytics, I finally found a way to combine the two in Digital Humanities. I am involved in various local history projects, and can often be found undertaking research trips to historical buildings and archives. Writing as C.L. Dawson, I publish magazine articles and blog posts.
I have written two book-length accounts (60,000 words) of stories relating to family history, both based on documents left by ancestors. The first is a recreation of the autobiography of a great-grandfather based on brief notes he dictated before his death, which outlined his own research into his forebears, most prominently Sir Ranulphe Crewe, Lord Chief Justice under both King James I and Charles I in 1625-6, who built Crewe Hall and founded the Crewe Family lineage. My account titled “Blue Ink Like Blue Blood” firstly covers the history of the Crewe family from Norse legends and the Norman Conquest, to Sir Ranulphe’s involvement in a terrible witchcraft trial, his appointment as an unexpected speaker of the House of Commons, his turbulent legal career and how the Civil War impacted the construction of his legacy. The second half focuses on how great-grandfather’s family was descended from Sir Ranulphe Crewe, how their stately homes and estates, and even the Crewe name itself, were lost and his own misfortune in being a wealthy factory owner in Germany when the First World War broke out, resulting in his internment as an enemy alien in a prisoner of war camp, and his efforts to regain his identity and fortune.
The second book, “Galiot’s Commission”, inspired by a notebook found hidden in an old cabinet, traces another side of the family history back to Renaissance Europe, and reflects on how stories, and objects, are passed down to posterity.
My Flipbook collection of Local History pamphlets:
The Museum of Melancholy: The Divine Case of Mrs Drake 1615-1647
The Most Notorious Riot in Oatlands 1617
Elmbridge Hundred: Rural Retreat to Forest Law 1492-1548
The Ten Day Civil War in Elmbridge: 9th-18th November 1642
For further information please email: chris.dawson@casacolori.co.uk
