| Description | John Dawn was Boulton Watt & Co.’s Head Clerk at Soho Foundry. He was engaged as a clerk in December 1819, but was appointed as Head Clerk in 1826 when John Bennett was accused of embezzlement and suspended from his post. Some suspicion fell on Dawn during the Bennett affair; Watt Jr. remarked to Matthew Robinson Boulton on 20 November 1826 that he had had to lecture Dawn about his timekeeping, and John Bennett accused Dawn and other Foundry clerks of theft in several letters written from Stafford Jail in 1827. However Dawn did succeed to Bennett’s post. However it was discovered in July and August of 1832 that Dawn had been stealing from Boulton Watt & Co. He was not prosecuted through the courts, but the Birmingham attorney George Barker arranged that Dawn should sell off his property to clear various debts and to pay back Boulton Watt & Co. The sale of Dawn’s goods took place on 21 and 22 August 1832. |