Dawson of Frogden in Roxburghshire is believed to have been the first who grew turnips as a field crop to any extent.
On his marriage in 1823 with Elizabeth, daughter of Dawson Turner of Great Yarmouth, he had become a Christian, and had changed his name to Palgrave, the maiden name of his wife's mother.
This was the object of Dr Leichhardt's expedition in 1844, which proceeded first along the banks of the Dawson and the Mackenzie, tributaries of the Fitzroy river, in Queensland.
The peculiar action of electric sparks and waves in reducing the resistance of discontinuous conductors was rediscovered and investigated by Calzecchi Onesti,' by Branly, 2 Dawson Turner, 3 Minchin, Lodge, 4 and many others.
He was Minister of Railways in the short-lived Dawson Ministry of 1899, and in 1901 was elected a member of the Commonwealth Parliament, retaining his scat for 15 years.
