John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington

Between 1766 and 1768 he was a Member of Parliament for Portarlington in the Irish House of Commons. In 1768 he was elected to represent Queen's County.^[4] He resigned his seat in the Commons upon succeeding to his father's peerage in 1779 and assumed his seat in the Irish House of Lords. On 21 June 1785, Dawson was created Earl of Portarlington in the Peerage of Ireland. Between 1779 and his death he was Governor of Queen's County.^[1] He raised the Queen's County Militia, being appointed its first Colonel on 23 April 1793^[5] and soon turning it into a well-regarded regiment.^[6] In 1796 he was made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.^[1]

On 1 January 1778, he married Lady Caroline Stuart (1750–1813), the fifth daughter of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who served as Prime Minister from 1762 to 1763, and Mary Wortley-Montagu, Baroness Mount Stuart of Wortley. Together they had five sons and four daughters, including:^[1]

• John Dawson, 2nd Earl of Portarlington (1781–1845), who had no issue and died unmarried.^[1]
• Lady Caroline Elizabeth Dawson-Damer (1782–1861), who married Henry Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton, son of Sir John Parnell, 2nd Baronet, in 1801.^[1]
• Lady Louisa Mary Dawson (1783–1845), who married Rev. Walter Davenport Bromley (who assumed the surname Bromley on inheriting Wootton Hall and Baginton from a distant relation in 1822),^[7] son of Davies Davenport, in 1829.^[1]
• Hon. Henry Dawson-Damer (1786–1841), a Captain in the Royal Navy who married Eliza Moriarty, daughter of Capt. Edmund Joshua Moriarty and Lady Lucy Luttrell (daughter of the 1st Earl of Carhampton), in 1813.^[1]
• Hon. George Lionel Dawson-Damer (1788–1856), a Colonel and MP for Portarlington and Dorchester; he married Mary Georgiana Emma Seymour, daughter of Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour and Lady Anne Horatia Waldegrave (daughter of the 2nd Earl Waldegrave and Maria Walpole, later Duchess of Gloucester), in 1825.^[1]
• Lady Mary Harriet Dawson (c. 1790–1827), who married Very Rev. Hon. Henry David Erskine, son of Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, in 1813.^[1]
• Hon. Lionel Charles Dawson (1790–1842), who married Lady Elizabeth Emily Nugent, daughter of George Nugent, 7th Earl of Westmeath and Lady Elizabeth Emily Moore (daughter of the 1st Marquess of Drogheda), in 1820.^[1]
• Hon. William Mackenzie Dawson (1793–1859), who married Patience Scott, daughter of Gen. Scott, in 1820. After her death, he married Louisa Frances Wright, daughter of S. T. Wright, in 1827. After her death, he married Julia Hopkinson, daughter of Capt. Hopkinson, in 1856.^[1]
• Lady Anna Maria Dawson (1795–1866), who died unmarried.^[1]

Lord Portarlington died on 30 November 1798. He was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, John.^[3]

As his eldest son died unmarried with no issue, the earldom passed to his grandson, Henry Dawson-Damer (1822–1889),^[8] who married Lady Alexandrina Octavia Maria Vane, second daughter of Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry.^[9]