and other commodities; and afterwards, ‘arriving on the coast of Brazil, used there such discretion and behaved himself so wisely with those savage people, that he grew into great familiarity and friendship with them.’ In a second voyage (c. 1530) ‘one of the savage kings of the country was contented to take ship with him and to be transported into England,’ Hawkyns leaving behind in the country, as a pledge of his safety, ‘one Martin Cockeram of Plymouth.’ This Brazilian king was brought up to London and presented to Henry VIII at Whitehall, and a year later sailed with Hawkyns on the homeward voyage. Unfortunately he died on the passage out, and it was feared that Cockeram's life might be in danger. The savages were, however, ‘persuaded of the honest dealing of our men;’ the hostage was safely restored, and Hawkyns returned to England with his ‘ship freighted and furnished with the commodities of the country.’ Hakluyt, writing in 1589, adds, on the testimony of Sir John Hawkyns, that Cockeram ‘was living in the town of Plymouth within these few years.’
In 1532–3, and again in 1538–9, Hawkyns was mayor of Plymouth, which he also represented in the parliaments of 1539, 1547, and 1553 (October to December). In February 1554–5 he is spoken of as ‘recently deceased’ (Hawkins, p. 6). He married Joan, daughter of William Trelawney, and left issue two sons, William [q. v.] (d. 1589) and John [q. v.], both of whom are separately noticed. Sir Francis Drake is sometimes spoken of as the nephew of Sir John Hawkyns, and it has been supposed that his mother must have been a sister of Sir John, a daughter, that is, of William Hawkyns. But no exact evidence of this has been found; the degree of relationship between Drake and the Hawkynses is doubtful.
[Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 389; Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, iii. 700. This account of Hakluyt's has been reprinted in The Hawkins's Voyages, edited for the Hakluyt Society by Clements R. Markham, whose biographical introduction embodies most of the little that is known. Miss Mary W. S. Hawkins's Plymouth Armada Heroes contains some interesting notes extracted from the Plymouth records.]
HAWKINS or HAWKYNS, WILLIAM (d. 1589), sea-captain and merchant, was son of William Hawkins (d. 1553) [q. v.], and elder brother of Sir John Hawkins (1532–1595) [q. v.] In 1553–4 he was admitted to the freedom of Plymouth. He took a prominent part in local affairs, and was three times mayor: in 1567–8, in 1578–9, and again in 1587–8. It was during his first mayoralty that the earliest bylaws for the regulation of the shipping in Sutton Pool were issued. In the following year, 1568–9, he built, it is said, the new conduit associated with the Market Cross in the Old Town. It is, however, as a shipowner that his name enters more prominently into history. From the beginning of the disturbances in the Low Countries his vessels cruised in the Channel; nominally privateers, they bore a close resemblance to pirates. In 1568 he held the commission of the Prince de Condé to act against the ships of the League. In December 1568 he was associated with Sir Arthur Champernowne in seizing the Spanish treasure at Plymouth. On 20 Jan. 1568–9 he sent to Cecil the news of the disastrous defeat of his brother John at San Juan de Lua, and requested that a share of the Spanish goods detained in Plymouth might be allotted to him in compensation. On 27 Jan. 1568–9 he sent word to Cecil of his brother's return home. Complaints innumerable of the depredations committed by his cruisers were made by the king of France and the Spanish ambassador. These ships were apparently owned jointly with his brother John; it is impossible to distinguish between the two, the more so as neither of them seems to have taken any personal part in the acts complained of; but the name of Hawkyns, in its French form Haquin, or in Spanish Achines, became a sound of terror in the narrow seas. In 1582 he commanded an expedition to the West Indies, of which, however, nothing is known beyond the mention of it by his nephew, Sir Richard Hawkyns (The Hawkins' Voyages, Hakluyt Society, p. 212). During his third mayoralty he helped to fit out from Plymouth seven ships against the Armada, was active in collecting reinforcements for the fleet, and in April 1589 contributed 25l. to the loan raised to defray the expenses of defence. He died on 7 Oct. 1589, and was buried in the church of St. Nicholas, Deptford, where a monument to his memory was erected by his brother, but no trace of it now remains. His will was proved in London on 20 Oct. 1589. By a first wife Hawkyns was father of William Hawkins or Hawkyns (fl. 1595) [q. v.] and of three daughters. His second wife was Mary, daughter of John Halse, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. His widow afterwards married Sir Warwick Hele.
[Notes supplied by Miss Mary W. S. Hawkins; Cal. State Papers (1568–89); Froude's Hist. of England; Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1883; Miss Hawkins's Plymouth Armada Heroes.]
