Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/18

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JAN. 3, urn.


upon Hull Kn was born y e 26 of March 1608 died the 30 th of March 1651 & was buried in this church of Wintringham.

Is't possible did not this star appear One of the brightest in our hemisphere How comes this quick privation, oh tis gone Nor see we save a sable horison Learn hence we may that none so fixed is In this our orb but must glide hence like this Such is our state yet 'tis that happy way Translates us hence to heaven fixed stars for aye Even such is this blest star now whose fall here Returned him glorious to that blessed sphere. Can any of your correspondents say by whom the above was written ? It is thought by some of the villagers to be by Andrew Marvell, M.P. for Hull.

WILLIAM ANDEEWS. Royal Institution, Hull.


DESCENDANTS OF ELIZABETHAN

WORTHIES. (9 th S. x. 208, 310, 433.) WE are told at the last reference that William Hawkins, Professor of Poetry at Oxford 1751-6, was a descendant of Sir John Hawkins ('D.N.B.,' xxv. 212); and statements to the like effect may be found in several books ; for instance, in the * His- tory of Pembroke College' (Oxford Hist. Soc., 1897), p. 379. The professor was son of William Hawkins, the serjeant-at-law, about whose father I sent some notes, printed at 9 th S. vi. 188; vii. 154. The matters there stated led me to infer tentatively that the Serjeant's father was the John Hawkins who, when he was admitted to the Inner Temple on 18 October, 1672, was described as " de Mortlake in comitatu Surrie, generosus." The theory that the serjeant was descended from Sir John Hawkins appears to rest upon the supposition that John Hawkins, the ser- jeant's father, who settled at Great Milton, Oxfordshire, about 1682, was identical with John, born 1643, son of John Hawkins (of Slapton, Devon), and grandson of Sir Richard Hawkins, the voyager, who died in 1622. See The Hawkins' Voyages ' (Hakluyt Soc., 1878), p. 1. Can any reader tell us whether there is good evidence which either supports or refutes this supposition ? The following matters make me incline to doubt its accu- racy :

1. William Hawkins, Esq., J.P. for Surrey, died 31 January, 1677 (? 1677/8), aged fifty- three, and was buried at Mortlake (Manning and Bray's 'Surrey,' iii. 308). He was, pre- sumably, the William Hawkins, Esq., of Mortlake, Surrey, whose will, dated 6 October,


1677, was proved 11 February, 1677/8, P. C. C. 14 Reeve. It appears from the will that the testator had property in Westminster, and was entitled to the rents of "houses in ffoxes' ordinary, London." He appointed, as his sole executor, "John Hawkins, my only brother John Hawkins his son," and, as trustees and overseers of the will, " Mr. Simon Smyth, of the city of Westminster, merchant, and Mr. Richard Hawkins, in the Old Bayley neare Ludgate, scryvener." John Hawkins, the executor, was under twenty-eight years of age at the date of the will, which provided that, until he reached that age, he was to have a chamber reserved for him in the tes- tator's house at Mortlake, and also that care was to be taken " to purchase a chamber in the Temple for him to practise in " The will mentions the testator's wife ; also his " sister Bowles," and Henry, Mary, and Hannah, her children by her former husband Henry Kern (?) ; and Hester, Mary, Anne, and Susan, daughters of the testator's dead brother John.

2. The above reference to "a chamber in the Temple " leads me now to suggest that John Hawkins, the testator's nephew and executor, may have been the father of William Hawkins, the serjeant-at-law. If he was the Serjeant's father, it is difficult to see how the supposed descent from Sir Richard Hawkins can be admitted, because :

(a) The Serjeant's father, if he was under twenty-eight years of age in October, 1677, was born several years later than 1643, the year in which John, grandson of Sir Richard Hawkins, is said to have been born.

(6) Sir Richard Hawkins does not seem to have had any son named William (see 'D.N.B.,' xxv. 223, 225) ; and, moreover, William Hawkins, the above testator, who died in 1677/8, aged fifty-three, cannot have been son of Sir Richard, who died in 1622.

H. C.

It is traditionally believed that Hawkins was a Gloucestershire man, whose ships were built for the most part in Bristol Channel, and that the first orders given to the Spaniards were to burn the Forest of Dean, whence the oak came. I can find no record of Hawkins residing near the Forest of Dean; but Drake's House " at Lydney is shown to this day. We find, however, that Hawkinses were the owners of very many of the principal estates in Gloucestershire in the reign of James I.

GLOSTER.

William Honywood, of Cheriton, near Hythe, Kent, married Frances Raleigh, from whom descends the present baronet. There is a memorial in Cheriton Church to ** M rs Eliza-