The Hawkins Family

Richard Hawkings
Over the years, I have found out a lot about our ancestors.  If there is one thing they all had in common, it is that they all belonged to the working classes.  I am proud of our assorted mass of labourers, servants, coopers, soldiers, sailors, quarrymen, bakers, lamplighters, seamstresses, tram drivers and tailors.

Until about 150 years ago very few of our ancestors would have had the chance to learn to read and write.  All that survives from them are a few "X the mark of..."

Rotherhithe free school

Some years ago I discovered that one ancestor had most probably learned to read and write, one of the few who had managed this before education was provided for all. This was Richard Hawkings who worked as a cooper, warehouseman and a clerk. He might well have learnt to write at the free school in Rotherhithe, around 1830, when he was about 10. The school was near his home.  Some ancestors might well have just learnt to write their signatures but Richard Hawkings has left us a clue that he could read, as well as write. He did this by the names he gave two of his children, one 'Garibaldi' and another 'Victor Hugo'. More about why he should choose to name his children after these two famous men, later. But first, what was the place like that Richard came from. On all his records he gives his birth place as Rotherhithe.

Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe is an area to the East of central London, on the south bank of the river Thames. In the days when ships came right into the heart of London, this stretch of water from Rotherhithe to London Bridge was known as the Pool of London and became one of the busiest ports in the world. In 1620 the Mayflower set sail from Rotherhithe, on its way, via Plymouth, to the New World. Every part of the riverbank in Rotherhithe, as well as the other side of the river at Wapping, had a wharf where goods could be unloaded. The riverside borough of Rotherhithe became a thriving home to mariners and all those workers that supported the many ships that docked there.

The Howland Great Wet Dock was built at Rotherhithe

By the end of the 17th Century the need to protect ships from the open tidal river, and the ability to unload more quickly, resulted in the start of 200 years of dock building in London with the Howland Great Wet Dock.


The new dock at Rotherhithe needed workers and men to work in support industries. Along with shipwrights, carpenters, caulkers and coopers came butchers, bakers, publicans and, of course, all their families.

By the end of the 18th Century the church of St Mary's Rotherhithe was a busy place, with around 500 baptisms and 100 marriages every year.

On the 23 April 1775 a John Hawkins, the son of Edward and Margaret was baptised. The curate recorded that John was 51 days old.

Southwark Fair was a 15 minute walk from Rotherhithe  it was drawn by Hogarth, one of the few artists who took an interest in the mass of 18th Century working people. Edward and Margarite Hawkins probably took their children to this fair?

John became a cooper, oak barrels being the 'shipping containers' of the day. John Hawkins and his wife Sarah, once referred to as 'Sally', had at least 7 children baptised at St Mary's and possibly two more unrecorded. Charles, John & Richard all followed in their fathers footsteps and became coopers.

• Charles James 8 Feb 1807 
• Eliza 21 Mar 1809
• Henrietta 25 Dec 1811 (Buried 1 Jan 1815)
• John 19 Sep 1813
• Henrietta 14 May 1815
• (Richard about 1818)
• (George about 1820)
• William 9 Sep 1821 (b. 3 Aug 1821) 
• Thomas 9 Sep 1821 (b. 4 Aug 1821 buried 2 Feb 1823)

It is possible that Richard and George were part of this family but, for some reason were not registered by the church.  There are quite a few entries in the baptism register which state, "...parents left before registration," The curate presumably made a note of the Christian name during the ceremony and wrote down the details in the register later, but the parents had not waited. In an account of the the parish records of St Mary's around 1820s the following is written:

On March 2, 1822, appears for the first time the hand-
writing of the Rev. Dr Hardwicke, who became curate of
Rotherhithe, apparently replacing the Rev. T. A. Lincoln.
It is not until July 31, 1822, that Dr Hardwicke officiated
himself ; but he wrote up the entries from March 2 of burials
which Mr Lincoln had left unregistered. 

Rev.T. A. Lincoln took over the baptism registers at the beginning of 1819. Perhaps some entries were never made or maybe parents John and Sarah never bothered. In such a bustling port with a large mobile population it was unlikely the vicar would notice a couple of his flock had remained un-baptised.

There are a number of clues that Richard, our ancestor, belongs to this family but I could not be absolutely sure.
In 1841 the Census shows a Richard and John were both coopers living in the same house in Cross Street, Rotherhithe with a George Hawkins a shipwright. The ages given the 1841 census were to the nearest 5 years and relationships are not given, so it is possible the three are not all brothers. The Y in the right hand column indicates that they were all born in the county in which the census was registered, ie Surrey.

Ancestry

Richard's two wedding certificates give his father as John Hawkings, cooper. Charles' wedding Certificate says that his father was John Hawkings, a cooper. Charles wife Catherine Hawkings was a witness to Richard's second wedding and by 1851 Richard had moved to the area of Old Nichol in Bethnal Green, where Charles lived.

Edward Hawkins

married about 1770

Margaret.

Their children were,

John 1775,

Edward 1777,

Edward 1780,

Susanna 1783John Hawkins
married about 1805

Sarah Jones.

Their children were,

Charles 1807,

Eliza 1809,

Henrietta 1811 died aged 4,

John 1813,

Henrietta 1815

and possibly our relatives:

George about 1817,

Richard about 1819,

The last children in this family to be recorded in the parish register were the twins, Thomas and William 1821. Thomas died aged 2.

Richard Hawkings
married on the 22 Oct 1848Eliza Death.Their children were,
Thomas 1847,
Frederick 1853,
Garibaldi 1861,
Ella Amy 1863,(Smudge's mother)
Twins Bertie Otto and Victor Hugo 1869
Ella Hawkings
on the 6 Jun 1882 marriedGeorge Smith.They had
Ella Smith 1883, (Our Nan)Beatrice 1888,
George 1890,Frederick 1894. (Smudge)

Ella Smith

married on the 27 Jul 1902

Ernest Rogers

They had

Ernest 1803,

Horace 1805,

Ella 1807,

John 1809,

Emily

and Jessamine.

---

1 FOOTNOTE^↩