Biographical Memoirs of 'Eminent Persons. 



[JllLY, 



fifty years previously to his decease, he had 

 been vicar at the parish of Charles the Mar- 

 tyr, at Plymouth. He was one of those cler- 

 gymen who assume the epithet of evangelical. 

 He has always been conspicuous amongst his 

 class ; and numerous are the controversies in 

 which he has, atdifferent times, engaged with 

 his brethren of the church. 



Dr. Hawker had been for some time in a 

 declining; state. Aware, as it is said, of his 

 approaching end, and urged by a wish once 

 more to see his daughter, Mrs. Ball, who was 

 confined by indisposition at Totness, he, con- 

 trary to the advice of his medical friends, 

 went to that town, from Plymouth, about a 

 fortnight before his death. His strength was 

 greatly impaired by the journey ; and, on 

 reaching Ivy-bridge, on 'his way home, he 

 felt the tide of life ebbing fast. " My time 

 is drawing near,'' said he ; " be quick 

 put on additional horses, or I shall not 

 reach home alive !" In accordance with his 

 wish, additional horses were put to the car- 

 riage ; but, after proceeding for a short time 

 at a rapid pace, his weakness so increased 

 that it was found impracticable to travel 

 faster than a walk. Reaching home, he par- 

 took of some refreshment, from which he 

 derived a temporary revival of strength. In 

 the course of the evening he called his family 

 around him ; and, having read and expounded 

 to them the llth chapter of the Epistle to 

 the Ephesians, from the 5th to the 12th 

 verse, he said, " I shall not long be with 

 you I am leaving you but God will still be 

 with you." He had scarcely uttered these 

 word?, when he leaned back in his chair, and 

 expired, as though he bad fallen asleep, with- 

 out a sigh ; some time, indeed, elapsed be- 

 fore those who stood around him were aware 

 that the spirit had departed. It was at three 

 o'clock in the afternoon (April 6th) that he 

 arrived at home, and at ten minutes before 

 eight he died. 



As a preacher, Dr. Hawker was exceed- 

 in^ly popular ; and, in his occasional visits to 

 the metropolis, he drew such crowded con- 

 gregations that the limbs and lives of his 

 auditory were frequently endangered. He 

 was the founder of many charities ; be was 

 benignant and affectionate to all. 



Dr. Hawker was the author ofSeveral ser- 

 mons on the Divinity of Christ, 1792 ; Evi- 

 dence of a Plenary Inspiration, 1793; Ser- 

 mons on the Divinity and Operations of the 

 Holy Ghost, 1794; Misericordia, 1795; 

 Christian's Pocket Companion, 1797 ; Ser- 

 mons, 1797; Youth's Catechism, 1798; 

 Specimens of Preaching, 1801; Life of W. 

 Coombes, 1802; his own Works, complete 

 in 6 vols., 1805; Life and Writings of the 

 Rev. H. Tanner, 1807; Two Letters to a 

 Barrister, 1808; Letter to W. Hale, in De- 

 fence of the Female Penitentiary, 1810 ; the 

 Bible, with a Commentary, 1816 ; the Poor 

 Mao's Commentary on the New Testament, 

 1810; <fec. 



MR. GILBERT BURNS. 

 Gilbert Burns was born about the year 

 1760. He was eighteen months younger 

 than his brother Robert, Scotland's most 

 gifted bard. With him he was early inured 

 to toil, and rendered familiar with the hard- 

 ships of the peasant's lot ; like him, too, he 

 was much subject to occasional depression of 

 spirits, and from whatever cause, he had con- 

 tracted a similar bend or stoop in the shoul- 

 ders : his frame, like that of Robert, was cast 

 in a manly and symmetrical mould. The 

 profile of his countenance resembled that of 

 his brother, and their phrenological deve- 

 lopments are said to have been not dissimi- 

 lar : the principal disparity lay in the form 

 and expression of the eye, which in Gilbert, 

 was fixed, sagacious, and steady in Robert, 

 almost always " in a fine phrenzy rolling." 



Gilbert Burns was the archetype of his 

 father, a very remarkable man : his piety was 

 equally warm and sincere ; and, in all the 

 private relations of life, as an elder of the 

 church, a husband, a father, a master, and a 

 friend, he was pre-eminent. His writings 

 want that variety, originality, and ease, 

 which shine so conspicuously even in the 

 prose works of the post ; but they have many 

 redeeming points about (hern. His taste was 

 as pure as his judgment was masculine. He 

 has been heard to say, that the two most 

 pleasurable moments of his life were first, 

 when he read Mackenzie's story of La Roche, 

 and secondly, when Robert took him apart., 

 at the breakfast or dinner hour, during har- 

 vest, and read to him, while seated on a 

 barley sheaf, his MS. copy of the far-famed 

 Cotter's Saturday Night, 



When Robert Burns was invited by Dr. 

 Blacklock to visit Edinburgh, Gilbert was 

 struggling in the unthrifty farm of Mosgiel, 

 and toiling lute and early to keep a house 

 over the heads of his aged mother and un- 

 protected sisters. The poet's success was 

 the first thing that stemmed the ebbing tide 

 of his fortunes. On settling with Mr. Creech, 

 in February 1788, he received, as the profits 

 of his second publication, about 500 ; and, 

 with that generosity which formed a part of 

 bis nature, he immediately presented Gilbert 

 with nearly half of his whole wealth. Thus 

 succoured, Gilbert married a Miss Brecon- 

 ridge, and removed to a better farm at Din- 

 ning, in Dumfriesshire. While there, he was 

 recommended to Lady Blantyre, whose estates 

 in East Lothian he subsequently managed 

 for nearly a quarter of a century. He died 

 at Grant's Braes, in the neighbourhood of 

 Haddington, on one of the Blantyre farms, 

 on the 8th of April. He had no fixed com- 

 plaint ; but, for several months preceding 

 his dissolution, a gradual decay of nature had 

 been apparent. It is probable that his death 

 was accelerated by severe domestic afflic- 

 tions ; as, on the 4th of January, he lost a 

 daughter, who bad long been the pride of his 

 family hearth ; and, on the 26lh of February 

 following, his youngest son, a youth of great 

 promise, died at Edinburgh, of typhus fever, 



