HAWKINS. 



97 



town, and came on to the bay of San Mateo, where he was captured by the 

 Spaniards. He was imprisoned in Spain for five years and on his return to Eng- 

 land was knighted. As vice admiral he went, in 1620-1621, to the Mediterranean 

 to reduce the Algerian corsairs. His mother's father and grandfather were treas- 

 urers of the navy. 



Associated with Hawkins's love of adventure was business astuteness, for the 

 daring piratical raids and smuggling adventures were highly profitable. His father 

 was thrifty, also, and was accounted perhaps the richest man in Plymouth. The 

 son, Richard (V 5), commanded his Uncle William's ships on a trading expedition 

 to the West Indies. 



Another striking characteristic was statesmanship. "Among the richest of 

 Britain's traders, they sought to establish the freedom of the seas" (though it 

 involved piracy). They did much to destroy Spain's contention that she alone 

 could trade with her colonies. Later in life his naval policy foreshadowed much 

 that has since been worked into the English naval system." His brother was 

 similarly a great administrator; he was tacitly regarded as governor of the port of 

 Plymouth; he obtained from Queen Elizabeth a revised charter for the town and 

 was early the town mayor. "Indeed, his local importance appears to have tended 

 a little in the direction of monopoly." Their father in his early voyages to the coast 

 of Brazil showed the characteristics of a statesman and a diplomat with his tact, 

 discretion, and sagacity in dealing with the natives. He, too, was mayor of 

 Plymouth and represented it in Parliament. Richard Hawkins also showed 

 political sagacity in planning his trip to South American ports. 



The propositus was bluff and blunt, sagacious and wily in council; his 

 "nerve never deserted him." He was slow in formulating his own view, but when 

 deliberately formed he could not be moved from it; but he was quick to see and 

 prompt to act in urgent cases. 



FAMILY HISTORY OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS. 



I 1 (M F F), Sir John Trelawny (see text). I 2 



(M F M), Blanche Pownde. I 3 (consort's F M F), , 



Hussey, an admiralty judge. 



II 1 (F F), John Hawkins. II 2 (F M), Joan 

 Amadas. II 3 (M F), Roger Trelawny. II 5 (consort's 

 F F), William Gonson, treasurer of the navy in the 

 reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary. II 6 

 (consort's F M), Ursula Hussey. 



III 1 (F), William Hawkins, one of the greatest 

 sea captains in the west of England; an officer in the navy 

 of Henry VIII; the first Englishman who sailed a ship into 

 southern seas, making at least three voyages to Brazil. 

 He was mayor of Plymouth and a member of Parlia- 

 ment. Ill 2 (M), Jane Trelawny. Ill 3 (consort's F), 

 Benjamin Gonson, of Sebright Hall, near Chelmsford; 

 treasurer of the navy (1549-1573). 



Fraternity of Propositus: IV 2, William Hawkins, 

 the most influential resident of Elizabethan Plymouth, 



of which town he was mayor; a ship-owner and commander, who held a commission under 

 Prince Cond6. IV 3, Mary Halse. IV 4 (Propositus), SIR JOHN HAWKINS. IV 5, (consort) 

 Katherine Gonson. Fraternity of M: IV 6, Benjamin Gonson, born 1551. IV 7, Thomasine 

 Gonson. IV 8, Edward Fenton, a noted navigator; captain of the Gabriel in the Arctic 

 voyage of 1577 with Frobisher. 



