Hawkins

Hawkins, SIR JOHN, author of the History of Music, was born at London, 30th March 1719, the son of a surveyor, and a descendant of the famous admiral. Bred an attorney, he acquired a fortune through his wife, and withdrew from professional work; and, becoming an active magistrate, was knighted for his services in connection with riots in 1768 and 1769. He collected a most valuable musical library, and after sixteen years of laborious research produced in 1776 his General History of the Science and Practice of Music, in 5 vols. quarto—a work of admittedly great and accurate scholarship, somewhat unsystematic and tedious, and as a literary performance decidedly inferior to Burney's History (which began to appear at the same time). It was much abused and ridiculed, but is a work of permanent value, and was reprinted in 2 vols. in 1876. In 1760 Hawkins issued an edition of Walton's Angler. An original member of Dr Johnson's Ivy-lane Club, Hawkins became on Johnson's death his literary executor, and published in 1787 a Life of Dr Johnson and an edition of his works. He died 21st May 1789.—His son, John Sidney, published a history of Gothic architecture; his daughter, Lætitia, her own Memoirs, with many anecdotes of Dr Johnson.