MY HAWKINS ANCESTORS OF ESSEX CO., ENGLAND
(Hawkins lineage of Anne Hawkins wife of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts.)
First Generation
1. John Hawkins, son of John Hawkins (my great (10) grandfather) of Braintree, Essex Co., England was born in Essex Co. about 1570 and died there in 1619 at 49 years of age. He married twice. (1) Unnamed. (2) Mary Levitt 21 February 1603/04 in Essex Co. She died 3 May 1635 in Bocking, Essex Co., at 54 years of age. He was the oldest son and heir. His title was Gentleman and he was a Trustee for the poor. It is believed he lived in a fine mansion in Great Square in Braintree. A tablet identifying his tomb is in the north Chancel Wall of St. Michael the Archangel Church which dates from 1199. Unfortunately the Church Register only dates from 1660
John Hawkins and his unnamed first wife had the following children:
2 i. Eleanor Hawkins baptized in Bocking 6 March 1595 and buried there in 1609.
+ 3. ii. John Hawkins III
4 iii. Francis Hawkins.
5 iv. Mary Hawkins born abt 1590 and married Matthew Wright 8 November 1610.
John Hawkins and Mary Levitt had the following children:
+ 6 v. Anne Hawkins born abt 1604.
7 vi. Sarah Hawkins born abt 1605 and married William Coppin 26 September 1622.
Second Generation
3. John Hawkins III was born in Essex Co. and died 8 September 1633 in Bocking. He married Sara Wood probably in Bocking about 1615. Sara, daughter of George Wood and Margaret ( ), was born, probably in Bocking, where her father was a Clothier. His will, dated 17 December 1636, proved 2 March 1636, identifies Sara as his daughter and as “widow, late the wife of John Hawkins gentleman deceased.” He left Sara £200 “which her said husband did owe unto me at the time of his death.” Following are his other bequeaths:
To my wife Margaret the messuage &c. in Bocking which I late purchased of John Clarke to hold during the term of her natural life; and after her decease I give and bequeath the same to Joseph Kent my grandchild and to his heirs. I give to the said Margaret my wife a yearly rent of £5 to be taken out of my freehold lands and tenements in Felsted in the said County during her life, payable at or in the now dwelling house of John Kent of Bocking Clothier. Messuage &c. in Felsted to grandchild John Kent the younger. To grandchild George Kent houses and lands in Bocking now in the occupation of Nicholas Ives shoemaker, which were purchased of Robert Ward and (?) his wife and was late John Huckerby. Son-in-law Jeremy Edes hath granted to me and my heirs a yearly rent of £16, out of two messuages in Bocking. I discharge the same and other debts which he oweth me. To my cousins George Dowlinge, Mark Dowlinge, William Dowlinge, and Anne Bedwell £5 apiece. To my cousin William Skynnner and Mary his wife forty shillings apiece to make them rings. Rings to Mr. Doctor Barkham and Mr. Henry Garthwaite, Curate of Bocking. The residue of my goods &c. to wife Margaret and son-in-law John Kent, executors &c. Wit: W. Lyngwood, W. Lyng- wood, jun., John Skynner, Thos. Trotter, ___ Goare.
John Hawkins III was a member of the Grocers’ Company and an Alderman of the City of London in 1626. The Grocers’ Company was founded in 1345 from the Fraternity of St. Anthony which was under the protection of the Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds.
Among his properties were messuages and tenements in Tolleshunt, Bushes, Salcott, Wigborough, and Verley, the messauge where the family lived in Braintree, and two little tenements adjoining the Braintree churchyard. The Braintree messauge and two tenements were left to wife Sara, “so long as she remained a widow,” and to son Abraham.
Bequeaths in his will, written 3 September 1633 and proved 18 October 1633: Eldest son John, messuages and lands in Barking and other parishes; son Robert, messuages and tenements in Old Newton, Suffolk; daughter Sara, £600 each at age 18 and 21; daughter Margaret, £500 each at age 18 and 21; daughter Mary, messuages, etc. in Bradwell next the sea; daughter Judith, messuages, etc. in Finchfield, Essex; brother-in-law John Kent, 100 marks for his care and pains to be taken as one of the executors; to my loving friend Mr. Collins of Braintree, 40 shillings to buy him a ring and four pounds per annum during his ministry there; my mother, Mary Hawkins, widow, £16 a year, etc. (This would be Mary Levitt, his step-mother.) My friend William Lingwood, £20; my sister Kent and my sister Edes, 30 shillings apiece to make them rings; my brother Francis Hawkins, my sister Archer, and my sister Whipple, 40 shillings apiece as remembrances from me. (Sister Whipple is Anne Hawkins, wife of Matthew Whipple.) My cousin Tomson, my aunt Woodward, and my aunt Goodaye, 10 shillings apiece; loving friends and neighbors Adrian Mott and Joseph Loomys were also mentioned. Loomys was one of the witnesses.
An inquisition taken at Braintree 16 April 1643 by the Court of Wards disclosed that “long before his death, John was seized in his demesne as of fee (inter alia) of a capital messuage in Braintree, in his own tenure or occupation held of Robert the Earl of Warwick (a leader of the national Puritan movement), as of his Manor of Braintree by fealty and rent, and of two cottages there in the occupation of Robert Woodward and Jeremie Gray; also of Drakes Croft, formerly Broom Croft, in Braintree, held of Katherine Lady Wentworth, as of her Manor of Coldham Hall in Wethersfield; also of six acres of land in the occupation of Martin Skinner, lately purchased of Isaac Skinner, son of the said Martin and Anne, his wife; also three rods, parcel of Braintreefield with the messuage built thereon, and of other buildings purchased of Richard Green and Richard Bedwell, and held of the Manor of Black Notley; also of two parcels called Copfield, and two parcels of land called Crossfield, all in Bocking, and held of Roger Wentworth as of his Manor of Bocking; also of two other parcels of land called Swallow Lovells in Bocking, now or late in the occupation of John Curtis and purchased of Henry Edes and John Edes, Clerk; and of a messuage in Bocking called Pirles or Brocks, purchased of the said John Curtis, the said Swallow Lovells and Pirles are held of Roger Wentworth, Esquire, as of his Manor of Bocking Hall by fealty, suit at court and yearly rent.”
His will dated 3 September last before this inquisition is quoted as far as concerns his lands. The said John Hawkins, the elder, also held lands in many other parts of Essex, also in the Isle of Ely, county of Cambridge, and in the county of Suffolk. John Hawkins, aged 17 on 30 January last past, is his son and next heir. John’s will confirms that Anne (Hawkins) Whipple also had a brother Francis and another sister who married an Archer unless her sister Mary, wife of Matthew Wright, was widowed and remarried a man named Archer between 8 November 1610 (marriage date to Wright) and 3 September 1633, the date of John’s will. John’s father-in-law, George Wood, died a little over three years after John. John Kent, also a Bocking Clothier and executor of John’s estate, was also the executor of George Wood’s estate. He was a son-in-law to Wood and husband to one of Sara (Wood) Hawkin’s sisters. Another of Sara’s sisters married a Jeremy Edes. A Henry and John Edes are mentioned in John Hawkins’ Court of Wards inquisition.
John Hawkins III and Sara Wood had the following children
8 i. John Hawkins probably 30 January 1617.
9 ii. Abraham Hawkins bef 1633.
10 iii. Frances Hawkins bef 1633. She married Sir John Dawes in Essex County. They had sons Robert, John, and William and daughter Elizabeth who married Peter Fisher, D.D. The Dawes estate went to Sir Robert, the eldest son, who, along with his brother John, died without issue so the estate eventually passed to youngest son Sir William Dawes, D. D. He was born 12 September 1671 at Lyons and married Frances Darcy, a sister and co-heir of Sir Robert Darcy of Great Bracksted, Baronet. Upon William’s death the estate went to his son Sir Darcy Dawes and a daughter, wife of Sir William Milner of Yorkshire, Baronet.
11 iv. Sara Hawkins bef 1633 and died abt 1640. She married Sir Stephen White bef 1640 and in that year he established a charity of “six pounds thirteen shillings and four-pence yearly out of a farm in Black and White Notley for the giving, upon All-Saints day, unto six poor women of Braintree, of honest and good behavior, and frequenters of the Church and divine service there; to each a gown of good cloth ready made of the value of 14s and to each of the said women, four 2-penny loaves of wheaten-bread upon the first Sunday of every month in the year, after Sermon in the afternoon, and to the upper Church-warden, one shilling and four-pence.” This charity is “to be the love and affection” which he bore to his “late wife and to the parishioners of this town, for the sake of her and her friends.”
12 v. Margaret Hawkins bef 1633.
13 vi. Mary Hawkins bef 1633.
14 vii. Judith Hawkins bef 1633.
15 viii. Robert Hawkins Esq bef. September 1633.
6. Anne Hawkins was born in Bocking abt 1604 and died abt 1643 in Ipswich, Essex Co., Mass. She married Matthew Whipple in Bocking 7 May 1622.
(I welcome additional details on my Hawkins lineage.)
