Author: Hawkesworth, John
Biography:
HAWKESWORTH, John (fl 1788)
Nothing is known about this author beyond what is learned from his book. Although he is sometimes identified in catalogues as the Rev. John Hawkesworth (q.v.) who was at the Plunket Street Meeting House in 1782, it is very unlikely they were the same man. Neither his 1788 book nor his name in a subscription list for William Taggart’s Sermons (1788) designate him as a clergyman. Both identify him as of Omagh, Co. Tyrone. The book is dedicated to William Hayley (q.v.) and one of the epigraphs indicates it is his first and last publication. The preface describes the poems as “juvenile compositions” written when he was between fifteen and nineteen; several are dated 1785 and one is from 1787. The preface also states that some of the verses had previously been printed in periodicals; his “Swanlinbar” was published in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine in July 1787. Two of the poems indicate that he knew William Gresson of Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan, and one is about the Dargle River in Co. Wicklow. A poem by the Rev. William Pilkington, a curate at Omagh until his death in 1779 and rumoured to be a son of Jonathan Swift and Laetitia Pilkington, is given in an appendix. (Walker’s Hibernian Magazine July 1787) SR