Author: HAWKINS, Thomas
Biography:
HAWKINS, Thomas (c. 1760-1838: ancestry.co.uk)
Despite a will which lists a brother, late sister, brother-in-law, and children of his first wife, and a subscription list to one of his works, it has not been possible to establish his date of baptism, birth family, or details of his first marriage. There are good clues but Hawkins is not an uncommon name and with no indications of the geographical origins of his family, there are many possibilities. Similarly, there are no details of his education. The earliest record of him comes in 1793 when he signed the preface to Aylesbury Epistles (1793) under the signature “Philanthropos.” Later that year he put his name to another theological work, The Doctrine of Original Sin (1793). It is not known how long he was an independent minister in Aylesbury. On 17 Apr. 1796 he moved to Warley, near Halifax, Yorkshire, where he would remain as a congregational minister for over forty years until his death and would rebuild the chapel in 1805 and add a schoolroom. In Warley, in addition to the works listed here, he wrote two further theological works: The Iniquity of Witchcraft (1808) and a Commentary on the Epistles of St. John (1808). His first wife, Sarah (maiden or widowed name and date and place of marriage unknown), seems to have moved with him to Warley where she died in Nov. 1819, aged 67. He then married a widow, Ann Thackara[y], on 5 Dec. 1820 at St. Peter’s, Leeds. She died in 1832. No issue have been found and none is mentioned in his will. He died on 9 Feb. 1838 at Warley, aged 78 (GRO) or 76 (Leeds Intelligencer). (ancestry.co.uk 29 Apr. 2024; Evangelical Magazine Sept. 1796, 385; Leeds Intelligencer 11 Dec. 1820; Yorkshire Gazette 24 Nov. 1832; Leeds Times 17 Feb. 1838; Halifax Books, 101-2, 134; Malcolm Bull, “Hawkins, Rev. Thomas,” calderdalecompanion.co.uk) AA