PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
|
|
John Hawkins was born in Plymouth in 1532, the son of William Hawkins, a wealthy captain, ship-owner and merchant. He also happened to be Mayor of Plymouth that year, too. John's mother was Joan Trelawney, from an equally rich and well-known Cornish family. It is therefore no surprise that he should have become a seaman and adventurer in his own right. It was on one of his earliest voyages, to the Canary Islands, that he discovered the price that Negroes of Guinea could fetch as slaves in the New World. As much as we deplore such trading today, we must remember that he was living according to the English outlook at that time and there is even a suggestion that the trade received Royal sanction. In 1559 John Hawkins married Katharine Gonson, the daughter of Benjamin Gonson, who was Treasurer of the Navy. Hawkins made his first such voyage in 1562, taking Negroes he had captured in West Africa to barter with the Spaniards in the West Indies for previous metals, pearls and bullion. A second voyage was made in 1564. In 1567 he sailed with his kinsman, Francis Drake, on an attempt to open up legitimate trade with the Spanish and Portuguese. This expedition had the support of Queen Elizabeth. Naturally, the King of Spain was against that idea. At San Juan de Ulua (now known as Vera Cruz), the English fleet was attacked while at anchor and destroyed. Drake and Hawkins escaped and Drake returned to Plymouth on January 20th 1569 aboard the "Judith". However, John Hawkins was in a bit of a predicament. Having abandoned the "Jesus", he had a larger than usual crew on board the "Minion" and he was unable to take on fresh victuals or water and he felt that the vessel could not safely sail home across the Atlantic in this situation. He decided the only option was to leave some of the men on the Mexican coast but they would have no provisions and they would be at the mercy of both the natives and the Spaniards. A hundred men volunteered to stay behind and Hawkins promised to return to collect them as soon as possible, if he himself reached England safely. But safely return he did and on January 25th 1569 a farm labourer working in a field above Mount's Bay in Cornwall saw the ship anchor and send a boat ashore. Upon hearing the situation, the labourer hurried to Plymouth to tell John's brother, William, and he sent a fresh crew to Mount's Bay to take the ship to Plymouth. Hawkins did honour his pledge to get those left in Mexico back home but it took him three years. Some of the men had been handed over to the Spanish Inquisition and slung into prison. In order to get them released, John Hawkins entered into a strange tale of intrigue. He laid a bait for the Spanish ambassador by letting him hear some very seditious remarks about Queen Elizabeth. He gradually expanded upon this by introducing incidents that would suggest he was embittered by her treatment of him. He hinted that he might transfer his allegiance to King Philip of Spain. Fortunately, Hawkins had never made a great play of his support for the Protestants, so he was easily able to convince King Philip that he was a Catholic at heart. He followed this up with an offer of his private fleet for the use of the King and he even managed to get a letter from the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, in which she vouched for his honesty and begged the King to release the captured seamen. This was duly achieved and the seamen were even given five Spanish gold crowns and a free passage home to England. Furthermore, Hawkins found himself being given a patent of nobility by the Spanish King, which could have been an embarrassment if it were not for the discovery of the Ridophi plot*, which rekindled general hostility towards Spain. John Hawkins was appointed joint Treasurer of the Navy with his father-in-law in about 1572 but Benjamin Gonson died soon afterwards and Hawkins inherited the post full-time. As the most important figure on the Navy Board, for the next few years he devoted his attentions to building up the fleet and removing inefficiencies and abuses within the service. He changed the design of English warships, building them lower and faster and able to carry more powerful cannons. This turned out to be of great advantage in the forthcoming battle with the Spanish Armada. In October 1573 Hawkins suffered an assassination attempt. He was riding down the Strand in London with Sir William Wynter when one Peter Burchett, a fanatic, attacked and stabbed him after mistakenly thinking he was Sir Christopher Hatton. For several days his life was in danger and the Queen even sent her own physicians to attend him but he survived to fight another day. Hawkins commanded the rear squadron at Plymouth when the approach of the Armada was spotted and for his action against that ill-fated fleet he was knighted by the Lord Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, aboard the "Ark Royal". After that great victory, Hawkins spent a considerable amount of energy obtaining assistance and pensions for the wounded seamen involved, many of whom were unable to work again. In 1593 Sir John resigned from the Navy Board and shortly afterwards he set sail on what was to be his last expedition. It was to go in search of his son, Richard, who he believed had been captured by the Spanish off the South American coast. He was appointed as a joint commander with Sir Francis Drake but this proved to be a bad arrangement. They had very different temperaments. Drake was dashing and casual, whereas Sir John was steady, slow and methodical. For example, while Hawkins made careful arrangements for the provisioning of his ships, Sir Francis just sailed off with insufficient stores on board his ships. Drake's casual actions meant that they were required to stop off at the Canary Islands on their way, which unfortunately destroyed the element of surprise. But the situation got even worse. Sir John Hawkins fell seriously ill and when the fleet dropped anchor off Porto Rico on November 12th 1595, he died. Sir Francis Drake was to die shortly afterwards. There is no monument to Sir John Hawkins in his native Plymouth.
* FURTHER INFORMATION: In 1571 Ridolphi and De Spes organised a Catholic rising to put Mary back on the English throne by marrying Norfolk, with the agreement of both the Pope and King Philip of Spain. A courier carrying information about the plot was captured on April14th 1571 and tortured. Norfolk was arrested in the September, tried in January 1572 and executed on June 2nd that year.
|
