Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/198

  in 1579, and wrote to the chancellor and to Sir Walter Mildmay against his action. Hawford refused to give way, but his decision was reversed in 1581. He died on 14 Feb. 1582, as is stated on the brass placed to his memory in the college chapel. He left money to the college by his will.

 HAWKE, EDWARD, (1705–1781), admiral of the fleet, born in London in 1705, was only son of Edward Hawke, barrister, of Lincoln's Inn. His father's family was settled for many generations at Treriven in Cornwall. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Bladen of Hemsworth in Yorkshire, grand-daughter of Sir William Fairfax of Steeton [q. v.], and sister of Colonel Martin Bladen [q. v.] In 1718 his father died, and Hawke, left the ward of his uncle, Martin Bladen, entered the navy on 20 Feb. 1719–20 as a volunteer on board the Seahorse, commanded by Captain Thomas Durell, and served in her on the North American and West Indian station till 1725, when, on her coming home, he passed his examination on 2 June. The same day he entered, with the rating of able seaman, on board the Kinsale, with Captain Richard Girlington, and served in her on the west coast of Africa and in the West Indies, including a month with the squadron off Porto Bello under Hosier, till she paid off at Woolwich on 11 July 1727. He may have afterwards been in the fleet off Cadiz and at Gibraltar, 1727–8 (cf., p. 113), but this cannot be verified. On 11 April 1729 he was promoted to be third lieutenant of the Portland, commanded by Captain Rowzier, in the Channel. On 25 Nov. he was moved into the Leopard with Captain (afterwards Sir Peter) Warren; and on her paying off a month later (22 Dec.) he was placed on half-pay, till, on 19 May 1731, he was appointed fourth lieutenant of the Edinburgh with Sir Chaloner Ogle [q. v.], one of the fleet sent to the Mediterranean under Sir Charles Wager [q. v.] On her coming home he was discharged, 27 Dec., and after a fortnight on half-pay was appointed (15 Jan. 1731–2) to the Scarborough with his old captain, Durell, and again sent to the North American station. On 10 Nov. 1732, being then at Boston, he was discharged to the Flamborough for a passage to the Kingston, carrying the broad pennant of Sir Chaloner Ogle as commander-in-chief at Jamaica. On 24 Dec. he joined the Kingston as first lieutenant; on 13 April 1733 he was promoted by Ogle to be commander of the Wolf sloop, and again, on 20 March 1733–4, to be captain of the Flamborough. In her he continued till 5 Sept. 1735, when, on her arrival in England, she was paid off, and Hawke placed on half-pay. The service during these years, not only in the Flamborough, but in the Wolf, the Scarborough, and still earlier in the Seahorse, seems to have been uneventful, the time being mostly spent in monotonous cruises or uninteresting passages, varied only by occasionally careening or refitting. No training could have been more severe, or better calculated to turn out a thorough seaman.

For nearly four years Hawke continued on half-pay, and during this time, probably in the course of 1737, he married Catherine, daughter and sole heiress of Walter Brook of Burton Hall in Yorkshire, inheriting also, through her mother, the properties of Scarthingwell, Towton, and Saxton. The Brooks were already connected with the Bladens, and the marriage, though it proved one of affection, was probably suggested by Colonel Bladen; for Hawke was at this time thirty-two, and the bride but seventeen. Two daughters, born in the early years of their married life, died in infancy, and were buried at Barking in Essex on 13 Sept. 1739 and 3 April 1740. On the first threatening of the war with Spain, Hawke commissioned the Portland (30 July 1739) for service in the West Indies. She sailed early in October, and for nearly four years was employed in the tedious duty of watching over Barbadoes and the adjacent islands, protecting the trade and convoying it to the coast of North America, with occasional visits to Boston in the hurricane season. It was a time of war; but no Spanish ships came in her way, and the French attempt to support Spanish interests resulted in costly failure. The Portland was old, rotten, and barely seaworthy. In a gale of wind outside Boston on 15 Nov. 1741 she lost her masts, and the ship herself was in very great danger. She managed, however, to get to Barbadoes, where Hawke reported that on taking out the stumps of the old masts they were found to be so rotten that they crumbled to powder, and that a stick was driven a full yard into the foremast. In the course of 1742 Mrs. Hawke joined her husband at Barba-