Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/223

H between two palmer's staves sable. He was also member for Plymouth in the parliament of 1572. On 11 Oct. 1573 he had a narrow escape of his life, being stabbed, as he was riding along the Strand in company with Sir William Wynter, by one Peter Burchett, a gentleman of the Middle Temple, who, in a fit of fanatical fury, mistook him, as he said, for Sir Christopher Hatton [q. v.] Hawkyns was dangerously wounded. The queen sent her own surgeon to attend him, and was desirous of having Burchett hanged forthwith by martial law; but that, she was persuaded, was illegal. On 12 Nov., however, he was hanged on a gibbet erected on the spot where he had stabbed Hawkyns, his right hand being previously cut off and nailed overhead (, Annals, ed. Howe, p. 677;, Annals, Oxford edit. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 427; , Life of Parker, Oxford ed. ii. 327; , Queen Elizabeth and her Times, i. 492; , Elizabethan Religious History, p. 197).

Shortly before this Hawkyns had succeeded to the office of treasurer of the navy, previously held by his father-in-law, Benjamin Gonson, the reversion of which had been secured to him some years before. To this were presently added the duties of comptroller of the navy; and these important functions he exercised during the remainder of his life. His experience as a seaman and shipowner enabled him to appreciate and adopt many improvements in the building and rig of the ships of the navy. He made them more weatherly, by lowering the huge castles at the bow and stern, and faster, by increasing their length, and so giving them finer lines. He also introduced chain pumps, boarding nettings, a new sheathing, the use of the bowline, and the method of striking topmasts. Of some of these improvements he was possibly the inventor. Others were probably due to, among others, Richard Chapman, a private shipbuilder at Deptford, whose yard was in close proximity to that of the navy, and with whom Hawkyns was for many years more or less directly in partnership. This partnership, and the almost uncontrolled power then exercised by the treasurer of the navy, gave rise to a suspicion that, with two yards so conveniently situated, Hawkyns worked them both to his pecuniary advantage. It was alleged that ships in Chapman's yard were built of government timber, and fitted out with government stores; that Hawkyns bought timber at a low rate, and sold it to the queen at a considerable advance; that he passed off inferior hemp and other articles as the best, and entered them as such in his accounts; that when at the point of death, after he had been stabbed by Burchett, he had made his will, and at that time had not above 500l. to dispose of, and that since then he ‘was greatly enriched by his underhand management,’ and had accumulated a considerable fortune by his ‘unjust and deceitful dealings’ (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. cciv. 16, 17, 18, 21; Lansdowne MS. vol. lii. cap. 43). It is not correct to say that these charges were put aside as idle calumnies (, p. xiii). They were not, indeed, formally inquired into; but Burghley quietly satisfied himself that they were not unfounded, and drew up a set of stringent regulations, intended to prevent such abuses in future, noting on the rough draft in his own hand, ‘Remembrances of abuses past: John Hawkyns was half in the bargain with Peter Pett and Matthew Baker,’ the mastershipwright and storekeeper respectively in Deptford dockyard (Cotton MS. Otho E. viii. 147; cf. State Papers, Dom. Eliz. cciv. 18;, Compleat Journal … throughout the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, p. 519 a). It seems very probable, however, that these charges, irresponsibly made, were much exaggerated. Monson, who knew a great deal of what was going on, refers to Hawkyns as ‘perfect and honest in his place,’ in comparison with the reformed administrations of the succeeding reign (, iii. 332); and in 1588 the ships fitted out by Hawkyns were equal to the very severe service they were called on to perform. On 21 Feb. of that year Lord Howard wrote to Burghley that, as Hawkyns was ordered to the court ‘to answer in the matter of his bargain for the navy, he could testify that the ships were in excellent condition’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom.); and in the August following, the thorough efficiency of the ships afforded undoubted proof that they were not, as had been alleged, caulked with rotten oakum, or rigged with twice-laid rope.

When the fleet was mustered for the defence of the country against the Spanish Armada, Hawkyns was captain of the Victory, one of the new ships which had been built at Deptford under his own supervision. While at Plymouth he commanded in the third post under the lord admiral and Drake, and was a member of the council of war which the admiral consulted ‘on every question of moment’ (State Papers, Dom. Elizabeth, ccxi. 37, Howard to Walsyngham, 19 June). When the fleet was extended from Scilly to Ushant in three divisions, Hawkyns had command of the inshore squadron towards Scilly (ib. ccxii. 18, Howard to Walsyngham, 6 July). As rear-admiral he took an active part in the several engagements with the Spanish fleet in the Channel, beginning 21 July; and especially in that off the Isle