John Hawkins

1532-1595

Place of Birth:Plymouth, England

Biography:

John Hawkins' letters and memoranda suggest that he was well educated, although scant details of his schooling have survived, he was taught in the system of mathematics of the mathematician and mystic, Dr. John Dee. Before he reached the age of twenty, he had slain a man named White from Plymouth in a tavern fight, but secured a royal pardon as it was determined it was in self-defense. White was adjudged the aggressor by a coroner's inquest.

Hawkins is thought to have done some services as a young man for the ambassadors from Spain, who negotiated the marriage of Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain. The Spanish claim that Hawkins was personally knighted by the King for this service, which is as yet unconfirmed. Hawkins was known to have referred frequently to King Philip as 'my old master'. In fact, Hawkins was known as Juan Aquines by the Spaniards, who castilianized name, such was his fame among them.

In 1555 John Lok brought five men from present-day Ghana back to England from a trading voyage to Guinea. William Towerson was a second London trader who brought Africans to England at that time, landing at Plymouth following his 1557 and 1569 voyages to Africa. However, Hawkins is considered to be the pioneer of the British slave trade, as in 1562 he was the first to run the Triangular trade to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, and making a profit at every stop.

Legacy:

As treasurer (1577) and controller (1589) of the Royal Navy, Hawkins rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of the foremost seamen of 16th-century England, Hawkins was the chief architect of the Elizabethan navy. In the battle in which the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, Hawkins served as a vice admiral. He was knighted for gallantry. He later devised the naval blockade to intercept Spanish treasure ships leaving Mexico and South America.