Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 - 1875)

Born 3 Dec 1803 in Stoke Damerel, Plymouth, Devon, England

Ancestors

Husband of Charlotte Eliza Rawleigh (I’Ans) Hawker — married 6 Nov 1823 in Stratton, Cornwall

Husband of Pauline Anne Kuczynski — married 21 Dec 1863 in Holy Trinity Church, Paddington, London, England

Died 15 Aug 1875 at age 71 in 9 Lockyer Street, Plymouth, Devon, England

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Biography

Robert Stephen Hawker was born on 3 December 1803 at Charles Church, Stoke Damerel, Plymouth to Jacob Stephen Hawker and Jane Elizabeth Drewitt and was baptised at the Parish Church there. He was educated at Liskeard School and Cheltenham Grammar School, where Hawker House is named in his honour and Pembroke College and Magdalen College, Oxford, receiving his B.A. in 1828 and his M.A. in 1836. Hawker brought out his first book of poems, Tendrils, in 1821, and won the Newdigate Prize at Oxford for a poem on Pompeii in 1827. After being ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in 1831, Hawker settled down in the vicarage at Morwenstow, Cornwall, in 1834, with his wife, Charlotte Eliza Rawleigh, whom he had married on Nov. 6, 1823. Other books of verse came out in 1832, 1840, 1843, and 1844, but only when Charles Dickens acknowledged his authorship of "The Song of the Western Men" on Nov. 20, 1852, in Household Words, did Hawker become well known as a poet. After Charlotte died on Feb. 2, 1863, Hawker published The Quest of the Sangraal (1864) and remarried, to Pauline Anne Kuczynski, on Dec. 21 that year. His Cornish Ballads was published in 1869. Hawker converted to Roman Catholicism before his death at 9 Lockyer St., Plymouth, on August 15, 1875. He was survived by his wife and three daughters.

According to a story told by his son-in-law, C. E. Byles, in 'The Life and Letters of R. S. Hawker', Hawker once impersonated a mermaid by posing himself on a rock a little distance from the shore of Bude, while dressed in a plait of seaweed to serve as hair.

ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER was born on December 3rd, 1803, at 6, Norley Street, Plymouth. He was the eldest son of Jacob Stephen Hawker, who at the time of Robert’s birth was a doctor, and was afterwards ordained and became ultimately Vicar of Stratton. He was grandson of the Rev. Robert Hawker, D. D., for 43 years Vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth, and author of the once famous “Hawker Portions.” Rev. John Hawker, Vicar of Stoke, was his uncle who baptized Robert on Dec. 29, 1803; he was son of the Vicar of Charles.^[1]

Notes and Tree from "Memorials of the late RS Hawker" by Rev Frederick George Lee, DCI:

Family

• Father: Jacob Stephen Hawker
• Mother: Jane Elizabeth Drewitt
• Marriage: Charlotte Eliza Rawleigh (I’Ans) ^[2][3]
• Marriage: Pauline Anne Kuczynski 21 December 1863, Holy Trinity Church, Paddington, London^[4]
• Children:
  • Morwena Pauline b. 27 November 1865
  • Rosalind b. 1867
  • Juliot b. 1869

See:

• Hawker of Morwenstow^[5]
• Wikipedia^[6]
• The Vicar of Morwenstow: A Life of Robert Stephen Hawker MA by Sabine Baring-Gould, published 1876^[7]
• Pete London’s biography in MyCornwall^[8]
• Robert Stephen Hawker: His Life and Writings^[9]
• Dictionary of National Biography^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hawker-PDF-Hugh-Breton.pdf
2. ↑ "England, Devon and Cornwall Marriages, 1660-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGY9-46JG : 24 April 2019), Robert Stephen Hawker, 4 Nov 1823; citing Marriage, Stratton, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, the Devon Record Office, Exeter.
3. ↑ "England, Devon and Cornwall Marriages, 1660-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGY9-FWBH : 24 April 2019), Robert Stephen Hawker, 4 Nov 1823; citing Marriage, Stratton, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, the Devon Record Office, Exeter.
4. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJDW-35R : 10 February 2018), Robert Stephen Hawker and Pauline Ann Kuczynski, 21 Dec 1864; citing Paddington, Middlesex, England, reference v 9 p 137, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 804,226.
5. ↑ http://www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hawker-PDF-Hugh-Breton.pdf
6. ↑ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stephen_Hawker
7. ↑ http://anglicanhistory.org/england/rshawker/vicar/
8. ↑ http://thatsmycornwall.com/reverend-hawker-romantic-poet-professional-eccentric-and-compassionate-clergyman/
9. ↑ http://www.robertstephenhawker.co.uk
10. ↑ https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Hawker,_Robert_Stephen_(DNB00)