Sir John Hawkins
born , March 30, 1719, London
died May 21, 1789, London
English
magistrate, writer, and author of the first
history of music in English.
Hawkins was apprenticed as a clerk and became a
solicitor. In 1759 a legacy enabled him to sell
his practice. A Middlesex magistrate from 1761,
Hawkins was elected chairman of the quarter
sessions in 1765. He was knighted in 1772.
Hawkins
wrote, among other works, an annotated edition
of Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler (1760) and
legal articles. His biography of Samuel Johnson,
published with his 1787 edition of Johnson’s
works, was superseded only by Boswell’s. Hawkins
was among Johnson’s closest friends and was an
executor of Johnson’s will.
Hawkins’
General History of the Science and Practice of
Music occupied him for 16 years. It was
published in five volumes in 1776, a few weeks
before Charles Burney’s celebrated General
History of Music. Hawkin’s book continues to be
invaluable as a mine of detailed information,
some of it unavailable elsewhere, but it was
eclipsed by Burney’s.
