Edward Hawkins (numismatist)
Edward Hawkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Macclesfield, England |
| Died | May 22, 1867 (aged 87) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Numismatist, antiquarian |
| Years active | 1826–1860 |
| Known for | Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum (1826–1860) |
Edward Hawkins (5 May 1780 – 22 May 1867) was a distinguished English numismatist and antiquarian who dedicated more than three decades as Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum.
Life
Hawkins was born in Macclesfield on 5 May 1780, the eldest child of Edward Hawkins, a banker, and Ellen Hodgson. His education included attendance at Macclesfield grammar school and private tutoring under Richard Ormerod. After a brief tenure in his family’s banking business until 1802, he relocated to Court Herbert, Glamorganshire, where he collaborated with his father in managing a Swansea bank and oversaw copper operations at Neath Abbey.
By 1807, he had moved to North Wales, where his interests shifted towards botany, leading to his election as a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1806. Hawkins also amassed extensive historical collections focused on Cheshire. Following his father’s death in 1816, which left considerable debts, he took on the financial management of the family estates.
In 1819, Hawkins settled in Surrey, initially at Nutfield before moving to East Hill, Oxted. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821 and subsequently served as its vice-president.
In 1826, he was appointed Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum, responsible for coins, medals, prints, and drawings—a position he held until 1860. Hawkins also served as president of the Numismatic Society of London, was a fellow and vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and acted as treasurer for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Moreover, he was a council member of the Chetham Society from 1848 until his death in 1867.
He passed away at his London home on 22 May 1867 at the age of 87.
Works
Hawkins contributed to and edited volumes v. and vii–x. of the Description of Ancient Marbles in the British Museum (1812) and completed the Description of the Anglo-Gallic Coins in the British Museum (1826), which had been initiated by Taylor Combe. His notable publication The Silver Coins of England appeared in 1841 and became an authoritative resource, with subsequent editions edited by Robert Lloyd Kenyon released in 1876 and 1887.
He authored a detailed account of British medals; an abridged edition covering up to the reign of William III was printed in 1852 but initially withheld by the British Museum due to Hawkins’s openly expressed Protestant and Tory political stance. After extending coverage through the death of George II and undergoing revisions by A. W. Franks and H. A. Grueber, it was published by the British Museum in 1885 under the title Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland, which has since become a standard reference work.
Renowned for his expertise in British medals, Hawkins assembled an important collection that was acquired by the British Museum in 1860. He also gathered English political caricatures that were purchased by the museum posthumously in 1868.
Furthermore, he edited Sir William Brereton's Travels in Holland (1844) and The Holy Lyfe ... of Saynt Werburge (1848) for the Chetham Society.
Family
On 29 September 1806, Hawkins married Eliza Rohde. The couple had four children:
- Edward, a barrister (1815–1867);
- Rev. Herbert Samuel (1818–1895), who served as rector of Beyton, Suffolk;
- Major Rohde Hawkins, an architect;
- Mary Eliza, who married John Robert Kenyon, Q.C.