HAWKER, Hugh (by 1535-74/75), of Heytesbury, Wilts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1535, s. of Thomas Hawker of Chilthorne Vagg, Som. m. 1567/68, Elizabeth, da. of one Westley, wid. of Henry Wheeler of Heytesbury, 2s. 3 other ch. d.v.p.1

Offices Held

Dep. feodary, Dorset by 1561, feodary by 1564-d.2

Biography

Hugh Hawker stood close to Matthew Arundell, his immediate precursor as a Member for Shaftesbury, and was probably recommended by him to the borough’s patron William Herbert I, 1st Earl of Pembroke: in 1556 he had collected two annuities from the Exchequer on Arundell’s behalf. On 28 Feb. 1558, a week from the end of the first session, Hawker was given leave of absence from the Parliament; four Members were at the same time allowed to attend the Wiltshire assizes and Hawker may have been excused for a similar reason.3

As he predeceased his father Hawker never occupied the family home in Somerset but settled instead at Heytesbury, where his wife had inherited a life-interest in the manor from her first husband. Hawker seems to have put the parliamentary patronage which this gave him at the disposal of (Sir) John Thynne. By his will of 16 Feb. 1574 he asked to be buried in Heytesbury church ‘in the same aisle where my three children do lie’. He left a lease at Donhead, Wiltshire, held of Arundell, to his wife and two surviving sons and property in Shaftesbury to his servant James Sharrock, who succeeded him as feodary of Dorset. He was probably the ‘Mr. Hawker’ who on 1 Sept. 1574 entertained Queen Elizabeth on her journey from Longleat to Wilton. His will was proved on the following 11 Mar., letters of administration being granted to his widow during the minority of the sole executor, their elder son.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 81-82; PCC 32 Stonard, 11 Pyckering; Wilts. N. and Q. vi. 232-3.
  • 2. CPR, 1560-3, p. 121; 1563-6, p. 35; Wards 9/7, f. 317.
  • 3. E405/121/32v; CJ, i. 50.
  • 4. Bath mss, Thynne pprs. 3, f. 252; PCC 11 Pyckering; Stradling Corresp. ed. Traherne, 124-5.