John Hawkesworth

---

(b. 1720, Tottenham Court, London – d. Nov. 17, 1773, Lime Street, City of London )

Gender: M

Dr John Hawkesworth (bap. 1720, d. 1773), a largely self-educated writer, was a friend of Samuel Johnson and Benjamin Franklin. He was the editor of The Works of Jonathan Swift (6 vols., 1755), which Samuel Johnson praised in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. He was the author of Almoran and Hamet: an Oriental Tale (1761); and translator of Fénelon, The Adventures of Telemachus (1768). He was commissioned by the Admiralty to edit Captain James Cook’s papers related to his first voyage, and in 1773 published An Account of the Voyages undertaken ... for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. Hawkesworth was said to have received from the publishers the enormous sum of £6,000, but the book was viciously attacked for apparently claiming that divine providence played no overriding role in human affairs. He insisted that this had not been his intention, and rushed out an amended second edition later in the year. He found the controversy distressing, and it is said to have hastened his death.

Authorities

Oxford DNB DOI

Wikipedia

---

Mentioned in 1 letters

---

---

Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

Browser support: The website works best using the Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browsers on the PC, and only Chrome and Firefox on the Mac.