HAWKESWORTH, William, of Southwark, Surr. and London.

Hawkesworth’s origins are obscure, but it seems likely that he was in some way related to the Yorkshire family of this name. He appears to have been resident in the parish of St. Margaret in Southwark by December 1428, when he witnessed the first of a series of deeds and releases concerning property at ‘Les Stewes’, R. Monier-Williams, Recs. Tallow-Chandlers, 226-7; CAD, vi. C5214. and it is possible that by this date he had already succeeded Philip Daungere as tenant of a garden in Maiden Lane (the southern boundary of the parish), which by 1449 he leased from the bishops of Winchester at an annual rent of 3s. 4d. Hants RO, bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/163, 187, rot. 7 (formerly 159419, 159441).

Hawkesworth was evidently well connected among his neighbours. There is no reason to suppose that he owed his four returns to the Commons to anything other than his local credentials, and his ties within the community of Southwark is to some extent exemplified by his inclusion in October 1435 with other local men, such as Adam Levelord*, among the witnesses to the conveyance of the property of Thomas Haseley†, the clerk of the Commons, to his kinsman William Godyng* and other influential trustees. CCR, 1435-41, p. 40. If in spite of such links Hawkesworth did not hold office either in the borough of Southwark or the wider county of Surrey, it may have been above all the shift of the focus of his interests to the city of London that was to blame. The precise date that he joined the ranks of the citizens is uncertain, although it is tempting to speculate that he had done so by the time of his appointment as searcher in the port of London in May 1434. He continued in this post for just over three years, before moving on to serve successive spells as surveyor and controller of the search. By and large, Hawkesworth appears to have carried out his official duties to the authorities’ satisfaction. While in the summer of 1435 proceedings were begun against him at the Exchequer for three pokes of wool that he had arrested, two years later he was rewarded for his (or rather his deputy, Laurence Peny’s) part in the seizure of a ship called the Pynke and its uncustomed cargo. E159/211, recorda Trin. rot. 7d; 214, recorda Mich. rot. 3; E403/725, m. 14; 747, m. 4.

In London, Hawkesworth was now also gaining in status. While he never achieved election to any senior civic office, he was in November 1441 sworn as searcher in the east of the city, and before long he had risen through the ranks of the Vintners’ Company to be elected one of its wardens. He was at this time presumably engaged in the training of his apprentice Robert Haysart, who would be admitted to the freedom of the city in April 1445. Vintners’ Co., reg. of freemen, 15211/1, ff. 7, 10. Little else is known of Hawkesworth’s career. He headed the witnesses to the settlement on trustees of the Southwark butcher Henry Emson’s property in June 1445, but is not heard of thereafter. CCR, 1441-7, p. 317.