Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hankinson, Thomas Edwards
HANKINSON, THOMAS EDWARDS (1805–1843), divine and poet, born in 1805, was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1828, and proceeded M.A. in 1831. He was curate of St. Nicholas Chapel, King's Lynn, and afterwards incumbent of St. Matthew's Chapel, Denmark Hill. He published various sermons and lectures. One of these discourses, a sermon on the 'Faithful Steward,' appeared in a collection of sermons by 'eminent divines,' entitled 'The Church of England Preacher,' in 1837; others were issued in pamphlet form. His views were strictly orthodox, and in a sermon published at King's Lynn in 1834 he denounced Unitarians as 'blasphemers.' He occupied his leisure in writing for the Seatonian prize at Cambridge for English verse, of which he was nine times the winner between 1831 and 1842; for each of his poems in 1831 and 1838 he was awarded an extra prize of 100l. He died at Stainley Hall, Ripon, on 6 Oct. 1843. His prize poems have rather more than the measure of merit usual in such effusions. They were published severally during his lifetime, and collectively after his death with some other fugitive pieces in a small volume of 'Poems,' London, 1844, 8vo. A volume of his sermons appeared the same year.
[Gent. Mag. 1843, pt. ii. 661; Cambr. Univ. Cal.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]