'the great provost,' the epithet requires much qualification. He was not happy in manner with the undergraduates, though extremely kind and considerate, and really anxious for their welfare. In 1831 the three tutors, Newman, Richard Hurrell Froude [q. v.], and Robert Wilberforce, wished to make some changes in the tutorial system, especially to establish a more intimate connection with their pupils. The provost refused his assent, and the three tutors resigned. He made energetic efforts to supply their place by lecturing himself and getting Renn Dickson Hampden [q. v.] to assist him, but the college seems to have never quite recovered their loss. In his relations with the fellows Hawkins was very jealous of his authority.
As a member of the old 'hebdomadal board,' which expired in 1854, Hawkins exercised great influence. He was at first a liberal reformer, but afterwards stoutly resisted all change. He sided with Dr. Hampden at the time of his appointment to the regius professorship of divinity in 1836, and opposed the 'tractarian movement.' When, in February 1841, the heads of houses proposed a sentence of condemnation on the famous Tract 90, Hawkins was commissioned to draw up the document; and for several years his life was embittered by the struggle with the tractarians.
He was one of the heads of houses who supplied no official information to the university commissioners appointed in 1850; but when, in 1854, a new order of things was established both in the college and the university, he faithfully (however unwillingly) accepted it. In 1874 a vice-provost was on Hawkins's petition to the visitor (the crown) appointed at Oriel, and Hawkins, at the age of eighty-five, finally left Oxford. He retired to his house in the precincts at Rochester, where he had almost always been a reformer among his fellow-canons. He protested in vain in 1875 against the future severance of the canonry at Rochester from the provostship of Oriel, and in 1879 addressed a memorial to the Oxford University commissioners against the abolition at Oriel of the necessity for all the fellows, except three, to be in holy orders. He died, after a few days' illness, on 18 Nov. 1882, within three months of completing his ninety-fourth year, and was buried in the cathedral cemetery at Rochester.
Hawkins was of middle size, or rather under, slender, with pale, finely cut, and beautiful features. There is a lifelike portrait of him in the common-room at Oriel, by Sir Francis Grant, taken when he was in his sixty-sixth year. He married on 28 Dec. 1828 Miss Mary Ann Buckle who with a son and daughter still survives him. Two daughters and his eldest son died before him; the latter, of whom he wrote a most touching account for private circulation, went out on the universities' mission to Central Africa, and died in 1862 at the age of twenty-nine.
Hawkins edited Milton's poetical works, with notes original and selected, and Newton's life of the poet, 8vo, 4 vols. Oxford, 1824. He also published numerous sermons, of which may be noticed those on 'The Duty of Private Judgment,' Oxford, 1838; 'The Province of Private Judgment and the Right Conduct of Religious Inquiry,' 1861; and 'The Liberty of Private Judgment within the Church of England,' 1863. Other of his works are: 1. 'Discourses upon some of the Principal Objects and Uses of the Historical Scriptures of the Old Testament,' Oxford, 1833, 8vo. 2. 'A Letter … upon the Oaths, Dispensations, and Subscription to the XXXIX Articles,' &c., 1835. 3. 'The Duty and the Means of Promoting Christian Knowledge without Impairing Christian Unity,' London, 1838. 4. 'The Apostolical Succession,' London, 1842. 5. 'The Nature and Obligation of Apostolic Order,' London, 1842. 6. 'Sermons on the Church,' London, 1847. 7. 'A Manual for Christians; designed for their Use at any time after Confirmation,' Oxford, 1826, the most popular of his writings, which went through at least seven editions before 1870. 8. 'Sermons on Scripture Types and Sacraments,' London, 1851. 9. 'The Duty of Moral Courage,' Oxford, 1852. 10. 'A Letter … upon the Future Representation of the University of Oxford,' Oxford, 1853. 11. 'A Letter … upon a Recent Statute … with Reference to Dissent and Occasional Conformity,' 1855. 12. 'Spiritual Destitution at Home,' Oxford, 1860. 13. 'Notes upon Subscription, Academical and Clerical,' Oxford, 1864. 14. 'Additional Notes on Subscription,' &c., Oxford, 1866. 15. 'The Pestilence in its Relation to Divine Providence and Prayer,' London, 1867.
[Cardinal Newman's Apologia pro Vita sua; Dean Burgon's Lives of Twelve Good Men, 'The Great Provost;' Guardian, 4 Nov. 1874 p. 1413, 22, 29 Nov. 1882 pp. 1640, 1675–6, 30 Jan. 1889 p. 169; Thomas Mozley's Reminiscences of Oriel, &c. vol. i.; personal knowledge and private inquiries.]
HAWKINS, ERNEST (1802–1868), canon of Westminster, sixth son of Henry Hawkins of Lawrence End, parish of Kimpton, Hertfordshire, major in the East India Company's service, by Anne, only child of John Gurney of Bedford, merchant, was born at Lawrence End on 25 Jan. 1802, and educated
