in water-supply, &c. He was engineer, with Sir James Brunlees, of the original Channel Tunnel Company from 1872, but many years previously he had investigated for himself the question of a tunnel under the Strait of Dover from an engineering point of view, and had come to a belief in its feasibility, so far as that could be determined from borings and surveys. Subsequently, however, he became convinced that the tunnel would not be to the advantage of Great Britain, and thereafter would have nothing to do with the project. He was also engineer of the Severn Tunnel, which, from its magnitude and the difficulties encountered in its construction, must rank as one of the most notable engineering undertakings of the 19th century. He died in London on the 2nd of June 1891.
HAWKSLEY, THOMAS (1807–1893), English engineer, was
born on the 12th of July 1807, at Arnold, near Nottingham.
He was at Nottingham grammar school till the age of fifteen, but
was indebted to his private studies for his knowledge of mathematics,
chemistry and geology. In 1822 he was articled to an
architect in Nottingham, subsequently becoming a partner in
the firm, which also undertook engineering work; and in 1852
he removed to London, where he continued in active practice
till he was well past eighty. His work was chiefly concerned with
water and gas supply and with main-drainage. Of waterworks
he used to say that he had constructed 150, and a long
list might be drawn up of important towns that owe their water
to his skill, including Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Leeds,
Derby, Darlington, Oxford, Cambridge and Northampton in
England, and Stockholm, Altona and Bridgetown (Barbados)
in other countries. To his native town of Nottingham he was
water engineer for fifty years, and the system he designed for
it was noteworthy from the fact that the principle of constant
supply was adopted for the first time. The gas-works at Nottingham,
and at many other towns for which he provided water
supplies were also constructed by him. He designed main-drainage
systems for Birmingham, Worcester and Windsor among
other places, and in 1857 he was called in, together with G. P.
Bidder and Sir J. Bazalgette, to report on the best solution of the
vexed question of a main-drainage scheme for London. In 1872
he was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers—an office
in which his son Charles followed him in 1901. He died in
London on the 23rd of September 1893.
HAWKSMOOR, NICHOLAS (1661–1736), English architect, of
Nottinghamshire birth, became a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren
at the age of eighteen, and his name is intimately associated
with those of Wren and Sir J. Vanbrugh in the English architecture
of his time. Through Wren’s influence he obtained
various official posts, as deputy-surveyor at Chelsea hospital,
clerk of the works and deputy-surveyor at Greenwich hospital,
clerk of the works at Whitehall, St James’s and Westminster,
and he succeeded Wren as surveyor-general of Westminster
Abbey. He took part in much of the work done by Wren and
Vanbrugh, and it is difficult often to assign among them the
credit for the designs of various features. Hawksmoor appears,
however, to have been responsible for the early Gothic designs
of the two towers of All Souls’ (Oxford) north quadrangle, and
the library and other features at Queen’s College (Oxford).
At the close of Queen Anne’s reign he had a principal part in
the scheme for building fifty new churches in London, and
himself designed five or six of them, including St Mary Woolnoth
(1716–1719) and St George’s, Bloomsbury (1720–1730). A
number of his drawings have been preserved. He died in
London on the 25th of March 1736.
HAWKWOOD, SIR JOHN (d. 1394), an English adventurer
who attained great wealth and renown as a condottiere in the
Italian wars of the 14th century. His name is variously spelt
as Haccoude, Aucud, Aguto, &c., by contemporaries. It is said
that he was the son of a tanner of Hedingham Sibil in Essex,
and was apprenticed in London, whence he went, in the English
army, to France under Edward III. and the Black Prince. It
is said also that he obtained the favour of the Black Prince, and
received knighthood from King Edward III., but though it is
certain that he was of knightly rank, there is no evidence as to
the time or place at which he won it. On the peace of Bretigny
in 1360, he collected a band of men-at-arms, and moved southward
to Italy, where we find the White Company, as his men
were called, assisting the marquis of Monferrato against Milan
in 1362–63, and the Pisans against Florence in 1364. After
several campaigns in various parts of central Italy, Hawkwood
in 1368 entered the service of Bernabò Visconti. In 1369 he
fought for Perugia against the pope, and in 1370 for the Visconti
against Pisa, Florence and other enemies. In 1372 he defeated
the marquis of Monferrato, but soon afterwards, resenting the
interference of a council of war with his plans, Hawkwood
resigned his command, and the White Company passed into the
papal service, in which he fought against the Visconti in 1373–1375.
In 1375 the Florentines entered into an agreement with
him, by which they were to pay him and his companion 130,000
gold florins in three months on condition that he undertook
no engagement against them; and in the same year the priors
of the arts and the gonfalonier decided to give him a pension
of 1200 florins per annum for as long as he should remain in
Italy. In 1377, under the orders of the cardinal Robert of
Geneva, legate of Bologna, he massacred the inhabitants of
Cesena, but in May of the same year, disliking the executioner’s
work put upon him by the legate, he joined the anti-papal league,
and married, at Milan, Donnina, an illegitimate daughter of
Bernabò Visconti. In 1378 and 1379 Hawkwood was constantly
in the field; he quarrelled with Bernabò in 1378, and entered
the service of Florence, receiving, as in 1375, 130,000 gold florins.
He rendered good service to the republic up to 1382, when for a
time he was one of the English ambassadors at the papal court.
He engaged in a brief campaign in Naples in 1383, fought for
the marquis of Padua against Verona in 1386, and in 1388 made
an unsuccessful effort against Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who had
murdered Bernabò. In 1390 the Florentines took up the war
against Gian Galeazzo in earnest, and appointed Hawkwood
commander-in-chief. His campaign against the Milanese army
in the Veronese and the Bergamask was reckoned a triumph
of generalship, and in 1392 Florence exacted a satisfactory
peace from Gian Galeazzo. His latter years were spent in a
villa in the neighbourhood of Florence. On his death in 1394
the republic gave him a public funeral of great magnificence, and
decreed the erection of a marble monument in the cathedral.
This, however, was never executed; but Paolo Uccelli painted
his portrait in terre-verte on the inner façade of the building,
where it still remains, though damaged by removal from the
plaster to canvas. Richard II. of England, probably at the
instigation of Hawkwood’s sons, who returned to their native
country, requested the Florentines to let him remove the good
knight’s bones, and the Florentine government signified its
consent.
Of his children by Donnina Visconti, who appears to have been his second wife, the eldest daughter married Count Brezaglia of Porciglia, podestá of Ferrara, who succeeded him as Florentine commander-in-chief, and another a German condottiere named Conrad Prospergh. His son, John, returned to England and settled at Hedingham Sibil, where, it is supposed, Sir John Hawkwood was buried. The children of the first marriage were two sons and three daughters, and of the latter the youngest married John Shelley, an ancestor of the poet.
Authorities.—Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, and supplement by Tartinius and Manni; Archivio storico italiano; Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Giovanni Acuto (Florence, 1889; Eng. transl., Leader Scott, London, 1889); Nichol, Bibliotheca topographica Britannica, vol. vi.; J. G. Alger in Register and Magazine of Biography, v. 1.; and article in Dict. Nat. Biog.
HAWLEY, HENRY (c. 1679–1759), British lieut.-general,
entered the army, it is said, in 1694. He saw service in the War
of Spanish Succession as a captain of Erle’s (the 19th) foot.
After Almanza he returned to England, and a few years later
had become lieut.-colonel of the 19th. With this regiment he
served at Sheriffmuir in 1715, where he was wounded. After this
for some years he served in the United Kingdom, obtaining promotion
in the usual course, and in 1739 he arrived at the grade
of major general. Four years later he accompanied George II.