Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hankin, Edward
HANKIN, EDWARD (1747–1835), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1747. He is said to have been an M.D., but of what university does not appear. From 1800 to 1805 he was a curate at Mersham, Kent, and was afterwards rector of West Chiltington, Sussex. He died at Hull on 14 July 1835. According to his own account (Adresse, &c.) Hankin persistently persecuted public men during and after the French war with petitions for preferment as a reward for alleged services as a pamphleteer. He published besides sermons: 1. 'Panegyric on Great Britain,' 1786, 8vo. 2. 'Reflections on the Infamy of Smuggling,' 1790, 8vo. 3. 'A Letter to the Right Hon. Henry Addington, Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c., on the Establishment of Parochial Libraries for the benefit of the Clergy.' 4. 'Observations on the Speech of Sir William Scott and other matters relating to the Church, in which the fatal consequences of permitting the clergy to hold farms are stated in a Letter to a Member of Parliament.' 5. 'The Causes and Consequences of the Neglect of the Clergy,' 1803, 4to. A plea for the revival of convocation. 6. 'The Independence of Great Britain as a Maritime Power essential to, and the existence of France in its present state incompatible with, the Prosperity and Preservation of all European Nations.' 7. 'A Letter to Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., on the Folly and Indecency, and the dangerous tendency of his Public Conduct,' 1804, 8vo. Strictures on Sir F. Burdett's speech on the Defence Bill, 18 July 1803, and his speech at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, 29 July 1803. 8. 'Perpetual War the only ground of Perpetual Safety and Prosperity.' 9. 'A Letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury on the probable number of the Clergy, the means of providing more effectually for' the Repair and Rebuilding of Churches, and other matters connected with the interests of Religion and Morality.' 10. 'Catholic Emancipation incompatible with British Freedom and the Existence of the Protestant Church.' 11. 'A Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, first Lord of the Treasury, &c., &c., &c. on the state of the Nation at the opening of the First Session of the Eleventh Parliament of George Third,' 1814, 8vo. 12. 'An Inquiry into the present state of the British Navy, together with Reflections on the late War with America, and its probable Consequences,' &c. 13. 'Political Reflections addressed to the Allied Sovereigns on the Reentry of Napoleon Buonaparte into France, and his Usurpation of the Throne of the Bourbons,' 1815, 8vo. 14. 'Adresse à 1'equité et à la liberalité de leurs Majestés impériales les Empereurs de Russie et d'Autriche, leurs Majestés les Rois de Prusse, des Pays-Bas et de France, et à son Altesse Royale le Prince Regent d'Angleterre,' Liege (printed), London, 1817, 8vo. A petition for a reward for the foregoing pamphlet.
[Gent. Mag. 1835, pt. ii. 329; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Hankin's Adresse; Brit. Mus. Cat.]