Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

Search Collections

Robert Stephen Hawker, 1803-1875
Collection, 1855-1975
Preliminary Inventory

5 boxes (2.10 linear feet)

Note: This brief collection description is an accession record. The collection is not fully processed or cataloged; no biographical sketch, descriptions of series, or indexes are available.
Acquisition: Purchases 1963-1976
Access: Open for research
Processed by: Jennifer Hughes, 2005
RLIN Record ID: None


Table of Contents

Scope and Contents
Folder List

Scope and Contents

This collection of Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875), English poet, antiquary, and Vicar of Morwenstow, consists of correspondence, reviews, newspaper clippings, material relating to Hawker's family history, including wills and birth, marriage, and death certificates, photographic images, and other miscellaneous items. The collection is arranged in two series: I. Correspondence, 1855-1875, and II. Hawker Materials Collected by F. S. Goard, 1876-1975.

The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters written by Hawker to Mrs. Harriet Watson, an admirer of Hawker's poetry who donated the money necessary to restore the roof of Morwenstow Church. Hawker's letters to Mrs. Watson chronicle his thoughts on theological and political matters and his experiences during their fifteen-year correspondence, including the illness and death of his first wife Charlotte. Mrs. Watson was also likely the recipient of the undated and incomplete letters contained in the collection. A smaller portion of the correspondence consists of letters from Hawker to Dr. Bewdsley, the doctor who looked after Mrs. Watson before her death in 1875. Letters to Hawker from various correspondents are present as well. Most notable among the letters to Hawker is a copy, in Hawker's hand, of a letter from Alfred Tennyson.

The Hawker materials collected by F. S. Goard provide insight into Hawker's family history as well as his life as a poet and vicar. Present in the collected materials are published reviews of Hawker biographies, including biographies by Sabine Baring-Gould (1876), F. G. Lee (1876), Charles Edward Byles (1905), Margaret Florence Burrows (1926), and Piers Brendon (1975). Material relating to Hawker's family history included in the collection consists of Hawker's will as well as the wills of Pauline Hawker, Hawker's second wife; Mary Stevens, Pauline Hawker's mother; and Mrs. Watson. Birth, marriage, and death certificates for a number of members of Hawker's family are also present. Newspaper clippings collected by Goard provide information about the centenary celebrations for Hawker at Morenstow in August 1975 and the controversy surrounding Hawker's deathbed conversion to Catholicism. Some of Hawker's contributions to Notes and Queries are included in the collection as well as published articles critiquing Hawker's works. A copy of Hawker's Cornish Ballads and Other Poems (1869) has been transferred to the library.


Folder List

Box	Folder	Description

Series I. Correspondence, 1855-1875

Subseries A. Outgoing Correspondence

		Hawker to Mrs. Harriet Watson
1	1		May 5, 1855-June 17, 1856
	2		July 2, 1856-May 7, 1857
	3		May 20, 1857-December 31, 1857
	4		January 31, 1858-June 27, 1858
	5		July 1, 1858-December 26, 1858
	6		January 30, 1859-December 25, 1859
	7		January 1, 1860-June 24, 1860

2	1		July 2, 1860-December 23, 1860
	2		January 13, 1861-June 23, 1861
	3		July 7, 1861-December 29, 1861
	4		January 12, 1862-June 29, 1862
	5		July 6, 1862-December 21, 1862
	6		January 1, 1863-June 14, 1863
	7		July 12, 1863-October 25, 1863

3	1		November 1, 1863-April 24, 1864
	2		May 8, 1864-October 23, 1864
	3		November 13, 1864-April 2, 1865
	4		April 9, 1865-August 27, 1865
	5		September 24, 1865-December 31, 1865
	6		January 28, 1866-December 30, 1866

4	1		January 20, 1867-December 29, 1867
	2		February 23, 1868-October 11, 1868
	3		January 10, 1869-April 12, 1870
	4		Undated correspondence
	5-6		Incomplete correspondence
		Hawker to Dr. Bewdsley
	7		October 9, 1872-July 15, 1875
	8	Unidentified correspondents and notes

Subseries B. Incoming Correspondence

	9	B-P
	10	P-W, unidentified

Subseries C. Third Party Correspondence

	11	A-Z
	

Series II. Hawker Materials Collected by F. S. Goard, 1876-1975

5	1	Bibliographies
	2	Centenary
	3	Family information
	4	Photocopies of Hawker correspondence
	5	Photographic images related to Hawker
		Publications
	6		About Hawker
	7		About works
	8		NOTES AND QUERIES
			Reviews of biographies
	9			S. Baring Gould (1876) and Rev. F. G. Lee (1876)
	10			C. E. Byles (1905) and M. F. Burrows (1926)
	11			Piers Brendon (1975)



Robert Stephen Hawker Collection, Preliminary Inventory
(Last modified: 10 September 2007 )

Reference queries to: reference@hrc.utexas.edu

Return to Finding Aids