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William Hawkins (1682–1750) was a barrister and
serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...
, best known for his work on the
English criminal law English criminal law concerns offences, their prevention and the consequences, in England and Wales. Criminal conduct is considered to be a wrong against the whole of a community, rather than just the private individuals affected. The state, i ...
, '' Treatise of Pleas of the Crown''. He graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
from Oriel College, Oxford in 1699 and was elected as a fellow of the same college in 1700. He is often confused with a contemporary William Hawkins of St John's College Cambridge, who became a prebend at St Paul's. He was admitted a member of the
Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...
on 10 February 1701. He became a serjeant-at-law on 1 February 1724. Among his clients was
Thomas Bambridge Thomas Bambridge (died 1741) was a British attorney who became a notorious warden of the Fleet Prison in London. Bambridge became warden of the Fleet in 1728. He had paid, with another person, £5,000 to John Huggins for the wardenship. He ...
, the notoriously cruel warden of Fleet Prison. In addition to his ''Treatise of Pleas of the Crown'', he also published an abridgment of the first part of Edward Coke's ''
Institutes of the Lawes of England The ''Institutes of the Lawes of England'' are a series of legal treatises written by Sir Edward Coke. They were first published, in stages, between 1628 and 1644. Widely recognized as a foundational document of the common law, they have been cit ...
'' in 1711. This work ran through many editions, and was praised by Blackstone in the '' Commentaries on the Laws of England''. The poet William Hawkins was his son. He died in Hornchurch, Essex on 19 February 1750, leaving lands in London and Islip, Oxfordshire.National Archives P.C.C. Wills, Greenly 47-93, PROB11/777/228 Will of William Hawkins Serjeant at Law https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D3366034


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* ;Attribution 1673 births 1746 deaths Serjeants-at-law (England) Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge English legal writers Members of the Inner Temple {{UK-law-bio-stub