Francis Hawkins (1628–1681) was an English

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, known as a

child prodigy A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...

and translator.

Life

Hawkins is notable for two translations he made while quite young. He later had a long career among the English speaking Jesuits in exile. His father was the grammarian and physician John Hawkins; Sir Thomas Hawkins and the Jesuit leader Henry Hawkins were his uncles. As a young man and adult, Hawkins lived at Anglophone centers of Jesuit learning and service in Europe: he went between the Jesuit College at Watten, the English college at

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, and the college of Saint Omer. He took his vows in 1662, and then served in multiple college positions. Hawkins finally settled at Liège in 1675. He died of unknown causes in 1681.

Works

At the age of ten, Hawkins published ''An Alarum for Ladyes,'' translated from

Jean Puget de la Serre Jean Puget de la Serre (15 November 1594 – July 1665) was a French writer and dramatist. Puget de la Serre was born in Toulouse in late 1594. He was the author of more than a hundred works. He further authored several ballets which were perfor ...

, and dedicated to

Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset Order of the Garter, KG (159117 July 1652) was an English courtier, soldier and politician. He sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons from 1621 to 1622 and became Earl of Dorset in 1624. He ...

. At 13, he published ''Youths Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men'' (1641). It was a translation from a French

conduct book Conduct books or conduct literature is a genre of books that attempt to educate the reader on social norms and ideals. As a genre, they began in either the High Middle Ages or the Late Middle Ages, although antecedents such as ''The Maxims of P ...

. It is possible that the latter work was translated earlier, and only published in 1641: there are internal references to its being the first translation by Hawkins. ''Youths Behaviour'' was popular and ran to ten editions by 1672. Robert Codrington wrote ''Youths Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Women'' in 1664.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Francis 1628 births 1681 deaths 17th-century English Jesuits 17th-century English translators