Edward Hawkins (numismatist)

Edward Hawkins (5 May 1780 – 22 May 1867) was an English numismatist and antiquary. For over 30 years he was the Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum.

Born at Macclesfield on 5 May 1780, he was the eldest son of Edward Hawkins of Macclesfield, banker, and his wife Ellen, daughter of Brian Hodgson of Ashbourne, Derbyshire. He was educated at Macclesfield grammar school, and privately from 1797 to 1799 by Richard Ormerod, vicar of Kensington.

Around 1799, he returned to Macclesfield, and received a commission in a volunteer corps raised there. He was employed under his father in the Macclesfield bank until 1802, when the family left Macclesfield, and settled at Court Herbert in Glamorganshire. While there he was a partner with his father in a bank at Swansea, and they superintended the copper works at Neath Abbey.

In 1807, he left Court Herbert, and lived successively at Glanburne, Drymon, and Dylais in North Wales. At this time he turned his attention to botany, and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1806. He also formed a collection of books and prints relating to Chester, and added a great number of engravings to his copy of Ormerod's Cheshire. In 1816 his father died, leaving heavy debts, which Hawkins voluntarily charged on his own estates.

In 1819, Hawkins took up residence in Surrey, first at Nutfield, and then at East Hill, Oxted. In 1821, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he became vice-president.

In 1826 Hawkins was appointed Keeper of Antiquities (which at that time included coins and medals, and prints and drawings) at the British Museum, in succession to Taylor Combe, for whom he had been acting as deputy since May 1825; and held the office till his resignation at the end of 1860. He was president of the Numismatic Society of London, and fellow (elected 1826) and vice-president (1856) of the Society of Antiquaries of London; he contributed to the proceedings of both societies. In 1846 he was elected one of the treasurers of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Hawkins was a Member of the Chetham Society, and served as a Member of Council from 1848 to 1867.

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