Sir Christopher Hawkins

Sir Christopher Hawkins, 1st Baronet (29 May 1758 – 6 April 1829) was a Cornish landowner, mine-owner, Tory Member of Parliament, and patron of steam power. He was Recorder of Grampound, of Tregony, and of St Ives, Cornwall.

Christopher Hawkins was the second son of Thomas Hawkins of Trewithen, a considerable landowner and former MP for Grampound. Thomas Hawkins had a lifelong fear of smallpox and died following an inoculation to prevent it. Christopher's elder brother John was drowned in the Thames whilst at Eton, whilst a younger brother Thomas died "of a fever in consequence of eating an ice-cream after dancing." His youngest brother, John Hawkins, survived and became a noted geologist. On his father's death in 1766, Christopher inherited his estates.

Hawkins was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1783. He then followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a member of parliament at the age of 26. He subsequently earned notoriety as the leading commoner engaged in 'boroughmongering', the purchase and sale of rotten boroughs, parliamentary constituencies that had very few electors and as a result could be bought and sold through patronage, influence, and straightforward bribery. At his peak, Hawkins wholly or partly controlled six such boroughs, each returning two MPs, giving him the ability to ensure the successful election of candidates in return for cash or favours. He normally reserved these seats for government (Tory party) supporters.

He himself was MP for several of his own Cornish boroughs, namely Grampound from 1800 to 1807, Mitchell from 1784 to 1799 and again from 1806 to 1807, Penryn from 1806 to 1807 and again from 1818 to 1820, and St Ives from 1821 to 1828. His appearances in the chamber of the house were not memorable. He appears to have spoken just four times: once very briefly in 1807, when charged with bribery he left "his case entirely to the justice and liberality of the house", twice in 1819 with regard to the Penryn Bribery Bill, when, according to Hansard, he was on both occasions "quite inaudible", and once in 1827 when he was "totally inaudible".

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