Thomas Hawkes (MP)

Thomas Hawkes(1778 - 1858) was an English industrialist and politician. He inherited a glass-making business from his father. He was elected as MP for Dudley in 1834, defeating the sitting candidate, Sir John Campbell. He thus became the second person to represent Dudley at the UK Parliament. He retained his Parliamentary seat in three subsequent elections, stepping down in 1844 after having financial problems. He served as Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1811 and he was appointed as captain of the Himley Troop of the Staffordshire Yeomanry in 1819, in which he served for more than twenty years. One of his daughters married the brother of Baron Ward, the Lord of Dudley Castle. He was declared bankrupt shortly before his death in 1858.

Thomas Hawkes was born in 1778, the son of Abiathar and Mary Hawkes. His father was involved in the glass industry and had founded the Dudley Flint Glassworks situated in King Street, Dudley. Abiathar Hawkes built a new glassworks on the corner of Stone Street and Priory Street in the early 1780s. Abiathar Hawkes died in 1800, leaving his glass business to two of his sons, Thomas and George Wright. Thomas Hawkes became a large scale glass manufacturer in his own right in the town of Dudley trading as Thomas Hawkes and Co.

On 26 February 1810, Hawkes was promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel in the Dudley Volunteer Infantry. In 1811, Hawkes served as Sheriff of Worcestershire.

In 1814 he married Alice Anna Blackburne, daughter of John Blackburne of Hawford House, Worcester and of Wavertree Hall, Lancashire. John Blackburne had been Mayor of Liverpool in 1788 and owned land and had mining interests and a saltworks in Lancashire. As Alice was his only daughter, most of this property was inherited by Mr and Mrs Hawkes on Blackburne's death in 1826. The couple went on to have a large family including at least five daughters.

In a commercial directory published in 1818, Thomas Hawkes & Co. is listed as a cut-glass manufacturer based at Stone Street, Dudley. In the same year, Thomas Hawkes was listed as residing at Himley in Staffordshire.

On 29 December 1819, Thomas Hawkes became a captain in the Himley Troop of the Queen's Own Royal Regiment of Staffordshire Yeomanry. In 1821, he attended the festivities at Dudley to celebrate the coronation of King George IV, when "Captain Hawkes, with the Himley and Enville Troop of Yeomanry, was met with a brass band of music by the principal gentlemen and escorted to the Town Hall." Hawkes served as captain of this Troop until at least 1840, although in 1843 his position was taken by the Hon. Dudley Ward.

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