John Hawley with his wives Alicia and Joanna
John Hawley with his wives Alicia and Joanna
Famous Sons and Daughters No 3: John Hawley (1340-1408)
In Dartmouth’s past are many colourful characters whose lives were characterised by the ebb and flow of the River Dart – but as the port gears up for its 165th Royal Regatta there is one man whose swashbuckling life on the river sums up the spirit of adventure that regatta embodies.
John Hawley dominated Dartmouth life in the Middle Ages. A wealthy merchant and landowner, local politician, skilful mariner, privateer, battle hero, he was also a legendary pirate! But he welded his more scurrilous activities to his civic duties so successfully that he was a pillar of civic society – elected Mayor Dartmouth 14 times and serving twice as the town’s Member of Parliament!
Of course this all happened many many years ago. John Hawley was born in 1340 in Allaleigh near Tuckenhay and his family came to Dartmouth just after his birth.
The industrious Hawleys built a warehouse and moorings on land which became known as Hawley’s Hoe. They amassed a fleet of merchant ships and prospered by importing wine and exporting woollens.
It’s thought that John Hawley’s parents may have been victims of the Black Death, but John carried on the family’s success and by the 1370s the fleet was huge, as was the scope of his maritime activities.
He became mayor for the first time in 1375, and it’s widely believed that a meeting between Hawley and Geoffrey Chaucer, visiting the town as customs officer for the King, inspired the author’s Shipman’s Tales about a skilful navigator with a darker side.
Hawley was granted his first privateer licence in 1379 during his third term as mayor. England was at war with France and Hawley’s exploits began to widen…
King Edward III and then Richard II called for better defences for the Port of Dartmouth, and John Hawley, mayor again by this time, instructed the burgesses to begin building a coastal fort at the entrance to the port. This original castle was completed by 1400, and a chain was laid across the river which could be raised to prevent enemy ships from reaching Dartmouth.
Throughout Hawley’s life, England and France were engaged in the long-running conflict which became known as the Hundred Years’ War. In those days Kings didn’t have a standing navy but issued licenses to the owners of specified merchant ships allowing them to “go to sea at their own expense to attack and destroy the king’s enemies.” They were known as privateers.
For Hawley, privateering was lucrative. The king took a percentage of the value of enemy cargoes seized, and remaining spoils were divided between ship owners, captains and crews. Similar action against vessels from countries NOT at war with the king was considerable!
In the early 1380s Hawley’s privateering was public knowledge, and in 1384 Hawley was attacked in Brittany. His cargo was taken, and Hawley and his seamen were assaulted and held to ransom.
Collaborator with Hawley during the 1380s ventures was Sir John de Roches, captain of Brest, which was English at the time. But it’s thought the two men fell out over division of spoils, and in 1393 Roches instigated proceedings against Hawley in the Court of Chivalry before the Constable and Marshal of England. The charge against Hawley was “that in 1386 he and his men had captured certain Breton vessels and the goods therein which were being conducted under Roches’ safe conduct to enable them to bring wine and other merchandise safely to Brest”.
Hawley was not accused of taking part in the capture itself but was charged with having condoned the robbery by distributing the booty and keeping a share of it - something he did not deny.
Early in 1403 Hawley took part with others in a number of raids on Flemish and Dutch shipping, prompting the Count of Flanders to retaliate by seizing English merchandise in Flemish ports. To appease the Count, the king summoned Hawley and 17 other privateers to Calais to answer charges against them, but they failed to turn up!
In August of that year the Bretons made a retaliatory strike on Plymouth, attacking and burning the town in the night. The king commissioned the foremost seamen of Dartmouth, Hawley, John Corp, and Edmund Arnold, to make war on the Bretons.
Instead of attacking Dartmouth, 300 Breton ships, 2000 knights and assorted crossbowmen landed at Blackpool Sands hoping to take the town from the rear. Hawley dispatched an army to confront them on the sands. This victory against strong, well armed opposition by a ragtag army that had never fought on land before delighted King Henry who ordered a celebration in Westminster Abbey.
But soon Hawley was back to privateering, often attacking parties friendly to Henry IV who threatened to arrest any seamen accused of wrongfully seizing merchandise. In December 1406 Hawley was imprisoned briefly in the Tower of London until he pledged to compensate some merchants of Barcelona. He was released after three loyal supporters put down a surety of £3,000, but remained listed as being responsible for the illegal capture of 17 ships.
Hawley died in 1408 aged 68. The chancel of St Saviour’s Church was built by Hawley, and his tomb was laid there.
First published August 2009 By the Dart
