First wife of Robert Stephen Hawker. Well educated; a good German scholar. According to her husband's biographers, was a charming woman with sound judgment, discretion, and a sense of humour. Was more than twenty years older than Hawker, whom she married in 1823. Her husband's Records of the Western Shore dedicated to her. Published translation, from the German, of A. G. ÖhIenschläger's ballad "Earl Sinclair," Sharpe's, December 6 1845; and, also from the German, two religious tales for children: Follow Me, 1844; and The Manger of the Holy Night, 1847 (from Guido Gorres); her husband had a part in both little books. The translations from the German included in editions of Hawker's poems were the joint work of husband and wife. "The Wreck", an original poem by Mrs. Hawker (except for the last three stanzas, which are by Hawker), appeared in her husband's Ecclesia, 1840, without indication that it was her writing (Byles, ed., Cornish Ballads & Other Poems, by R. S. Hawker, p. 291).

The story that Mrs. Hawker contributed to H.W. her husband referred to as a "Translation from Toni". For it, he stated, she received £1.10.0, "which she gave at once to a Fund ... to feed our Starving Poor" (Byles, Life and Letters of R. S. Hawker, p. 252). The Office Book records payment of £1.11.6.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.