Information on Sir John Hawkins, Tudor explorer.

1. 1532-1595

2. Family and early
years
 John Hawkins was the second son of Joan Trelawny (his
mother) and William Hawkins (his father.) He had a brother
called Sir Riccio and a second cousin Sir Francis Drake who
was also a famous explorer in the Tudor times.
 His father (William Hawkins) was a sea captain and ship
owner.
 He was born in 1532 which was 1 year before Queen
Elizabeth I.
 In his early years he was well educated. He was educated in
mathematics and was quite good at it.
 Before he was twenty he had killed a man (in a tavern fight)
named White. However, he was given a royal pardon as it is
thought to have been self-defence.

3. Voyages
 On his first voyage ,1562-1563, he set sail with three ships and
aimed to get to the Caribbean.He went there to do trade but
eventually it turned into slavery ; after that most of his
voyages were to do slavery.
 On his Second voyage ,1564-1565, he partnered up with
Elizabeth I and she lent him a seven hundred ton ship.
 He took that ship as well as three other smaller ships with
him on the voyages.Once he had arrived and had traded his
slaves he started journeying to sell the slaves. He took
hundreds of slaves and 400 african people survived.
 His third voyage began in 1567-1569 and he journeyed to
Africa to get more slaves from traders. He managed to get
around 400 african slaves across the Atlantic to sell.

4. What did he do that changed the Tudor times?
 John Hawkins brought tobacco to Britain and everybody
liked it as they didn’t know how bad it is for your
body.Without him maybe nobody would smoke.
 He started slavery for the British not knowing that it was
bad, although, nobody thought it was bad until much later.
 He also brought potatoes to Britain.
 John Hawkins was one of the people who discovered parts
of the Americas. However, he was the first from Britain.
 He founded a hospital for sick and old sailors, and in 1594 he
founded a second hospital. He also made sure that all of the
sailors that worked for him were looked after properly and
that they were paid enough money.

5. Death
 Sir John Hawkins
and his second
cousin both fell ill
at sea at the same
time.
 They both died
when they were
out at sea.
 He died in 1595 and
his second cousin
died just after him.
His coat of arms