By Steve Jones
To recap, I live in England and I am descended from a sugar refiner, John Hawes (b 1735) who lived in Goodman’s Fields which lies a few hundred yards north of the Tower of London. I also share Y DNA with the descendants of Samuel Hawes I.By

We don’t know how John and Samuel are related and it is probable that we will never establish an exact relationship since the common ancestor was around 400 years ago. There are too many pieces of the jigsaw lost to time to build a perfect picture but I think there is enough evidence to get an outline of what might have happened.

In summary I believe we are all descended from a family from Suffolk, England. Over several generations branches of the Suffolk Hawes family moved to London and then the Caribbean. Some of their descendants moved onto Virginia and a few returned to England. The English lines seem to have died off, mostly, and I guess there are now fewer of the ‘Suffolk Hawes’ in England than there are in the US.

This is a huge simplification, and the paths of our ancestors’ journeys were complicated and reflected the history that they lived through. Perhaps the best place to start explaining my theory is with Antigua, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.

On the north east corner of Antigua between Crump Island and Guiana Island is an uninhabited rock called Hawes Island. I can find no information on this rock anywhere, other than it was sold together with Guiana Island and the Crump peninsular in 2014 by the liquidators of the fraudster Allen Stanford to a Chinese group who are now developing a huge tourist resort there including Crump Island and Guiana Island. It’s called Island Paradise Resort and you can see it on the internet. It looks very nice, if you can afford it.

A map of Antigua from 1729, overlaid with more recent maps, shows that the island sat just north of 3 sugar plantations, with mills, named Crump, Phillips and Haws. At this time Crump Island was called Goat Island, the Hawes Rock was unnamed by the mapmaker and Guiana Island was named Gurana. The ‘Haws’ sugar mill was just west of Marshalls Creek (now renamed Farley Bay) and less than 5 miles east of Parham which is the oldest town in Antigua established in 1632. The map shows another plantation named ‘Parke’ on the other side of Marshall’s Creek.

So, why is this of any relevance to John Hawes my ancestor with a sugar refinery in Goodman’s Fields in the 1760s? Well in April 1738 the London Gentleman magazine reported a death “In Mansfield Street, Goodman’s Fields, Mr Hawes, an Antiguan Merchant, lately arrived from that Island”. He was buried at St Mary Whitechapel on 2 April (‘Joseph Haws, a man from Mansell Street’ – note Mansfield and Mansell were frequently interchanged). St Mary Whitechapel is very close to Goodman’s Fields and is one of the oldest churches in London (there is also a St Mary Whitechapel in Lancaster, Virginia founded 1669 which I am sure takes its name after the London Church).

Joseph must have realised he was very sick as he made a will two days before he died. The will dated 31 March 1738 starts: “I Joseph Hawes of the Island of Antigua, planter but now residing in London….”. He makes his executors Mr Richard Bodicote, James Parke Esq and Mr Edward Eavenson of Antigua, planter. He leaves all his slaves, estate and effects in trust for his son Joseph Hawes and he also makes them his son’s guardian. If his son dies then his estate should pass to his wife Elizabeth his mother and if she dies to his sister Catherine Nibbs and then to his wife’s 3 sisters Henrietta the wife of James Parke, Amy and Catherine Symes.
The will was proved in August 1739 by the oath of Edward Eavenson one of the surviving executors. The delay in proving he will (17 months) probably reflected the time taken for Edward to get to London from Antigua.

If we look at the various people mentioned in the will it becomes clear that Joseph Hawes’ plantation must be the Haws plantation on the map of 1729. James Parke, one of the executors, was married to Joseph’s sister Henrietta, and was his neighbour to the east. Edward Eavanson was his neighbour to the north and had his plantation on Guana Island (as above). He was also married to Mary Hawes (per Vere Oliver who wrote the definitive history of old Antiguan families) although Mary’s relationship to Joseph is unknown.

The other executor Richard Bodicote does not appear to have held property in Antigua but the Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney held by the University of Virginia, refer to him Richard Boddicott the business agent for Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s father Col. George Lucas, in conjunction with the firm of Dunbar Mortgages. Richard Boddicott was a sugar merchant and both Dunbar and Boddicott invested in Antigua.
George Lucas moved his family from Antigua to South Carolina in 1738, the same year that Joseph Hawes returned to London. The Lucas plantation was at Wappoo. His daughter Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born in Dec 1722 in Antigua and aged 10 she was sent to school in London, staying with the Boddicott family with whom she corresponded for several years following her returning to Wappoo where she took on the role of plantation manager developing indigo crops. When she died in 1792 President Washington asked to serve as one of the pallbearers at her funeral so she was clearly known to him and a woman of great status.
The Dunbar with whom Richard Boddicott was in partnership was Charles Dunbar (b 1684) who was Member of Council for all the Leeward Islands, a judge of the Court of Chancery and surveyor-general of customs. He served as a council member until 1750 when he was deprived of all his offices. Throughout his career he was plagued by the threat of removal and accusations of improper dealings and in 1750 it was reported that he was ‘cordially hated by everyone’. And no wonder why as he was central to one of the most scandalous events in Antigua’s history.
I won’t repeat the story here in full (if only to avoid disturbing anyone with a delicate disposition). An overview can be found on Wikipedia (a search for “Lucy Chester Parke” will obtain the necessary article). In summary Charles Dunbar, Richard Boddicott’s partner, manipulated the marriage of his nephew Thomas Dunbar to the 11 year old, illegitimate daughter of the Governor of Antigua (Daniel Parke, who was believed to be related to James Parke above, the executor of Joseph Hawes) in order that the Dunbar’s could inherit Parke’s plantations (called Gambles).
Governor Daniel Parke had long standing connections to Virginia at the highest levels and also to England (more to follow). He too was deeply hated. So much so that, despite being Governor, he was dragged out of his house by a mob consisting of his neighbours and murdered in the street. No-one was ever prosecuted, and no-one was concerned about the lack of prosecution. It seems to have been accepted as a fair outcome.
In his will, the murdered Governor Daniel Parke left all his estates in Antigua to Lucy Chester Parke (hence the interest of Charles Dunbar) while his 2 legitimate daughters Frances and Lucy were bequeathed all his properties in Virginia. His daughter Frances was the wife of John Custis and the mother of Daniel Parke Custis, the first husband of Martha Dandridge who subsequently married President George Washington. His daughter Lucy married William Byrd II. The split of the Antiguan and Virginian legacies in 1711 resulted in 50 years of legal disputes which even dragged in George Washington. The dispute was not resolved until 1761.
I will stop here. There is so much more but I think for now I have shown links between the Hawes sugar plantations in Antigua and Goodman’s Fields in London, where my ancestor had a sugar refinery 20 years after Joseph Hawes returned to London from Antigua, and between the very close plantation owning community in Antigua to which Joseph Hawes belonged, and their counterparts in Virginia. For a period of time the English merchant or planter in Antigua was equally at home in both London and Virginia.