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| Sir Caesar Hawkins by William Hogarth |
Caesar Hawkins was born on 10 January
1711 in Somerset to Caesar Hawkins Snr., a surgeon in Ludlow, Shropshire, and Ann
Bight. Unlike most physicians and surgeons at the time, Hawkins does not appear
on Munk’s Roll of Royal College Physicians or on the roll of Apothecary’s
Company of London nor does he appear to have matriculated through an English
University, such as Oxford or Cambridge. This lack of formal education implies
that Hawkins most likely stayed with his father for several years and learned
much of the surgical practice from him. He also stayed with surgeon John Ranby,
who was a foreign brother of the Barbers-Surgeon Company, for seven years (side
fact: Ranby was considered a man of “inelegant manners,” and was rebuked by Queen
Caroline as a “blockhead” before undergoing surgery for a hernia from which she
died (Power)).
The medical career of Hawkins is a
unique case. Most eighteenth –century surgeons or doctors of repute usually
earned their reputation through publications or election to the Royal Society.
Hawkins, however, made his way through the patronage system, which as Lady
Scarborough demonstrated, had a powerful influence in an individual’s social
standing and profession. He became a member of the Company of Barber-Surgeons
in 1735 and was admitted to the Livery in 1736. On 19 August 1736, he was
elected along with Peter Maccullock as Demonstrator of Anatomy after the
resignation of Abraham Chovett. In 1759, William Shippen notes in his diary his
opportunity to watch Hawkins perform an amputation at Georges Hospital, where
Hawkins served from 1735 to 1774 (Bynum and Porter, 146). Hawkin’s resigned
from the position of Demonstrator of Anatomy almost a year later after his
appointment when he was chosen for the position of Surgeon to the Prince of
Wales as well as surgeon to one of the troops of guards. On 7 September 1747,
he became Sergeant- Surgeon to King George II and managed to hold onto this
position into the reign of George III. In 1778, Hawkins was rewarded for his
years of service by being created a baronet. He is reportedly the first
hospital surgeon to receive the title, “Sir.”
In the eighteenth-century the
average premium for a London surgeon was between 20 to 100 pounds. Yet, Hawkins’s
reputation in 1736 allowed him to charge a premium of 200 pounds from William
Hewitt, the son of a Lancashire gentleman. His phlebotomy practice, “the
practice of drawing blood from a vein” (“FAQ”) by itself brought in approximately
1,000 pounds annually. He married a woman named Sarah, who was the daughter of John
Coxe, and created a family. Following the Hawkins family surgical tradition,
his son, Charles, and grandson, Caesar Henry, would go on to become Sergeant- Surgeons.
Hawkins’s brother, Pennell, also held the position. Hawkins is also credited
with the invention of an instrument called the cutting gorget in 1740 that went
out of use in England by the 1900s. In 1759 he bought the Kelston property,
located near Bath, and had the house rebuilt by John Wood in 1764.
While Hawkins did not contribute to
the scholarly realm of his profession, his talent and renown allowed him to
create a profitable and prestigious reputation for himself and his family. S.C.
Lawrence comments in 1916, “it is a very remarkable thing that this young man
coming up to London from the little country town of Ludlow, should have so
quickly risen to such an eminence in his profession” (Lawrence, 114). Evidently,
the path to prominence could take many different forms during this period in
England.
Hawkins passed away on 13 February
1786 and was buried at Kelston, where a monument was created for him and his
wife.
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| Inscription for Caesar and his wife in the Kelston Church |
Sources:
Bynum, W.F. and Roy Porter. William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002. https://books.google.com/books?id=nJc0wTuTGuMC&dq=a+memoir+of+william+and+john+hunter.&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
“Frequently Asked Questions.” National Association of Phlebotomists. Accessed June 6, 2015. http://www.phlebotomy.org/faq.
James, R.R. “Two celebrated Salopian surgeons.” Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological
and Natural History Society. 4th ser., 6. 1916. https://archive.org/details/transactionsofsh4619shro.
Lawrence, Susan C. Charitable
Knowledge: Hospital Pupils and Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century London. Cambridge:
University of Cambridge Press, 202. https://books.google.com/books?id=TDx5SV4VvgEC&dq=Charitable+knowledge:+hospital+pupils+and+practitioners+in+eighteenth-century+London&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Payne, J. F. “Hawkins, Sir Caesar, first baronet (1711–1786).” Rev. Michael Bevan. In Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian
Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January
2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12661 (accessed June 5, 2015).
Power, D'A. “Ranby, John (1703–1773).” Rev. Michael Bevan. In Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison.
Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, 2004.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23106 (accessed June 5, 2015).
Young, Sidney. The
annals of the barber-surgeons of London. London: Blades, East & Blades,
1890. https://archive.org/stream/annalsofbarbersu00youn#page/18/mode/2up/search/hawkins
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