Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins - Family and Death

Family and Death

Hawkins had married in 1826 to Mary Selina Green, and by her had six children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1835, he met and fell in love with artist Frances 'Louisa' Keenan, and the next year he left his family and bigamously married her. He kept in touch with Mary and her children, but lived with Louisa, having two additional daughters. On his 1874 return to England, he seems to have become estranged from Louisa. He was living with his son by Mary, amidst what he described a "climax of domestic troubles" thought to indicate that Louisa had finally learned that their 38-year marriage had been invalid, and this may have led to his precipitous return to America in 1875. After his second return, he moved to West Brompton to be near his first wife, Mary, who was ill. Mary died in 1880. In 1883, Hawkins again married Louisa, although since they were not cohabitants at the time this was probably done for legalistic reasons (to legitimize their children), and they apparently never reconciled prior to her death the next year. Hawkins suffered a debilitating stroke in 1889, leading to erroneous reports of his death, and finally died on 27 January 1894.

Over 100 years later in 2001, Barbara Kerley's book The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, illustrated by Brian Selznick, won a Caldecott Honor citation.

• Porcine Deer (Axis porcinus) from Knowsley Park

• Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' studio in Sydenham, where he made the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

• Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' studio at the Central Park Arsenal, with models of extinct animals