Early Life
Hawker was born in Exeter in 1753 to John Hawker, a surgeon and Mayor of Exeter. He was an unlikely candidate for the ministry. A fun loving teenager he lacked a serious outlook on life - he once threw a squib into a somewhat staid congregation and ran off hooting merrily. He married aged nineteen to Anna Reins, who was only eighteen herself. They had eight children altogether.
Hawker went in for medicine and studied in Plymouth under Samuel White of Bretonside (a stone's throw from Charles Church). Finding this not his vocation he joined the Marines as assistant surgeon. However the savage discipline and brutalities of war led him out of the service and to fulfil a long time ambition to enter the ministry. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford in 1778.
Read more about this topic: Robert Hawker
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)