Sir John Hawkins Square - how the past catches up with us

Plymouth has more than one link with the controversial seafaring legend and despicable slave-trader

Since the explosion of protest and counter-protest following the killing of George Floyd and the super-charged return of the Black Lives Matter movement, many eyes have focused on some of England's darker past - and parts.

Last month, the country watched as Bristolians tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston and hurled the bronze Grade II listed structure into the harbour to resounding cheers.

This in turn saw counter-protesters - some of whom appeared to have more affiliations with the Nazi-salute-throwing far-right than studious historical conservationists - form lines around other statues claiming they were protecting them from the Black Lives Matter supporters.

This, in turn, was followed by confrontations by said statue protectors and police ending in shocking violence in the nation's capital. Because nothing says patriotism and historical protectionism than drinking warm Stella, ripping off your Union Jack T-shirt and kicking a copper from behind.

Plymouth became quickly drawn into the furore when it was pointed out the city had produced what was, effectively, the nation's first slave trader and had honoured him by naming a square after him. In fairness Plymouth also produced comedian and actress Dawn French, Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies and footballer Trevor Francis. So, you know, not all bad.

Sir John Hawkins

Sir John Hawkins Square is nestled between Plymouth Magistrates' Court, The Mission restaurant, The Swan public house, Kitty O'Hanlon's pub and the dBs Music Plymouth. It is but a few yards from the Elizabethan House and it's probably best known to many people in the city as a place you cut through to get from Notte Street to Royal Parade, while trying to avoid an assortment of men, many of whom appear to sit in the square for long periods of the daytime with tins of extra-strength alcohol kept in a carrier bag.

Plymouth City Council reacted surprisingly swiftly to the tsunami of steely questions about the square - ripping off the street name and confirming they would seek suggestions for a new, more suitable, far-less divisive name. Currently, it appears the plan is to name it after pioneering Plymouth Argyle player Jack Leslie - the only professional black player in England when he played for the club between 1921 and 1934.

He scored more than 137 goals for Argyle in 401 appearances and remains the Pilgrims' fourth highest goal-scorer of all time.

The only clue given to how, or when Sir John Hawkins came to have a square named after him was given by council leader Tudor Evans who announced on June 9 that it was "created in the early 1980s".

The Elizabethan seafarer from Plymouth is considered to be the first English slave trader, transporting captured Africans to work on plantations in the Americas in the 16th Century. Born in Plymouth in 1532 he became a sea captain

In 1562 he became the first Englishman to start capturing people from Guinea, in West Africa and selling them as slaves to Spanish West Indies - which provoked conflict with the Spanish authorities who did not allow unauthorised foreigners to trade with their colonies. Problematic trading with Europe? Like that's going to happen again in 2020, hmm?

After his first slave-trading voyage was so financially successful he was able to raise even more money thanks to a syndicate of London merchants - and Queen Elizabeth I - to make a second expedition.

Consider this - his coat of arms bore a bound slave. The Queen at the time, invested part of her sizeable fortune in the purchase and sale of African slaves with the intent of getting a healthy return for her money. You do wonder how many streets in England are named after Queen Elizabeth I.

There is a statue of Queen Elizabeth I - it is London's oldest statue and the only one remaining that was carved during her reign. It's tucked up in a niche on the wall of the church of St Dunstan in the West, on Fleet Street. You know, Fleet Street? Where the #mediascum hashtag is based?

Hawkins' third voyage was less successful. According to the Encyclopeadia Britannica, he and Sir Francis Drake - yes, statue, bowls on the Hoe, questionable slave-trade history of his own, that Sir Francis - having sold the slaves in the Caribbean: "Hawkins was forced by needed repairs and lack of water to take refuge at San Juan de Ulua, near Veracruz, Mexico.

Sir Francis Drake

A Spanish fleet attacked him in the harbour, and, of the six ships, only the two commanded by Hawkins and Drake were able to escape. This episode marked the beginning of the long quarrel between England and Spain that eventually led to open war in 1585."

From here Hawkins was involved in uncovering the plot which would have seen English Roman Catholics, with Spanish assistance, depose Queen Elizabeth and install Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. Hawkins informed his government and the plotters were arrested.

He went on to become the treasurer of the navy, assume the additional duties of controller and set about rebuilding the British navy - apparently often using his own money - which went on to withstand the Spanish Armada in 1588. As third in command during the Armada crisis - which earned him a knighthood - he then set about blockades to intercept Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World.

In 1595, Hawkins and Drake sailed with 27 ships to raid the Spanish West Indies. Hawkins died the night before an unsuccessful attack on Puerto Rico.

On July 22, 1983 - 388 years after his death - a city engineer's report for the Plymouth Highways Sub-committee on the topic of "street naming and numbering" is the only reference as to how Sir John Hawkins - slaver, entrepreneur, war-causer and loyal subject - got his name attached to one of the most unattractive buildings in the city - built in 1979 - overlooking an equally ugly squidge of cobbled-and concrete-slabbed ground.

In the driest of council-speak terms, and best read in a nasal voice that would probably grate steel, the document notes that "following the consideration by the Policy and Resources Committee and the Public Services Committee, the last meeting of this Committee asked for proposals to be presented to commemorate the names of Sir John Hawkins and the City of Gdynia."

For Sir John Hawkins, the document explains: "Because of Sir John Hawkins' association with the Elizabethan period and the importance of his contributions towards the standing of the old City, it is felt that the commemoration should be linked with the Elizabethan part of the City in the vicinity of the Magistrates Court.

"The most suitable streets for renaming are Abbey Place, St Andrew's Place, St Andrew's Street and Finewell Street. The first three streets already have strong connections with the area and, although Finewell Street does not have buildings with an address upon it and as such would be the easiest to rename, it has been in existence for a number of years.

"There is, however, a hard landscaped area to the east of the Magistrates Court (cross hatched on the accompanying plan) which is unnamed and which could be further improved.

"The options, therefore, appear to be the renaming of Finewell Street as Sir John Hawkins Street, or the naming of the landscaped area as Sir John Hawkins Square."

How apt - but for the whims of the Plymouth Highways Sub-committee of July 1983, a dead-end street at the rear end of the Elizabethan House and bordering the back of Catherine Street Baptist church where the homeless try and find safe shelter could have been named after our great naval sailor and pre-eminent inaugural slave trader.

By comparison, and just for the fun of it, there's a Sir John Hawkins car park in Chatham, Kent.

Sir John Hawkins car park - you wouldn't want to be clamped here would you?

Yes, there have been calls to rename that too.

Medway Council are apparently considering it and will discuss the matter at their next meeting on July 16. Medway's leading Conservative group said it could not comment ahead of the meeting.

They may want to name it after someone else famous from the region.

Perhaps we shouldn't remind them that according to the history books Sir Francis Drake lived in nearby Upnor and learnt to sail on the Medway. But according to local newspapers Jools Holland lives nearby now. That'd be a safe bet for a car park, surely? Jools Holland car park, pay and display? Five boogie woogie length songs just £1.20. Full album including covers with Ruby Turner and Tom Jones, £4.40

But let's not get all holier than though about casting stones at the council's Plymouth Highways Sub-committee of July 1983, God rest their souls.

I say this because for anyone doing a little bit of research, the British Newspaper Archive has a sting in its tale for this tale.

Next to a story about Militarism In The Schools (Teachers Condemn Propaganda. The Prime Minister Congratulated) a newspaper report from January 7, 1928, notes in stirring and blood-thickening terms how a Famous Painting of Sir John Hawkins has been Presented To Plymouth.

The historic painting, by Italian artist Federigo Zuccaro, of Admiral Sir John Hawkins "the famous Elizabethan sea captain, who was born at Plymouth in 1532 and represented the borough in Parliament in 1572" was to be presented to the Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery Committee "in perpetuity".

Federigo Zuccaro's painting of Sir John Hawkins

The Committee "whilst fully appreciating the value and desirability of having the painting in the local gallery, they were, owing to lack of funds, unable to recommend the Council to make the purchase".

Viscountess Astor - oh, she gets everywhere where there's a bit of controversy doesn't she? - "who was keenly interested in the picture, graciously waived an option to purchase which she held in order that" another wealthy group "might secure the portrait for the town of Plymouth"

The report noted how "it is fitting that a portrait of one ranking among the first of those to whose undaunted spirit Britain's sea supremacy is due should be in possession of the town of Plymouth, for John Hawkins was not only born here, but he represented the borough in Parliament, and though the official records contain no direct proof of the fact, he was also at one time the Mayor of Plymouth."

It goes on, somewhat breathlessly: "Zuccaro's painting bears the date 1591 and is described by Mr A J Caddie, curator of the Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, as a superb half-length Elizabethan period painting on panel."

Mr Caddie said the painting "is in a fine state of preservation and has never been in any way restored, whilst, furthermore, it has never been out of the possession of the Hawkins family from the time it was painted until the present day. It was obtained from Miss Hawkins, of Torquay, by Mr J Rochelle Thomas" who in turn sold it onto the wealthy philanthropic souls who gifted it to the city. Bless them.

Mr Caddie had seen the portrait advertised and recognising its potential value to Plymouth, informed the museum and art gallery's committee chairman - Mr W L Bastard.

Yes, that's right. Mr Bastard.

At Mr Bastard's insistence Mr Caddie travelled to London where he met with Viscountess Astor at her St James' square residence and inspected the portrait. She wanted it for herself, but was willing to allow "the Plymouth Corporation" to buy it - if they had the money, that is.

Viscountess Astor

£500 was the asking price.

Now, if we take it purely as cash vs inflation £500 in 1928 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £31,617.87 in 2020.

But that means nothing, because if you'd bought the first edition of Action Comics in June 1938 - starring the first appearance of Superman - it would have cost you just 10 US cents. In 2011 actor Nicolas Cage sold his copy for $2.16 million. 

But then Zuccaro's works hang in the Louvre, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Art Institute of Chicago. And we can be quite sure not one of his paintings has a guy throwing a car-full of thieves about with a cape and a big S on his chest.

The article goes on to give little history lesson about Mr Hawkins. He was son of William Hawkins, a great Plymouth sea captain, "a friend of bluff King Hal" [the unkind nickname for King Henry the Eighth] and "sometime mayor of the borough".

Born in a house in Kinterbury Street, Plymouth in 1532, twelve years before the birth of Sir Francis Drake at Tavistock. "After several trips to Spain and Portugal and the Canary Islands, his first great voyage was begun in 1562, then he was thirty years of age. He sought to establish himself as a trader to the West Indies. The expedition, fitted out at Plymouth, consisted of three ships of 120, 100 and 40 tons burthen respectively, and was engaged principally in the slave trade, not then regarded in the same light as at the present age."

Yes, because in 1928 the western world was so enlightened, and so done with apartheid, the colour bar and lynchings. The white bedsheets had been tucked away in 1927 and there was very little burning in Mississippi and you could sit anywhere on a bus if you wanted, especially if you were black. Thank God the British government brought the Race Relations Act of 1968 forward by 40 years, but just lost the paperwork until The Beatles ironically released The White Album that year.

After his three "trading" trips - which is code for kidnapping or buying human beings, packing them tightly into ships and selling them into a lifetime of abuse, torture and degradation - he was promoted to Treasurer to the British Navy which the article notes was: "a post for which all his qualities recommended him".

The John Hawkins coat of arms featured a bound slave

One must wonder how the quality of remorselessly treating another human as a commodity purely because their skin colour was darker and they came from a foreign land transferred over to preparing the British retort to the Spanish Armada, but perhaps chains, whippings and self-enrichment has its due benefits. He was rewarded for "his gallantry in that historic battle" and "was knighted upon his own quarter-deck, on board the Victory". Probably to rousing cheers of "hurrah and hussar" with hats being tossed high into the air.

There's a little more in the report about how two more expeditions met with "only meagre success" - meaning he didn't make or steal much money from the Spanish - and ended with him falling ill with fever, lingering for three weeks and dying on January 28, 1596.

The article notes: "A great citizen of Plymouth and England, he was amongst the pioneers in that band of English seamen whose heritage to their country is beyond estimation. He was a freeman of the borough of Plymouth".

A Freeman - what a horrible, horrible irony. A man who made his fortune trading in slaves is made a Freeman with all the honours which that befits.

And, much much later, gave his name to a forlorn piss-smelling square hidden behind a court house where desperate ne'er do wells spend their days hoping to avoid a prison cell.

But what of the painting, by Zuccaro who at one stage in his life was employed by Pope Pius IV and painted "The History of Moses and Pharaoh" - who certainly knew a bit about slaves himself.

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I - best you don't mention investing in the slave trade though

Zuccaro went on to paint a "famous picture" of Queen Elizabeth I in a fancy dress at Hampton Court. Yes, that Queen - the one who invested in one of John Hawkins' entrepreneurial slave excursions. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to buy and sell human beings for personal profit.

But the painting, what about the painting and the generous and charming philanthropists who happily spaffed £500 up the wall for the greater glory of Plymouth's museum and art gallery?

Well, according to the article - on page seven of Saturday January 7, 1928's Western Morning News and Mercury - that'd be Sir R Leicester Harmsworth, Bart and Mr Harold C Harmsworth... proprietors of The Western Morning News.

Mr Bastard must've been overjoyed with their generosity.

Where is the painting now? Well, that's another mystery to unravel.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you to ponder this...