Trewithen

History of Trewithen from 18th - 19th Century

When Phillip Hawkins first bought Trewithen from Courtney Williams for £2700 in 1715 he established the estate as home to a dynasty that has, through the centuries, made a very significant contribution to Cornwall.

John Hawkins was the first member of the family to move to the county in 1554. Originally a courtier to Henry VIII, he decided to leave Nash Court in Kent to escape the turmoil of a rebellion against the Catholic Queen Mary. He settled at Trewinnard, near St Erth, married and established a maritime trading business through Mevagissey that thrived for many years.

 

Phillip Hawkins was a wealthy attorney and landowner when he bought Trewithen, commissioning London architect Thomas Edwards to rebuild it and lay out the park. When he died childless the estate passed to his nephew, Thomas Hawkins, whose parents lived at Trewinnard - thereby uniting the two branches of the Hawkins family in Cornwall.

 

Thomas fell in love with Anne Heywood, the daughter of a wealthy cloth merchant and banker in London who agreed that they could marry on the proviso that his architect, Sir Robert Taylor, was commissioned to re-design and embellish Trewithen House. The work was carried out and, in addition, Thomas had plans drawn up for landscaping the gardens. Many fine specimen trees were planted and the famous vistas around the house were created. Sadly Thomas died after having himself inoculated against smallpox as an example to his tenants and the estate passed to his eldest son Christopher.

 

Although Christopher Hawkins never married, he did an enormous amount for both Trewithen and Cornwall during his lifetime. His many achievements included opening new tin and copper mines, becoming involved with clay mining near St Austell, re-building the harbour at Pentewan and the great breakwater at St Ives, endowing local schools and building new ones and, politically, becoming Father of the House of Commons by virtue of the number of ‘rotten' boroughs he controlled. He also became Richard Trevithick's patron and commissioned the world's first steam thrashing machine from him. Trewithen was expanded to the extent that he ‘could ride from one side of Cornwall to the other without setting hoof on another man's soil' and, as well as being given the Duchy of Cornwall appointment of Vice Lord Warden of the Stanneries, he was awarded a baronetcy by the Government for his unwavering support of Parliament.

 

On Sir Christopher's death in 1829, Trewithen passed to his brother John Hawkins who built Bignor Park in Sussex. A man of great learning and intellect, he travelled widely and was a patron of the arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society. When he came to live at Trewithen he planted many fine trees - including Holm oaks from acorns collected at Bignor Park - and managed his far flung agricultural estates with sensitivity and care. Much loved by both his tenants and the local community, he died at Trewithen in 1841.

 

John was succeeded by his young son Henry Hawkins - known to all as CHT - whose contribution to Cornwall was, sadly, negligible. Having inherited a vast fortune, he chose to live either at Bignor Park or in his new London house at 1, Portland Square - later home to the BBC. From there he travelled extensively in Europe, avidly collecting everything he could including paintings and precious stones. Whilst his own contributions to posterity were limited, his widow later made significant contributions to the building of Truro Cathedral and the founding of the Cathedral Choir School.