HAWKINS, SIR JOHN (1719-1789), English writer on music, was born on March 3o, 1719, in London, the son of an architect. He studied law, devoting his leisure hours to his favourite study of music. A wealthy marriage in 1753 enabled him to indulge his passion for acquiring rare works of music ; he bought, for example, the collection formed by Dr. Pepusch, and subsequently presented it to the British Museum. His great work, the General History of the Science and Practice of Music, in 5 vols. (republished 1853 and 1876), was brought out in 1776, when the first volume of Burney's history also appeared. The relative merits of the two works were eagerly discussed by contemporary critics. But Hawkins's, which is essentially a collection of rare and valuable pieces of music with a more or less continuous com mentary, has in a fact a different aim from Burney's. Hawkins wrote also a biography of Samuel Johnson, with whom he was intimately acquainted. He died on May 21, 1789.