Hawker, Robert Stephen (1803–1875)

English poet and antiquary. He was ordained 1831 and became vicar of Morwenstow on the Cornish coast 1834. Hawker's ballads were direct and simple, composed in a true spirit of antiquity. Best known is his rousing ballad based on the old Cornish refrain And shall Trelawny die?. Other pieces are Tendrils by Reuben 1821, Records of the Western Shore 1832, Reeds Shaken with the Wind 1843, and Quest of the Sangraal 1864.

Hawker was born in Stoke Damerel, near Plymouth; his father was vicar of Stratton, Cornwall. He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, and in 1827 won the Newdigate prize.