Johnson, the Life of Samuel Johnson (1787). This has been largely eclipsed, except for specialists, by the far longer and more colourful work (with the same title) published by James Boswell four years later. But Hawkins had known Johnson about twice as long as Boswell, since the 1740s, and his work, from which Boswell freely pillaged, covers some aspects of Johnson much better. Hawkins was more attuned to Johnson's strongly religious nature, and was with Johnson when he died, unlike Boswell who had been in Scotland for some months. Family Hawkins married in 1753 the heiress Sidney Storer (1726–1793), second daughter of the attorney Peter Storer. With two daughters who died in infancy, their children were two sons, John Sidney Hawkins and Henry, and a daughter, the novelist Laetitia Hawkins. Notes References Davis, Bertram. "Introduction" in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., ed. Bertram H. Davis, pp. vii-xxx. New York: Macmillan Company, 1961. John Hawkins (1719 - 1789) Further reading Percy A. Scholes, The Life and Activities of Sir John Hawkins: Musician, Magistrate and Friend of Johnson, London, Oxford University Press, 1953. Stevenson, Robert, "Review: The Life and Activities of Sir John Hawkins: Musician, Magistrate and Friend of Johnson by Percy A. Scholes", Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 7, no. 1, 1954, pp. 82–84. External links On his life & works, especially the Life of Johnson 1719 births 1789 deaths English non-fiction writers English music historians English male non-fiction writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers Knights Bachelor