{{Short description|English clergyman and author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} {{Use British English|date=May 2013}} {{Infobox person |image = GeorgeHakewill ExeterCollege Oxford.xcf |image_size = |caption = George Hakewill, contemporary portrait, collection of Exeter College, Oxford |birth_name = |birth_date = 1578 |birth_place = Barnstaple, Devon, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|1649|4|5|1578|1|1|df=y}} |death_place = Heanton Punchardon, Barnstaple, Devon, England |death_cause = |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|51.099953|-4.140657|display=inline,title}} |citizenship = |other_names = |known_for = |education = |alma_mater = Exeter College Oxford |employer = |occupation = Divine |years_active = |title = |height = |term = |predecessor = |successor = |party = |opponents = |boards = |spouse = Mary Ayer or Ayers (née Delbridge) |partner = |children = |parents = |relations = |callsign = |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} thumb|Arms of Hakewill: ''Or, a bend between six trefoils slipped purpure''<ref>Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.437</ref> [[File:George Hakewill (c 1578–1649), by Sylvester Harding (1745-1809).jpg|thumb|Late 18th century copy of an original portrait of George Hakewill by Sylvester Harding]] '''George Hakewill''' (1578 or 1579<ref name="S1792"> {{cite web |url=http://198.82.142.160/spenser/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=36955 |title=Biography |access-date=2008-10-19 |author=James Granger |year=1812 |author-link=James Granger }}{{dead link|date=January 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} </ref> – 1649) was an English clergyman and author.
==Early life== Born in Exeter, he studied at Alban Hall, University of Oxford,<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp626-651 Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Haak-Harman]</ref> where he was a noted disputant and orator<ref name="S1812"> {{cite web |url=http://198.82.142.160/spenser/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=4786 |title=Biography |access-date=2008-10-19 |author=Alexander Chalmers |year=1812 |author-link=Alexander Chalmers }}{{dead link|date=January 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} </ref> and in June 1596, only a year after his matriculation and at the unusually early age of 18, he was elected a fellow of Exeter College. There he proceeded B.A. in 1599, and M.A. in 1602. In 1604 he obtained leave to travel and spent the next four years in Europe, mainly with Swiss and German Calvinists, spending a winter at the University of Heidelberg with David Pareas and Abraham Scultetus.<ref>P. E. McCullough, 'Hakewill, George (bap. 1578, d. 1649)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11885, retrieved 19 July 2009]</ref>
==Royal service== Of strongly anti-Catholic and pro-Calvinist religious views, Hakewill was one of the two clergymen appointed in 1612 to preserve Prince Charles "from the inroads of popery."
He wrote strongly in defense of the then Calvinist position of the Anglican Church.<ref> {{cite book |last=Milton |first=Anthony |others=Anthony Fletcher, John Guy, John Morrill |title=Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stwluHDJsQgC&q=George+Hakewill&pg=PA383 |format=Web |access-date=2008-10-19 |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=p383 |isbn=978-0-521-89329-9 |page=617 }} </ref>
In 1616, possibly by the prince's means, he had been appointed Archdeacon of Surrey and his further rise through the ranks of the church seemed assured. His decision however in 1622 to present the prince with a treatise written by himself and arguing against the ongoing negotiations for a Spanish match led to the abrupt end of his career at court. The treatise was shown to the prince's father, James I of England, who committed Hakewill to a prison for a brief period and appointed Lancelot Andrewes to rebut the tract.<ref name="oxforddnb.com">{{cite ODNB|id=11885|title=Hakewill, George|first=P. E.|last=McCullough}}</ref>
==Later life== Despite this setback in 1624 Hakewill single-handedly paid for the building of Exeter College chapel (consecrated 15 October 1624), at a cost of £1200.<ref name="oxforddnb.com"/> (In his will he requested that his heart be buried there,<ref>"...my desire then is to bee buried in mine owne Church, and that my body being opned (if conveniently it may bee, my hart may bee embalmed, and buried in the foresaid Chappell under the Cumunion table, or the Deske uppon which the great bible lyes with this inscription in brasse layd upon it, Cor meum ad te Domine": Will of George Hakewill, 1649. ('Cor meum ad te Domine' was the motto on the Hakewill coat-of-arms.)</ref> though there is no evidence this was carried out.)
Hakewill was eventually made Rector of Exeter College (elected 23 August 1642; 18 admitted November 1642). He however "did little, or not at all, reside upon that rectory: For the civil wars breaking out, he returned to his parsonage... where he lived a retired life to the time of his death."<ref>Prince, John. (1701). ''The Worthies of Devon''</ref> The parsonage in question was the Rectory of Heanton Punchardon near Barnstaple in Devon, to which he had been presented by his kinsman Sir Robert Basset.<ref name="oxforddnb.com"/>
His works include: ''The Vanitie of the Eie. First Beganne for the Comfort of a Gentlewoman Bereaved of Her Sight and since upon Occasion Inlarged'' (second edition, 1608; third edition, 1615; and another impression, 1633); a Latin treatise against regicides (1612); and ''An Apologie of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World'' (1627).<ref name="Apologie">{{cite book|author=G[eorge] H[akewill]|title=An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. Or An Examination and Censure of the Common Errour Touching Natures Perpetuall and Vniuersall Decay, Diuided into Foure Bookes: Whereof the First Treates of This Pretended Decay in Generall, together with Some Preparatiues thereunto. The Second of the Pretended Decay of the Heauens and Elements, together with that of the Elementary Bodies, Man only Excepted. The Third of the Pretended Decay of Mankinde in Regard of Age and Duration, of Strength and Stature, of Arts and Wits. The Fourth of this Pretended Decay in Matter of Manners, together with a Large Proofe of the Future Consummation of the World from the Testimony of the Gentiles, and the Vses which We are to Draw from the Consideration thereof. By G. H. D.D.|url=https://archive.org/details/b30326783/page/n4/mode/1up|location=Oxford, Oxfordshire|publisher=Printed by Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, printers to the famous Vniuersity|year=1627|oclc=863459859}}</ref><ref>Wadsworth, Robert Woodman (1935). "The life and works of Dr. George Hakewill. "Masters essay. Columbia University. English.</ref> The latter work, a rebuttal of the view that creation, including humanity, was gradually declining, was praised by Samuel Pepys<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Diary_of_Samuel_Pepys/1667/February|title = Diary of Samuel Pepys}}</ref> and is cited by James Boswell as one of the formative influences on the prose of Samuel Johnson.<ref name="oxforddnb.com"/> Hakewill's style has been described as "lively and forceful".<ref name="oxforddnb.com"/>
By a brief marriage to Mary Ayer or Ayers (née Delbridge) Hakewill had two sons, John and George. George appears to have died in childhood. After becoming a fellow of Exeter College, John also died within his father's lifetime in 1637. Hakewill's will shows that, despite his theological leanings towards radical Protestantism, he remained politically a royalist<ref>"...Thus beseeching Allmighty god to blesse the Kings Ma<sup>ty</sup> His Church and State by making up the unhappie and unnaturall breaches & Distractions thereof": Will of George Hakewill, 1649</ref> and loyal to the Church of England as established.<ref>"...For my Religion in this lamentable varietie of new and strange opinions now on foot, I proffesse with St Hierome, In eadem religione in quȃ Infans baptizatus sum senex morior": Will of George Hakewill, 1649</ref> He also left a bequest to his "dear brother" William Hakewill, a noted supporter of the opposing Parliamentarian party. He named his nephew John Hakewill executor of his will, proved 2 May 1649.<ref name="S1690"> {{cite web |url=http://198.82.142.160/spenser/BiographyRecord.php?action=GET&bioid=33029 |title=Biography |access-date=2008-10-19 |author=Anthony Wood |year=1690 |author-link=Anthony Wood (antiquary) }}{{dead link|date=January 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} </ref>
George Hakewill was buried in the chancel of his church in Heanton Punchardon on 5 April 1649.
==Works== A list of selected works by Hakewill follows:
*''King Davids Vow for Reformation of Himselfe, His Family, His Kingdome. Deliuered in Twelue Sermons before the Prince His Highnesse vpon Psalm 101'' (1621).<ref>{{cite book|author=George Hakewill|title=King Davids Vow for Reformation of Himselfe, His Family, His Kingdome. Deliuered in Twelue Sermons before the Prince His Highnesse vpon Psalm 101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auYHuSa0NLwC&printsec=frontcover|location=London|publisher=Printed [by Humphrey Lownes] for Mathew Lownes|year=1621|oclc=55578280}}</ref> *''An Apologie of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World'' (1627).<ref name="Apologie"/>
==References== {{Reflist}} *{{NIE}}
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box |title=Rector of Exeter College, Oxford |years=1642–1649 |before=John Prideaux |after=John Conant }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakewill, George}} Category:1570s births Category:1649 deaths Category:16th-century Anglican theologians Category:17th-century Anglican theologians Category:17th-century English Anglican priests Category:17th-century English theologians Category:Clergy from Exeter Category:Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford Category:Rectors of Exeter College, Oxford Category:Writers from Exeter Category:Year of birth uncertain