When William Hawkes was born in 1757, in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire, England, his father, Thomas Hanks or Hawkes, was 18 and his mother, Susannah Gillett, was 26. He married Mary Rolls on 12 October 1779, in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom. They were the parents of at least 9 sons and 4 daughters. He died in January 1836, in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 79, and was buried in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom.
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Thousands of British troops were sent to Boston to enforce Britain's tax laws. Taxes were repealed on all imports to the American Colonies except tea. Americans, disguised as Native Americans, dumped chests of tea imported by the East India Company into the Boston Harbor in protest. This escalated tensions between the American Colonies and the British government.
"On April 18, 1775, a shot known as the ""shot heard around the world"" was fired between American colonists and British troops in Lexington, Massachusetts. This began the American War for Independence. Fifteen months later, Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. The Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783 which ended the war. The colonies were no longer under British rule. Many who fought for the British fled to Canada, the West Indies, and some to England."
The first fleet of convicts sailed from England to Australia on May 13, 1787. By 1868, over 150,000 felons had been exiled to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Western Australia.
English (mainly central and southeastern England): variant of Hawks .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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