HAWKINS, Francis Robert (1817- 1885), a native of St. Hilliers, Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands in Great Britain, was active in Wentworth County and in Oxford County in Ontario. Born in 1817, he arrived in Upper Canada before 1845. In 1848 he was recorded as “the architect” hired to design the new Town Hall & Market Building, Main Street, DUNDAS, ONT., 1848-49 (OA, Town of Dundas, Minutes of Council Book, meeting of 25 July 1848; Ralph Greenhill, Ken Macpherson & Douglas Richardson, Ontario Towns, 1974, Plate 44, illus. & descrip.). In 1857, Hawkins prepared a refined Greek Revival design for the Central School, Melville Street at Elgin Street, DUNDAS, ONT. (Parks Canada, Canada's Historic Places, Designation dated 24 January 1990).
Nearly twenty years later, in 1871, he was again recorded as an “architect & builder” who was living and working in Dereham Township, Oxford County, located near Ingersoll and Woodstock (Canada, Census of 1871, Ontario, Oxford County, District 013, Subdistrict A 1, page 69). It is possible that several other buildings, erected in that county between 1850 and 1871, are works which have been constructed by, or designed by, Francis R. Hawkins. Hawkins died as a result of an accident near Tillsonburg on 4 December 1885 at the age of 68 years.