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Sir John Hawkins: Plymouth's Dilemma?

Sir Francis Drake In a scene familiar to Plymothians and visitors alike, Sir Francis Drake stands atop Plymouth Hoe where, legend has it, he finished his game of bowls before defeating the Spanish Armada. Where now, immortalised in bronze, he looks proudly over Plymouth Sound, past the island named in his honour and on to the open seas beyond. It is impossible to visit Plymouth and not be aware of the esteem the swashbuckling, King of Spain's beard singeing Drake is held, even now, over 400 years since his death. A parliamentary constituency, an electoral ward, public houses, streets, businesses, shopping centres all bear (or have borne) his name, as well as a myriad others commemorating "his" defeat of the Spanish Armada. But what of  Drakes' cousin, Sir John Hawkins? Forever remembered and reviled for his activities as a slaver - t hat in spite of the rather inconvenient truth that Hawkins neither "invented" the slave trade, nor was he the first