The second son of Thomas Hawkins of Trewithen and the grandson of Christopher Hawkins of Trewinnard, St. Erth, Hawkins’ father died before the death of his own father and, since his elder brother had drowned in the Thames whilst at Eton, he inherited great wealth on the death of his grandfather.

Hawkins was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall at the age of twenty-five and became one of the two Members of Parliament for Mitchell at the age of twenty-six, under the patronage of Lord Falmouth.

Given his wealth and influence Hawkins eventually controlled six of the Cornish boroughs and, notoriously, entertained the entire, but very small, electorate of Grampound for the entire day of the 1796 election meaning that none of them could vote for any but his favoured candidates. He continued to serve under Lord Falmouth’s interest at Mitchell but, having purchased the patronage of the other seat, he began his policy of selling the seat to the friends of the Tories. In 1802, having assessed the patronages of the Cornish boroughs he replaced the Duke of Leeds as the patron in Helston and attempted to intervene in Penryn where he came in to conflict with Sir Francis Basset, later Lord de Dunstanville (August 9^th).

At the highest point of his influence, through purchasing over a dozen manors, Hawkins controlled the two seats in Helston, the two of Grampound, one in St. Ives, one at Mitchell, and one at Penryn (his own). He offered the government the support of the six members he controlled at a price of £3,000 per seat, an offer which was rejected. Nevertheless he insisted that the six members voted as instructed and when Davies Gilbert (March 6^th) refused, Gilbert was forced to resign his seat. At the General Election of 1806 Hawkins returned himself, simultaneously as member of Parliament for the three boroughs of Grampound, Mitchell and Penryn.

In 1807, he was prosecuted for electoral fraud and, though, acquitted, his name was ‘erased from the Parliamentary record’. But only for that seat.

Since Hawkins had also returned himself as Member of Parliament for both Grampound and for Mitchell so he remained in the House of Commons, albeit under considerable censure. Farcically, Hawkins was challenged to a duel with pistols by Basset in 1810. At the duel at Westbourn Green, each fired twice but neither was injured as they completely missed and the duel was halted by their seconds. A lifelong bachelor and quite gloomy in demeanour with a reputation as a miser there was a chant about Trewithen:-

‘A large park without deer,

A large cellar without beer,

A large house without cheer,

Sir Christopher Hawkins lives here.’