| Name |
Nathaniel Hawkins |
| Prefix |
Rev. |
| Suffix |
^ |
| Birth |
24 Nov 1777 |
NY  [2, 3] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Occupation |
Aft 1823 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [3, 4, 5] |
| Congregationist Minister |
- While Ralph Clymer Hawkins recorded that he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1815, I have found no evidence of this in Presbyterian records, and he and his wife Fanny appear to have early united with the Congregational church.
He was ordained as a minister to the Third Congregational Church of Brookhaven, NY (West Middle Island, then New Village, now Centereach) in May, 1823. He had been licensed to preach sometime before that, and apparently had been serving the New Village congregation for some period before his actual ordination. He served this congregation for over 20 years.
He then removed to the family farm on Little Neck in Fire Place (now Brookhaven Hamlet) where a small Congregational church had been established. This congregation had a small meeting house now at the corner of South Country Rd. and Chapel Ave. (see Historic Site ID Br05C) in Brookhaven Hamlet. He continued to serve this congregation until near his death.
|
| Census |
1840 |
Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [6] |
- In his household was one female, age of 20 and under 30, probably his daughter Patience. Based on nearby entries, the location is likely South Haven/Fire Place -- the Hawkins family farm on Little Neck.
|
| Census |
1850 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [4] |
- In his household was Diadema Hawkins (age 43).
|
| Possessions |
1850 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [4] |
| real estate valued at $6000 |
| Census |
1860 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [7] |
- In his household was his wife Deidamia.
[Nathaniel Hawkins was enumerated in the 1860 census. The date the enumerator visited the household was 16 Aug 1860. The census date was June 1, 1860. The enumerators were instructed: "The name of any member of a family who may have died since the lst day of June is to be entered and the person described as if living ...."]
|
| Name |
Priest Hawkins [8] |
| Occupation |
1860 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [7] |
| congregational minister |
| Possessions |
1860 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [7] |
| real estate valued at $3000 |
| Reference Number |
HG 128 [3] |
| Residence |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [8] |
| on the north side of South Country Road, just east of Snow's corner |
- (see 1858 map, this site)
|
| Death |
30 Jul 1860 |
Fire Place (now Brookhaven), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [5, 8, 9] |
- From Congregational Quarterly, June 1862.
Rev. NATHANIEL HAWKINS, whose death occurred at his residence, in Fire Place, N. Y., Sabbath, July 30, 1860, at the advanced age of 83 years, and 8 months, was the son of Nathaniel Hawkins, and was born November, 1777.
Of his early life, and religious culture, but little is retained. His first permanent religious impressions seem to have occurred at the death of his first born son, in its infancy; from which event, he ever after dated his conversion to God. He and his wife [Francis Woodhull] united themselves with the Congregational Church at Wading River, the early home of his first wife. At what period, after his connection with the Church, he turned his attention to the work of the ministry, has not been satisfactorily ascertained. For a considerable period, with such facilities as his circumstances would permit for qualifying himself for the ministerial work, he continued to labor among destitute sections of the county, as a licentiate of the Church.
At the close of the labors of the Rev. Jacob Corwin, with the Church at New Village, he was called to that field. His ordination as pastor of this Church did not take place until May, 1823. With this Church he labored with almost unrequited toil, for more than twenty years. He then left, and in 1842 succeeded in gathering a small Church and Society at Fire Place Neck, over which he presided, and for which he labored with a fidelity and constancy, until the period of his death, seldom surpassed, continuing his public ministrations, as long as his enfeebled frame would admit of his reaching the place of worship, about two months previous to his decease.
Of his moral and religious character, little need be said. The meek simplicity, and unaffected humility which so pre-eminently marked the whole tone of his piety, won for him the cordial esteem, and the venerative affection of all his brethren, and at the same time made its resistless appeal to the hearts of those who were still without, constraining the secret assurance, "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile."
Of his public ministry it may he said though not of an high intellectual order, the result of the mental culture of the "Schools of the Prophets," yet it breathed so much of that deep-toned piety which springs only from a heart in constant communion with Christ, that even the most careless were constrained to say "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth, for his speech betrayeth him."
As might be anticipated from such a bright example of genuine unaffected, living piety, maintained through a long and laborious life with unshaken constancy, his end would be peace. Down into Jordan's cold and chilly stream, with unfaltering step he passed, to be welcomed on its other side with the " Shining ones," to conduct his ransomed spirit to the celestial city, and to swell the triumphant song of the redeemed and shout the victory to the Lamb.
Brother Hawkins was twice married; his second wife still survives him, an estimable lady, for many years, previous to her connection with Bro. Hawkins, a teacher of the Sabbath School in Dr. Hatfield's Church in New York city. Three children survived him, one of whom has gone since his death [Patience Hawkins], rejoicing with a bright hope of meeting her parents in the mansions above.
At his interment, where a large congregation was assembled around his grave, was sung his favorite hymn, of the Lee Avenue Collection.
"0 sing to me of heaven, When I am called to die."
C.Y.
[Ralph Clymer Hawkins recorded 1 July 1860. However, the above obituary and his memorial monument records 30 July 1860.]
|
| Burial |
Yaphank (Village Cemetery), Brookhaven, Suffolk, NY [8] |
- [Ralph Clymer Hawkins records that he was originally buried with his second wife in the Barteau Cemetery in Fire Place, and later both were reinterred in the "Yaphank Presbyterian Cemetery." I am a bit skeptical that he would have originally been buried in the Barteau Cemetery, as the Nathaniel Hawkins (his father) family burying ground is virtually across the road from the Barteau Cemetery and near to where he was said to have lived.
The Rev. Nathaniel Hawkins was in fact found at the Yaphank Village Cemetery, not the Yaphank Presbyterian Cemetery. The adjacent monument is of his first wife]
|
| Person ID |
I327 |
Brookhaven & South Haven Hamlets |
| Last Modified |
1 Jun 2009 |
1777 - 1860 (82 years)
