Forbes Hawkes

Robert Forbes Hawkes (August 25, 1865 – August 24, 1940) was an American physician and surgeon who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.

Forbes Hawkes
Born
Robert Forbes Hawkes

(1865-08-25)August 25, 1865
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 24, 1940(1940-08-24) (aged 74)
Port Washington, New York, U.S.
Alma materYale University
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1905; his death 1940)​
Parent(s)Wootton Wright Hawkes
Eliza Forbes Hawkes

Early life

Hawkes was born in New York City on August 25, 1865.[1] He was the son of Wootton Wright Hawkes (1811–1887),[2] and Eliza DeForest (née Forbes) Hawkes (1823–1913).[3] His father was a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut,[4] and an amateur farmer in Sing Sing, New York.[2] His older brother was Emile McDougall Hawkes,[5][6] who was president of the French Institute in the United States and who married (and divorced) Eva Van Cortlandt Morris, a daughter of Augustus Newbold Morris and the aunt of Newbold Morris and George L. K. Morris.[7][8]

His paternal grandparents were merchant George Hawkes and Ann (née Lawrence) Hawkes.[9] His maternal grandparents were merchant William Jehiel Forbes and Charlotte Antoinette (née Root) Forbes, the daughter of Joel Root, an early entrepreneur and supercargo on the sealing ship Huron.[2] His grandmother Charlotte's sister, Susan Huldah Forbes, was married to Benjamin Silliman Jr., the maternal grandfather of Hawkes' wife Alice Silliman Belknap.[2]

His early education was in Tours and Paris in France, and Marburg, Germany before graduating from Yale University in 1887. After Yale, he attended the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating in 1891.[1]

Career

Following his graduation from Medical School, he did a year of post-graduate work in Vienna and Edinburgh, Scotland. Hawkes interned at New York Presbyterian Hospital.[1] He specialized in gynecology and abdominal surgery.[10]

Hawkes also served as the head of the dispensary for New York Presbyterian Hospital and was a consulting surgeon at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the Loomis Sanitarium, North-Western Dispensary and several others. He was also a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Post-Graduate Hospital (today known as the New York University School of Medicine).[1]

He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the New York Surgical Society, the American Urological Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Hospital Graduate Association, and the Presbyterian Hospital Alumni Association.[1]

Society life

In February 1892, Hawkes was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[11][12] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[13] Hawkes was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York, the University Club, the Century Association, and the Piping Rock Club. He belonged to the St. Nicholas Society and was surgeon of the Society of the Cincinnati.[1]

Personal life

On April 25, 1905, Hawkes was married to suffragette Alice Silliman Belknap (1878–1972)[14] in Louisville, Kentucky.[15] Alice was the daughter of William Richardson Belknap, the president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, and Alice Trumbull (née Silliman) Belknap.[16] Her paternal grandfather was William Burke Belknap and her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Silliman Jr., a professor of chemistry at Yale University who was instrumental in developing the oil industry.[17] Among her siblings was the artist Eleanor Silliman Belknap Humphrey[18] and William Burke Belknap.[19] Together, they lived at 124 East 65th Street and were the parents of:[10]

Hawkes died at his summer home, Briar Patch at Sands Point in Port Washington on Long Island,[23] on August 24, 1940.[1] After a funeral at his home, he was buried at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. His widow died in 1972.[14]

Descendants

Through his daughter Eleanor, he was the grandfather of Thomas Ludlow Chrystie, and the great-grandfather of Alice Belknap Chrystie, a doctoral student in educational psychology at Columbia University who married Peter Hunt Wyman in 1983.[24]

Through his son John, he was the grandfather of artist Lars Hawkes,[25] and the grandfather of Peter Hawkes and Martin Hawkes.[22]

References
  1. "FORBES R. HAWKES, SURGEON, 75, DEAD; Ex-Consultant at Presbyterian Hospital Had Been Head of the Dispensary There WROTE MEDICAL ARTICLES Former Professor of Clinical Surgery at Post-Graduate Served Many Institutions" (PDF). The New York Times. August 25, 1940. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (1871). The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. J. Munsell. p. 91. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  3. "DIED. HAWKES" (PDF). The New York Times. April 24, 1913. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  4. Conn.), Trinity College (Hartford (1870). Catalogue of the Officers and Students. p. 7. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  5. "DIED. Hawkes". The New York Times. 24 March 1929. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  6. "FRENCH HERE MOURN M'DOUGALL HAWKES.; Bishop Lloyd and Rev. J. D. Farris Hold Ceremonies for French Institute's Founder". The New York Times. 26 March 1929. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  7. "MRS. EVA M. HAWKES". The New York Times. 6 December 1947. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  8. "DIVORCES E. McD. HAWKES.; Wife of New York Lawyer Got Paris Decree Last October". The New York Times. 2 April 1923. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  9. Butterfield, Roger (23 February 1968). "How the McDougall Papers Were Saved". LIFE. Time Inc: 49–51. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  10. Walsh, James Joseph (1919). History of medicine in New York. National Americana Society, Incorporated. pp. 421–422. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  11. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  12. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 218. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  13. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  14. "Alice Belknap Hawkes Dies, Early Suffragette Worker". Tampa Bay Times. 21 Sep 1972. p. 33. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  15. "Belknap--Hawkes". The Courier-Journal. 23 April 1905. p. 16. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  16. of 1908, Yale University Class (1908). History of the Class of 1908, Yale College. Yale University. p. 63. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  17. Johnson, E. Polk. "Belknap, William R." www.usbiographies.org. Lewis Publishing Co. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  18. The Sigma Chi Quarterly: The Official Organ of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. The Fraternity. 1895. p. 350. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  19. Kleber, John E. (2015). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. p. 81. ISBN 9780813149745. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  20. Staff, Variety (12 February 1993). "C. Wanton Balis Jr". Variety. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  21. "ELEANOR'S. HAWKES ENGAGED TO MARRY; Doctor's Daughter Is to Wed Clarence W. Balis Jr., a Graduate of Yale" (PDF). The New York Times. January 5, 1930. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  22. "John Lawrence Hawkes". The Manchester Journal. August 1, 2008. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  23. Social Register, Summer. Social Register Association. 1920. p. 134. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  24. "Alice B. Chrystie Is Engaged". The New York Times. 31 October 1982. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  25. "Retro Serigraph Art by Lars Hawkes". marketplace.apartmenttherapy.com. Apartment Therapy Marketplace. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
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