Edward Craven Hawtrey
Head Master of Eton College (1789-1862)
Edward Craven Hawtrey (7 May 1789 – 27 January 1862) was an English educationalist, headmaster and later provost of Eton College.
Life
Hawtrey was born at Burnham, Bucks, the son of the vicar of the parish. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, and in 1814 was appointed assistant master at Eton under John Keate. In 1834 he became headmaster of Eton, which role he performed until 1853, when he was elected Provost of Eton following the death of Francis Hodgson. While he was headmaster and Hodgson was Provost, new buildings were erected, including the school library and the sanatorium, the college chapel was restored, the Old Christopher Inn was closed, and the custom of Montem, the collection by street begging of funds for the university expenses of the captain of the school, was suppressed.
Hawtrey is supposed to have suggested the modern language prizes given by Prince Albert, and himself founded the prize for English essay. In 1852 he became provost of Eton, and in 1854 vicar of Mapledurham. He was buried in the Eton College chapel.
On account of his command of languages, he was known in London as "the English Mezzofanti", and he was a book collector of the finest taste. Among his own books are some translations from the English into Italian, German and Greek.
“Edward Craven Hawtrey” enters the record as head Master of Eton College (1789-1862). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Edward, Craven and Hawtrey can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 28, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5342450. VIAF identifies the subject as 24514549. The Library of Congress control number is nr98020113. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1789, 1862, 1814 and 1834.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edward Craven Hawtrey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.