The second son of John Hakewill, he was brought up as an architect, and exhibited some designs at the Royal Academy. He was collecting materials for a work on the Rhine when he died in London, 28 May 1843. [1]
In 1813 he published a series of Views of the Neighbourhood of Windsor, &c., with engravings by others from his own drawings. In 1816–17 he travelled in Italy, and on his return published in parts A Picturesque Tour of Italy, in which some of his own drawings were finished into pictures for engraving by J. M. W. Turner. In 1820–1 he visited Jamaica, and subsequently published A Picturesque Tour in the Island of Jamaica, from his own drawings[1]
In 1828 he published Plans, Sections, and Elevations of the Abattoirs in Paris, with considerations for their adoption in London. He also published a small tract on Elizabethan architecture. He was engaged in some works at High Legh and Tatton Park, Cheshire, and in 1836 was a competitor for the erection of the new Houses of Parliament. Hakewill is also supposed to be the author of ‘Cœlebs suited, or the Stanley Letters,’ in 1812.[1]
In 1807, at St George's, Hanover Square, Hakewill married Maria Catherine, daughter of W. Browne of Green Street, Grosvenor Square, herself a well-known portrait-painter, and a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, who died in 1842. He left four sons, Arthur William, Henry James, Frederick Charles, a portrait-painter, and Richard Whitworth.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cust, Lionel Henry (1890). "Hakewill, James". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 9.
