John Hawkins, born into a family of seafarers at Plymouth, is the son, by Joan Trelawny, of William Hawkins the elder, a confidant of Henry VIII of England and one of the principal sea captains of England.

Young Hawkins, who made his earliest voyages to the Canary Islands as a young man, is probably the first major English slave trader, although some sources point to John Lok in 1553.

Hawkins’ first voyage, of 1555, had led three small ships to the Sierra Leone coast in order to capture slaves.

He had left Africa with a cargo of around three hundred enslaved West Africans, having seized them from the Portuguese.

Despite having two ships seized by the Spanish authorities, he had sold the slaves in Santo Domingo and thus made a profit for his London investors.

His voyage had caused the Spanish to ban all English ships from trading in their West Indies colonies.

Twenty-seven in 1555, he marries Katherine Gonson, whose father is treasurer of the navy.