Whilst in Manchester the Hawkshaws mixed socially with the Unitarian community, including John Relly Beard, William and Elizabeth Gaskell and their close friends the Dukinfield Darbishires, and Catherine Winkworth.
In 1850 John Hawkshaw set up as a consulting engineer in Great George Street, Westminster, and the family moved to London.
Visitors to their country home included Charles and Emma Darwin, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Henry James, Anne Thackeray and Alfred Tennyson.
The collection was favourably received by Manchester's poetic community, most notably by Samuel Bamford who mentions Hawkshaw's work in the preface to his Poems in 1843.
In her sonnet response Hawkshaw interacts with the historians and presents alternative perspectives on aspects of Anglo-Saxon history, challenging the traditions of historiography by noting its limitations and filling in the gaps.
Of particular note is the collection's final poem, 'In Memoriam', a touching elegy on childhood death which traces the loss of the Hawkshaws' three children.
These collections were written by Jane Euphemia Saxby (née Browne), who also wrote a volume of sacred poetry, The Dove on the Cross (1849).
[4] The now Lady Hawkshaw was buried at St Mary-the-Virgin Church, Bramshott, a few miles from the family estate of Hollycombe.
Sir John Hawkshaw commissioned a stained glass window set in the nave of Bramshott church to commemorate the life of his wife.