Francis Lister Hawks (June 10, 1798 – September 26, 1866) was an American writer, historian, educator and priest of the Episcopal Church.

After practicing law with some distinction (and a brief stint as politician in North Carolina), Hawks became an Episcopal priest in 1827 and proved a brilliant and impressive preacher, holding livings (a church benefice including revenues) in New Haven, Philadelphia, New York City and New Orleans, and declining several bishoprics.

After being named the Episcopal Church's historiographer in 1835, Hawks traveled to England and collected materials afterwards utilized in his Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of U.S.A. (New York, 1836–1839).

Hawks quickly climbed the church ranks, becoming deacon in 1827 and assistant minister of Trinity parish in New Haven, Connecticut, a short while later.

[3] Philip Hone, ex-mayor of New York City, spoke for many when he wrote, "I went yesterday morning to St. Thomas' where I heard from Dr. Hawks a glorious sermon.

Bishop Thomas March Clark of Rhode Island wrote: To hear him preach was like listening to the harmonies of a grand organ with its various stops and solemn sub-bass and tremulous pathetic reeds.

He was elected bishop of the Southwestern region in 1835, but he declined the post, citing a lack of support for his family in what was then the American frontier.

[11] While in London Hawks met the American traveller John Lloyd Stephens, later to be renowned for his exploratory work and investigations of a number of mostly-unknown ancient ruins of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Central America.

Stephens had just completed a nine-month tour of Egypt and the Levant, and several letters describing his travels had been published in an American periodical.

[12] Sixteen years later, Hawks wrote Stephens' obituary, as the adventurer died at age 47 from a liver illness, the article appeared in the first issue of Putnam's Monthly Magazine.

Hawks continued to write and publish on general church affairs.In 1837, he partnered with fellow priest Caleb S. Henry to put out a magazine called the New York Review.

In late 1838, Hawks became one of many targets of a trend among the American penny press to expose alleged vices of holy men.

The accuser was George Washington Dixon, a man known for his blackface music act, who claimed that Hawks was engaging in sexual affairs.

The reasons for this remain a mystery, though Dale Cockrell surmised that Hawks did not want to face further defamation of character in trial and may have paid Dixon off.

[22] His episcopal confirmation at the General Convention was protested, with James Quarterman, a painter from Flushing, alleging that Hawks had over $100,000 in outstanding debt due to financial mismanagement at St.

Hawks declined most non-clerical appointments during his time at Calvary, including an election to the Rhode Island episcopate in 1852 and a professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1859.

He continued to write, and in 1855 and 1856 he co-authored the Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan with Commodore Matthew Perry.