The town was formally established in the 16th century, but was previously the site of historic settlement going back hundreds of years.

By the late 17th century, the town began to grow significantly, especially during the Industrial Revolution and Victorian era as a centre for the production of textiles, with a focus on knitting and weaving, involving materials such as tweed and cashmere.

By the late 20th century, textile production had declined but the town remains an important regional centre for shopping, tourism and services.

[4] The origin of the name of Hawick was first researched in the 1860s by James Murray, a local teacher and later the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

[17][18][19] The first knitting machines were brought to Hawick in 1771 by John Hardie, building on an existing carpet manufacturing trade and with a view to expanding into the production of stockings.

[18][20] The town subsequently focused on the manufacturer of different textiles, hosiery and knitwear, including cashmere, adapting to different patterns and materials as fashions changed.

[18] However, by the late 20th century, changing production methods, costs and tastes resulted in the decline of the textile industries to all but a few small businesses.

[22] But in October 2021, with engineering work still in progress, the town was severely affected by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding.

[25] Hawick Town Hall on the High Street was built in 1886, designed by James Campbell Walker in the Scottish baronial style.

The burghs and counties were abolished as administrative areas, replaced with a two-tier system of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts.

[30] Further local government reform in 1996 abolished the regions and districts, since when Hawick has been administered by Scottish Borders Council.

Engineering firm Turnbull and Scott had their headquarters in an Elizabethan-style listed building on Commercial Road before moving to Burnfoot.

[33] The closure of once-significant employers, including mills like Peter Scott's[34] and Pringle's[35] have reduced the number of jobs in the town.

The town lost its rail service in 1969, when, as part of the Beeching Axe, the Waverley Route from Carlisle to Edinburgh via Hawick railway station was closed.

Hawick station was on the north bank of the river Teviot, below Wilton Hill Terrace, with a now demolished viaduct (near the Mart Street bridge) carrying the route south towards Carlisle.

Waverley Walk[43] in Hawick is a footpath along the former railway route, north-eastward from the former station site near Teviotdale Leisure Centre.

[45][46][5] For example, the term a "Hawick Gill" is a large measure of spirits, equivalent to 0.28 litre (half a pint).

"His arms robust the hardy hunter flung around his bending horns, and upward wrung, with writhing force his neck retorted round, and rolled the panting monster to the ground, crushed, with enormous strength, his bony skull; and courtiers hailed the man who turned the bull."

In summer 2019, Alchemy launched its award-winning Film Town project, which "aims to work to the benefit of Hawick and its unique communities by widening accessibility and inclusion for audiences, participants and partners, and by challenging social, physical and communication barriers... while contributing to Hawick's economic regeneration through an investment in its cultural identity".

[54] In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alchemy delivered the tenth and eleventh editions of its annual film festival as livestream events delivered from Hawick, and assisted in helping the town's communities to digitise their own services, including the production of virtual lectures for the town's 164-year-old Hawick Archaeological Society.

A statue of the popular rugby commentator Bill McLaren (1923–2010) is in Wilton Lodge Park, to the west of the town centre.