"[8][9] For example, in 2021, Sawkins's 1869 research was used by wildlife ecologist Dr. Susan Koenig to persuade NEPA to protect the Jamaican Cockpit Country from bauxite mining.

[10] In 2011, Nicholas Mirzoeff stated that "Sawkins's careful anthropological style...concentrated on observation rather than moral commentary.

[14] At the age of 14, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, with his family,[13] where he made his living painting miniature portraits on ivory.

Gold rush hopeful Andrew S. Church described his candid 1849 observation of the Sawkins couple in his 1901 Memoirs:[7][It] was evident that an angry discussion was under way, as the shrieking treble would not be silenced at the command of one we took to be an Englishman...[Rosa] was weeping and pleading "to go back home" while the man was swinging his arms and explaining excitedly, "My God, it is impossible, it cannot be."

Soon the lady rushed out of the modern rocking-chair in which she had been performing antics worthy of a circus, and ran into the adobe building where we heard a door slam and a bolt snap.

[17] From 1830 to 1835, Sawkins lived in Mexico, earning his wealth as a painter while researching mineral resources of the country.

In 1837, Sawkins created various scenic and architectural illustrations of Mitla, Mexico, for historian Brantz Mayer's nonfiction book, Observations on Mexican History and Archaeology, With a Special Notice of Zapotec Remains.

[18]In 1847, Sawkins taught art lessons and sold portraits and Mexican landscapes in Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of the island of St. Thomas.

According to visual theorist Nicholas Mirzoeff, Sawkins's artworks inspired Camille Pissarro, a French painter born in St.

[11] Sawkins did not have a formal education in geology;[13] he likely learned through autonomous research and running various mineral operations in Cuba and Peru.

[13] The 1848 announcement of gold in California led him to move to the state the same year, representing a Peruvian mining corporation.[which?

[5] His gold rush undertaking failed,[19] and he subsequently became a mine inspector in Hawaii and Queensland, Australia.

The Director of the group was George Parks Wall, assisted by James Gay Sawkins, an American working as a copper miner in Jamaica.

Brown found gold in specimens of copper carbonate at the Stamford Hill or Charing Cross Mines north-east of May Pen, Jamaica.

[9] In 1860, G. P. Wall published Report on the geology of Trinidad; or, Part I. of the West Indian survey, compiled by himself and Sawkins.

Paleontologist Stephen Donovan claims, "It is perhaps inevitable that Sawkins should feel some disappointment, a sense of frustration, perhaps bitterness against the authorities who had failed to promote him, and had put a very young man [Lucas Barrett] over him.

In 1869, Sawkins published Reports on the Geology of Jamaica which sets out a definitive map and results of the new group's 1859–1869 research.

[8][23] On April 12, 1869, Roderick I. Murchison succinctly described Barrett's and Sawkins's leadership:Mr. Lucas Barrett, a young palæontologist of merit, was appointed to the vacant place, and he, in conjunction with Mr. Sawkins, had made considerable progress in a brief period, particularly by correlating the organic remains of the Jamaica limestones with their congeners in Europe, when unfortunately he was drowned whilst searching in a diving bell for marine remains beneath the sea.

[19] Circa 1849, Sawkins housed various renters at his home in San Rafael, California, including gold rush hopefuls such as Andrew S.

On November 26, 1849, James Sawkins entered his home and greeted Revere with a handshake, noticing he was "trembling and cold".

When James found that the laudanum bottle in the medicine cabinet was empty, he asked his wife what became of it and she said she drank it, i.e. attempted suicide.

[6] The next morning, Rosa did not allow James to force her into her room, leading to a physical altercation in which both fell to the ground.