John Hawkesworth LLD (c. 1715 – 16 November 1773) was an English writer and book editor, born in London.

[3] Because of his defence of morality and religion, Hawkesworth was rewarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the degree of LL.D, In 1754–1755 he published an edition (12 vols) of Swift's works, with a life prefixed that Johnson praised in his Lives of the Poets.

He wrote the libretto of an oratorio Zimri in 1760, and the next year Edgar and Emmeline: a Fairy Tale was produced at Drury Lane.

His Almoran and Hamet (1761) was first drafted as a play [citation needed], and a tragedy based on it by S J Pratt, The Fair Circassian (1781), met with some success.

[5] His descriptions of the manners and customs of the South Seas were, however, regarded by many critics as inexact and hurtful to the interests of morality, and the severity of their strictures is said to have hastened his death.