John Isaac Hawkins

Sampson Mordan jointly obtained the patent for the propelling pencil in December 1822 with John Isaac Hawkins. The inventive partner was Hawkins. John Isaac Hawkins was born on the 14th March 1772 in Hillfarrance, a small parish four miles west of Taunton in Sommerset. The son of a clockmaker, also called John Isaac, the family was closely involved in the early days of the non-conformist movement and Methodism. There are records showing that John Welsey visited the village and stayed with the Hawkins family. Wesley's Journal shows that he visited the homes of other members of his Taunton Society who lived in outlying villages and which were used for preaching.

The younger John Isaac Hawkins studied to become a civil engineer; he travelled to America as a young man, where he corresponded with other inventors, such as Thomas Jefferson, returning to England in 1803. For the next 45 years he worked as an inventor, museum proprietor, civil engineer, and patent agent, travelling at home and abroad. In 1848 he returned to the United States, where he sought to re-establish himself, but instead died in relative obscurity in 1854 (not 1855 as widely reported).