Gawler was a soldier who was renowned for his wit and fashion. He was forced to quit the army in 1793 after expressing sympathy
for the French Revolution. He devoted
the rest of his life to botany. He had one son, the law reformer Charles Bellenden Gawler.
Gawler was something of a rake. Godwin records a story
about him suggesting that masturbation was more pleasurable than sex with a women, where the
pleasure was entirely in persuading her to part with what she does not care to part with (Philp, p. 177). He also seems to
have been an active member of the
Anacreontic Society – a singing club that after a certain hour excluded women and gave itself over to bawdy songs,
which Gawler had some reputation for. He seems to have persevered in this interest producing, in
1834, An Essay on the Archaeology
of Popular English Phrases and Nursery Rhymes, 2 vols, a rather eccentric work.
It is puzzling that there is only one son – since one diary entry has ‘2 fils’, but it is possible one
died without record (or that Godwin mistook a friend for a son).The son seems to have used the
name Henry. The diary entries for H Gawler junr are likely to be to the son, but those H Gawler entries not qualified by a
junr and prior to 1803 are probably to a
brother of John B. Gawler, not least because he first appears in the diary in 1799, when the son
would have been 14 – albeit that is an ‘adv’ entry at John Horne Tooke’s. Subsequent entries to H Gawler are pretty systematically at Horne Tooke’s, suggesting that
there is a political connection with the brother. (There is a letter from J B Gawler to Godwin
dated 21 Oct 1800 in which he says that his brother sends Godwin his regards, suggesting that
there is some connection between them. See also the draft of a letter to
J B Gawler, probably dated 1805, asking him to intercede in what Godwin
imagines is a deliberate refusal to see him on the part of Horne Tooke).
