Hawkins goes on to say:—
"There is a tradition that his death was occasioned by a cold which he caught in the night waiting for admittance to his own house. It is said that he used to keep late hours, and that his wife had given orders to his servants not to let him in after midnight; unfortunately he came home heated with wine from the tavern at an hour later than that prescribed him, and through the inclemency of the air contracted a disorder of which he died. If this be true, it reflects but little honour on Madam Purcell, for so she is styled in the advertisements of his works; and but ill agrees with those expressions of grief for her dear, lamented husband, which she makes use of to Lady Howard in the dedication of the Orpheus Britannicus. It seems probable that the disease of which he died was rather a lingering than an acute one, perhaps a consumption."
We see from this, that Hawkins had some doubt as to the truth of the story, and his daughter writing in 1822,[52] respecting some aspersions which had been cast on her mother in reference to her treatment of her father, says, "Sir John Hawkins was not at home at all the sooner for his wife's fetching him. Mrs. Purcell, I should conjecture, had other modes of attracting Mr. Purcell; yet perhaps the whole may have been as gross a falsification as that by which Lady Hawkins is vilified."
In a volume of poetry of glees published by Richard Clark in 1824, he improves the tale told by Hawkins, and boldly adds details. He prints the words of the catch, "Jack, thou'rt a toper."
"Jack, thou'rt a toper; let's have t'other quart.
Ring, we're so sober 'twere a shame to part;
None but a cuckold bully'd, by his wife
For coming late, fears a domestic strife;
I'm free, and so are you! to call and knock
Boldly, the watchman cries, 'Past two o'clock.'"