John Hooker1,2,3,4,5,6

M, b. 1524, d. before 15 September 1601
FatherRobert Hooker b. c 1466, d. 9 Aug 1537
MotherAgnes Doble d. c Aug 1637
John Hooker [Secor's Richard Hooker, page 4]
Sat for portrait in 1601 - hangs in Chambers in Exeter
     John was born in 1524 in Exeter, Devonshire, England.7,8 He was first educated at Menhussin in Cornwall. He then went to Oxford to study law.9,2 John married Martha Tucker in 1549 in Exeter, Devonshire, England.10 John's wife, Martha, died circa 1556 in Exeter, Devonshire, England, leaving him a widower. John married Anastasia Bridgeman, daughter of Edward Bridgeman, circa 1558 in England.11 John's wife, Anastasia, died before 25 March 1599 in Exeter, Devonshire, England, leaving him a widower. On 26 January 1601 in writing to the Exeter corporation just before his death, he described himself as 'unwieldy and imperfect ... my sight waxeth dim, my hearing very thick, my speech imperfect and my memory very feeble'. He was Chamberlain of Exeter at the time of his death.12 John departed this life before 15 September 1601 in Exeter, Devonshire, England. On this day, an election was held to fill his vacancy as Chamberlain.13,14

Family 1

Martha Tucker d. c 1556
Children

Family 2

Anastasia Bridgeman d. b 25 Mar 1599
Children

Citations

  1. [S1359] The Greenes of Rhode Island, with historical records of English ancestry, 1534-1902, pages 53 - The mother of John Greene, surgeon, Mary Hooker, was the daughter
    of John Hooker (alias Vowell), who was bom at Exeter, England, about'
    1524, his father, Robert Hooker, having been mayor of that city in 1520.
    His parents died when he was about ten years old. His early education
    was acquired under Dr. Moseman, Vicar of Menhussin in Cornwall, and he
    afterward studied law at Oxford. Later he travelled in Germany and re-
    sided some time in Cologne and Strasburg, where he was the guest of Peter
    Martyne and attended the divinity lectures of that learned Reformer. He
    returned to England and after a short stay went to France, intending to
    extend his travels to Spain and Italy, but was prevented by the war. Re-
    turning to his native country he settled in Exeter, and was chosen first
    chamberlain of that city, 1555. He devoted himself after this to the study
    of history and antiquities. In 1568 was a member of the Irish Parliament,
    and in 1 5 7 1 was one of the members of the English Parliament from Exeter
    (Wood). Price says he died 1601 (?), when about eighty years of age, and
    was buried in Exeter Cathedral, but had no monument. He was the author
    of several works, among them: " State of Ireland and Order of keeping a Par-
    liament in that Country," the same being found in the British Musetim
    under title, "Order and Usage of keeping Parliament in England" (MS.
    Harl., 1173, fol. 19). (From History of Devonshire, by Rev. Thomas Moore,
    vol. ii., p. 125.).
  2. [S1360] Thompson Cooper, John Hooker - En.wikisource.org/wiki/Hooker,_John_(DNB00).
  3. [S1361] Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford, 1715, Volume 2 page 741 - Hooker, John (alias Vowell); historian and astronomer, first chamberlain of Exeter 1554-1601, (s. Robert, lord mayor of Exeter, 1529) M.P. Athenry, Ireland, 1568, Exeter1571 and 1586-7; died 8 Nov., 1601, aged 76; father of Zachery, of John1598, and Peter.
  4. [S1378] John Hooker: Hooker alias Vowell, John (1526?-1601), antiquary and chamberlain of Exeter, was born there in or about 1526, being the second son of Robert Hooker, who was mayor of Exeter in 1529, by his third wife, Agnes, daughter of John Doble of Woodbridge, Suffolk. His parents died when he was about ten years old. He was educated in Cornwall at a famous school kept by Dr. John Moreman, vicar of Menheniot, and thence proceeded to Oxford. Corpus Christi College was most probably the college to which he belonged, although Exeter has been suggested, for under a tablet in the hall of Corpus, inscribed with Latin verses concerning the founder, are these words: 'Hanc repurgatam tabellam restituit Johannes Hooker, generosus, Exoniensis, 1579' (Wood, Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford, ed. Clark, 1889, i. 551). On leaving Oxford he travelled in Germany, and at Cologne he kept the common exercises of a lecture and disputations in the law, a circumstance leading to the inference that he graduated in that faculty before he left England. He next visited Strasburg, where he sojourned with Peter Martyr. After returning to England for a short time, he proceeded to France with the intention of travelling through Italy and Spain, but in consequence of the wars he was 'driven to shift himself homewards again.' Not long afterwards he married, took up his residence in the parish of St. Mary Major in his native city, was in Exeter when it was besieged by the rebels in 1549, and applied himself to the study of astronomy and English history.
    He was elected the first chamberlain of the city of Exeter on 21 Sept. 1555. He mentions his appointment in his manuscript 'History of Exeter.' His fee he tells us was 4l. a year, and his liveries brought 32s. more. His office chiefly concerned the orphans, but he was also to see the records safely kept, to enter the acts of the corporation in the absence of the town clerk, to attend the city audits, to survey the city property, and to help and instruct the receiver (Oliver, Hist. of Exeter, p. 242). As solicitor to Sir Peter Carew, he went to Ireland on his client's business; and he was elected burgess for Athenry in the Irish parliament of 1568. On 20 March 1568-9 the lord deputy of Ireland and the Irish council granted him a license to print the Irish acts of parliament at his own charges (Calendar of the Carew MSS. 1515-74, p. 387). In 1569 he spoke vehemently in the Irish House of Commons in support of the royal prerogative, and so irritated the opposition that the house broke up in confusion, and his parliamentary friends deemed it necessary to escort him to his lodgings in the house of Sir Peter Carew, to protect him from personal violence. Browne Willis states that he and Geoffrey Tothill were elected burgesses for Exeter to Queen Elizabeth's third parliament, which assembled at Westminster on 8 May 1572 (Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 80), but his name does not appear in the 'Official List of Members of Parliament,' 1878. He died at Exeter in November 1601, and was buried on 8 Nov. in St. Mary Major's. [Note: It has been noted that this death date belongs to his son John. - KLM] - http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hooker,_John_%28DNB00%29.
  5. [S1370] Philip Bruce Secor, Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism, Page 3 -.
  6. [S1379] Samuel Smith Travers, A collection of pedigrees of the family of Travers, page 28 - John Hoker, Younger son of Robert Hoker, by his wife Agnes Doble, was born in Exeter about 1524. He was sent early to Oxford, but whether he took a degree Wood was unable to ascertain. Leaving the University he went to Strasburgh, and became a pupil of Peter Martyr. In 1555, after he had been some years returned home, he was elected first chamberlain of Exeter, an office for which his MSS. show that he was admirably qualified. Sir Peter Caraw sent him to Ireland to negotiate his private affairs, and procured his election as burgess of Athenry, in the Irish parliament, 1568. He represented Exeter in the English parliament of 1571. He married first Martha, daughter of Robert Tucker of Exeter, gentleman; secondly, Austice, daughter of Edward Bridgman. Prince says he died in 1601; but the entry of his successors appointment, 15 Sept., states the vacancy to have been made by his death. His portrait in the council chamber was taken in 1601, at 76. . . by his first wife he had issue five children, Robert, John, John, Margery, and Prothsaye; by his second wife thirteen, Thomas, Toby, Zachary, Thomas, Peter, George, John, Alice, Magdalen, Audrey, Mary, Amy, Dorothy.
  7. [S1359] The Greenes of Rhode Island, with historical records of English ancestry, 1534-1902, pages 52-53.
  8. [S1366] L. S. Woodger, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, At the inquisition post mortem held at Plympton on 18 Oct. 1538 it was found that Hooker [his father Robert] had held land in Clayhanger, Exiland, Satinole and Widecombe, and that the heir, evidently a child of his last marriage, was ten years old; the cloth in Hooker’s shop was valued for probate at £8 and the plate in his house at £65. His son was to become the historian of Exeter.
  9. [S1359] The Greenes of Rhode Island, with historical records of English ancestry, 1534-1902, pages 53.
  10. [S1370] Philip Bruce Secor, Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism, page 2.
  11. [S1365] Thomas Westcote, A View of Devonshire in MDCXXX: With a Pedigree of Most of Its Gentry, page 527- … he [John] married secondly Anstice daughter of Edmund Bridgman of Exeter, by shom he had numerous offspring.
  12. [S1366] L. S. Woodger, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, HOOKER, alias VOWELL, John - Few details of his domestic life survive. Writing to the Exeter corporation just before his death, he described himself as 'unwieldy and imperfect ... my sight waxeth dim, my hearing very thick, my speech imperfect and my memory very feeble'. He died between 26 Jan. and 15 Sept. 1601, and was probably buried in Exeter cathedral. The John Hooker who died in November the same year, and was buried in St. Mary Major, was his son, whose will has been wrongly attributed to the father. Hooker's own will has not been found.
  13. [S1361] Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford, 1715, Volume 2 page 741.
  14. [S936] British History Online - Victoria County History: Reports on the Records of the City of Exeter - Hooker died at Exeter in 1601, and the last entry in the Act Book of that year (Act Book V, f. 276) records that on Sept. 15, 1601, the chamber "have elected in the steade of John Hooker, Chamberlyn, decessed, William Tickell to be Chamberlyn of the said Cittie." - www.british-history.ac.uk.