By his first wife, Martha, daughter of Robert Toker of Exeter, he had issue five children, viz.: Robert, John, John, Margery, and Prothsaye; and by his second wife, Anastryce, daughter of Edward Bridgeman of Exeter, he had issue Thomas, Toby, Alice (wife of John Travers), Zachary (who became rector of St. Michael Carhayes, Cornwall), Audrey, Thomas, May, Peter, Amy, George, John, and Dorothy. He was uncle of ‘judicious’ Richard Hooker [q. v.] (pedigree in R. Hooker's Works, ed. Keble, i. p. cix).
A portrait of him is preserved in the town hall of Exeter.
Hooker's chief literary labour was the editing and revision of Holinshed's ‘Chronicles,’ originally published in 1577. ‘Newlie augmented and continued with manifold matters of singular note and worthie memorie to the yeare 1586,’ by Hooker, the work reappeared in 3 vols. folio in 1586–7. Hooker was assisted in the undertaking by Abraham Fleming, John Stow, and Francis Thynne, and many of their additions relating to contemporary politics roused the wrath of the queen, and caused the edition to undergo serious castration immediately after its first publication [see under Holinshed, Raphael]. Hooker's original contributions to the work are: 1. ‘The begininge, cause, and course of the comotion or rebellion in the counties of Devon and Cornewall in … 1549.’ One manuscript is in the Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS. 792. Another, belonging to the Rev. R. Walker of Truro, was sold at Bristol in 1855. 2. ‘The Irish historie composed by Giraldus Cambrensis and translated into English (with scholies to the same), together with Supplie to the said historie from the death of Henrie the eight, unto 1587;’ sometimes found separate. Dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. 3. ‘Description of the City of Exeter, and of the sundry Assaults given to the same.’ A MS. copy is in Ashmole MS. 762; another, dated 1559, is in the Cottonian collection, Titus F. vi. 88; an outline of the ‘Description’ dated 1571 is in MS. in the College of Arms (H. D. N. No. 41; cf. Charles Worthy's Notes 1882). The ‘Description’ alone was issued separately, apparently at Exeter, about 1583 in 4to. 4. ‘An Addition to the Chronicles of Ireland, from 1546, where they ended, to the year 1568.’ 5. ‘Order and usage of keeping the Parliaments in England.’ Also issued separately, London, 1572, 4to, and with the ‘Description’ of Exeter (London? 1575? 4to); it was reprinted in the ‘Somers Tracts.’ There are manuscripts of this work in the Harleian collection, 1178, f. 19, and in the library of Lord Calthorpe, and in the MS. at the College of Arms mentioned above. 6. ‘A Catalog of the Bishops of Excester, with the description of the Antiquitie and first foundation of the Cathedrall Church of the same’ (also separately. London, 1584, 4to).
Other of his separate publications are: 7. ‘Orders enacted for Orphans and for their portions within the Citie of Excester, with sundry other instructions incident to the same,’ London [1575], 4to. 8. ‘The Events of Comets or blazing Stars, made upon the sight of the Comet Pagonia, which appeared in the month of Nov. and Dec. 1577,’ London, 8vo. Dedicated to Sir John Gilbert. 9. ‘A Pamphlet of the Offices, and duties of everie particular sworne Officer of the citie of Excester,’ London, 1584, 4to. 10. ‘The Lyffe of Sir Peter Carewe, late of Mohonese Otrey, in the countie of Devon, Knyghte, whoe dyed at Rosse, in Irelande, the 27th of November 1575.’ Printed in ‘Archæologia,’ xxviii. 96–151, and in the ‘Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, edited by J. S. Brewer and W. Bullen,’ London, 1867, vol. i. pp. lxvii–cxviii. The original manuscript is at Lambeth, No. 605. Its contents are embodied in ‘The Life and Times of Sir Peter Carew, Kt. (From the original manuscript) with a historical introduction and elucidatory notes,’ by John Maclean, F.S.A., London, 1857, 8vo.
The ‘Description’ of Exeter [No. 3 above], together with Nos. 6 and 9, was reprinted carelessly by Andrew Brice [q. v.] in 1765 from a MS. in the Guildhall, Exeter.
The following remain in manuscript: 12. ‘A Synopsis Chorographical, or an historical Record of the Province of Devon, in Latin called Damnonia.’ There is a copy of this in Harl. MS. 5827 entitled ‘A Discourse of Devonshire and Cornwall, with Blazon of Arms.’ On the author's death the work was put into the hands of Judge Doddridge to prepare it for publication, but it has never been printed (for description, see Journal Brit. Archæol. Soc. 1862, xviii. 134–45). Prince had seen a copy in the possession of John Eastchurch of Wood, with manuscript remarks by Doddridge. 13. ‘An Abstracte of all the Orders and Ordynances extant, made, enacted, and ordayned, by the Maiors and Comon Counsell of the Citie of Excester for the tyme beinge, for the good government of the saide Citie and Comonwelthe of the same.’ Manuscript belonging to the corporation of Exeter. 14. Two thick manuscript folio volumes, also in the possession of the corporation of Exeter, containing a vast amount of local antiquarian information, chiefly relating to the haven of Exe and the city of Exeter. 15. ‘Journal of the Proceedings of the Irish Parliament, anno 1568.’ Manuscript mentioned by Bishop Tanner
