[Britten and Boulger's Biographical Index of Botanists, Journal of Botany, 1889, p. 116; Journal of Botany, 1865, pp. 326–8, with bibliography, Proc. Linn. Soc. 1865–6, vol. lxvi.; Proc. Royal Soc. xv. 1867, pp. xxv–xxx; Gardeners' Chronicle, 1865, pp. 793, 818; Darwin's Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, iii. 39; information from Sir J. D. Hooker.]
HOOKES, NICHOLAS (1628–1712), author of ‘Amanda,’ a Londoner by birth, was a king's scholar at Westminster School (Welch, Alumni Westmonast. p. 132). He was elected to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1649, and took the degree of B.A. in 1653. Dryden was his contemporary at Westminster, and followed him to Cambridge in 1650. In 1653 Hookes published a series of poems entitled ‘Amanda, a Sacrifice to an unknown Goddesse, or a Free-will offering of a Lovinge Heart to a Sweet-Heart,’ dedicated to the Hon. Edward Montagu, son of Lord Montagu of Boughton. The poems were written, he tells us in his preface, in praise of an entirely imaginary person. In the same year he also published ‘Miscellanea Poetica’ (usually bound up with the ‘Amanda’), among which may be noticed a poem addressed to the famous Dr. Busby and a dialogue in Latin elegiacs, in which ‘Scholam Westmonasteriensem alloquuntur vicissim Cantabrigiæ et Oxoniæ genii.’ Hookes died 7 Nov. 1712, and was buried in Lambeth Church on the south side of the north aisle. An elaborate inscription in Latin describes him as ‘virum qui summam dubiis probitatem sincerâ in Deum pietate, spectatâ in utrumque Carolum fide, eximiâ in omnes charitate, moribus suavissimis et limatissimo ingenio, omnibus elegantioris literaturæ ornamentis exculto, mire adornavit.’ The monument is stated to have been erected by ‘Johannes Hookes, superstes nepos.’ Hookes's wife, Elizabeth, who died 29 Nov. 1691, was, like his father, sister, and many children, buried in the same grave.
Hookes's poems have little merit, although some of his humorous pieces are curiously illustrative of manners, and from many passages it can be seen that the author was a close student of Shakespeare, whose phraseology he frequently borrows to the letter. Campbell, in his ‘Specimens of the British Poets,’ has given a short extract from Hookes, whom he erroneously calls Hook.
[Cole MSS. xlv. 267; Addit. MSS. 5846, British Museum; Manning's Surrey, iii. 512; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vii. 36, 117, 129.]
HOOLE, CHARLES (1610–1667), educational writer, son of Charles Hoole of Wakefield, Yorkshire, was born there in 1610. He was educated at Wakefield free school, and at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. on 12 June 1634 and M.A. on 7 July 1636 (Wood, Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 465, 489). He took holy orders about 1632, and was, through the influence of his kinsman Dr. Robert Sanderson, appointed master of the free school of Rotherham in Yorkshire. He became rector of Great Ponton, Lincolnshire, in 1642, and was sequestrated by the parliament. He thereupon came to London. In the metropolis he made himself a name as a teacher. He taught at private schools, in a house near Maidenhead Court in Aldersgate Street, and in Tokenhouse Gardens in Lothbury, where, in Wood's quaint phrase, ‘the generality of the youth were instructed to a miracle.’ At the Restoration, Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, made him his chaplain and gave him a prebendal stall in his cathedral. On 10 Dec. 1660 he became rector of Stock, Essex, which he held till his death there on 7 March 1666–7. He was buried in the chancel of his parish church.
Hoole wrote many popular educational works, some of which were published after his death. Their titles are: 1. ‘An Easy Entrance to the Latin Tongue, wherein are contained the Grounds of Grammar, a Vocabularie of Common Words, English and Latine,’ &c., 1649. 2. ‘Terminationes et Exempla Declinationum et Conjugationum in usum Grammaticastrorum,’ &c., 1650, frequently reprinted; revised edition by Sandon, 1828; another corrected edition, Dublin, 1857. 3. ‘Propria quæ Maribus, Quæ Genus and As in præsenti. Englished and explayned,’ 1650. 4. ‘Lily's Latine Grammar fitted for the use of Schools,’ 1653. 5. ‘Vocabularium parvum Anglo-Latinum. … A little Vocabulary,’ &c., 1657. 6. ‘M. Corderius's School Colloquies, English and Latine. Divided into several clauses, wherein the propriety of both languages is kept,’ 1657. 7. ‘L. Culmann's Sentences for Children … translated into English,’ 1658. 8. ‘J. A. Commenii, Orbis Sensualium pictus … translated as “The Visible World,”’ 1659. 9. ‘Pueriles Confabulatiunculæ. Children's Talk. English and Latin,’ 1659. 10. ‘Catonis disticha de Moribus,’ with ‘Dicta septem sapientum Græciæ,’ &c., 1659. 11. ‘Centuria Epistolarum. Anglo-Latinarum, ex Tritissimis Classicis Authoribus … A Century of Epistles,’ &c., 1660. 12. ‘New Discovery of the Old Art of Teaching School,’ 1660. 13. ‘Examinatio Grammaticæ Latinæ in usum Scholarum adornatæ,’ 1660. 14. An edition of the New Testament in Greek, 1664. 15. ‘P. Terentii Comœdiæ Sex Anglo-Latinæ,’ 1676. 16. ‘The Common Accidence Examined
