Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hoole, Elijah
HOOLE, ELIJAH (1798–1872), orientalist, son of Holland Hoole, a shoemaker, of Manchester, was born there in 1798, and entered the grammar school 6 April 1809, leaving in 1813 to help in his father's business. After studying privately, he became a probationer for the Wesleyan ministry in 1818, and was chosen a missionary by the Wesleyan methodist missionary committee in November 1819. He arrived in Madras in September 1820, having lost his library and outfit by shipwreck on the way, and after short stays there and at Negapatam he settled at Bangalore in April 1821. He was recalled to Madras in March 1822, and was elected a member of the committee for revising the Tamil version of the Bible. During his stay in Southern India, Hoole published a number of translations into Tamil, including portions of the Bible, a book of hymns (Madras, 1825), tracts on methodism, and a life of Wesley. In 1828 he was forced by ill-health to leave India, and shortly after his return to Europe was appointed a superintendent of schools in Ireland. He removed to London in 1834, and became assistant-secretary, and from 1836 till his death one of the general secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He died on 17 June 1872. Hoole married, in 1835, Elizabeth, third daughter of Charles Chubb, the lock maker.
In addition to his Tamil translations, Hoole edited a number of missionary works, and wrote (1) an account of his experiences in Southern India, under the title, ‘A Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India from 1820–8,’ London, 1829; an enlarged edition, with the title, ‘Madras, Mysore, and the South of India,’ appeared in London in 1844. 2. ‘The Year-book of Missions,’ 1847. 3. ‘Oglethorpe and the Wesleys.’ He also contributed articles to the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society’ and ‘London Quarterly Review,’ and edited two books on missions by W. Lawry, 1850 and 1851.
[Hoole's Personal Narrative; Wesleyan Missionary Notices, 1872; T. F. Smith's Manchester School Reg. (Chetham Soc.), vol. iii. pt. i. p. 45.]