Berkshire, on 19 July 1763 (Gent. Mag. xxxiii. 362), and was buried in Hedsor churchyard, where a tablet, with a Latin inscription, to his memory was put up at the expense of his friend, Frederick, lord Boston, in 1801 (Lysons, Buckinghamshire, p. 578).
He left two sons, Thomas Hooke, rector of Birkby and vicar of Leek, Yorkshire (d. 1791); and Luke Joseph Hooke [q. v.] His daughter, Jane Mary Hooke, died on 28 April 1793, and was buried in Hedsor churchyard.
Bishop Warburton describes Hooke as ‘a mystic and quietist, and a warm disciple of Fénelon.’ Dr. Johnson observes that he ‘was a virtuous man, as his history shows.’ Pope suggested that Hooke and Middleton were the only two contemporary prose-writers whose works were worth consulting by an English lexicographer.
Hooke's ‘Roman History, from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth’ (4 vols., London, 1738–1771, 4to), suggested itself to him while he was preparing for his private use an index to the English translation of Catrou and Rouille's ‘Roman History.’ The first volume was dedicated to Pope, and introduced by ‘Remarks on the History of the Seven Roman Kings, occasioned by Sir Isaac Newton's Objections to the supposed 244 years of the Royal State of Rome.’ The second volume is dedicated to Hugh Hume, earl of Marchmont [q. v.], and to it are annexed the Capitoline marbles, or consular calendars, discovered at Rome during the pontificate of Paul III in 1545. The third volume was printed under Hooke's inspection, but was not published until 1764, after his death. The fourth volume was published in 1771—it is believed by Dr. Gilbert Stuart. The whole work has been frequently reprinted; the latest edition, in 6 vols. 8vo, appeared in 1830. Hooke leaned rather to the democratic than to the aristocratic or senatorial party in his history. The work long held a high place in historical literature. Hooke's works, not already mentioned, are:
- ‘Travels of Cyrus, with a Discourse on Mythology,’ London, 1739, 12mo, translated by Hooke in twenty days while at Bath from the French of Sir Andrew Michael Ramsay, and generally mistaken for an original work (Spence).
- ‘Observations on—I. The Answer of M. l'Abbé de Vertot to the late Earl Stanhope's Inquiry concerning the Senate of Ancient Rome, dated December 1719. II. A Dissertation upon the Constitution of the Roman Senate, by a Gentleman; published in 1743. III. A Treatise on the Roman Senate, by Dr. C. Middleton; published in 1747. IV. An Essay on the Roman Senate, by Dr. T. Chapman; published in 1750,’ London, 1758, 4to, dedicated to Speaker Onslow. This work was answered by Edward Spelman in an anonymous pamphlet entitled ‘A Short Review on Mr. Hooke's Observations,’ 1758. William Bowyer, the learned printer, published ‘An Apology for some of Mr. Hooke's Observations concerning the Roman Senate,’ London, 1758.
- ‘Six Letters to a Lady of Quality … upon the subject of Religious Peace and the Foundations of it,’ first printed in ‘The Contrast; or an Antidote against the pernicious Principles disseminated in the Letters of the late Earl of Chesterfield,’ 2 vols., London, 1791, and issued separately in 1816. The manuscript was given by Hooke to the widow of George Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne, and was by her presented to the Rev. Sir Adam Gordon, bart., the editor of ‘The Contrast.’
Hooke revised Thomas Townsend's translation of Ribadeneyra's ‘History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards,’ London, 1753, 8vo.
Hooke's portrait, painted by Bartholomew Dandridge, is in the National Portrait Gallery.
[Boswell's Johnson; Spence's Anecdotes; Courthope's Life of Pope, pp. 349, 488; Georgian Era, iii. 529; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 1105; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 606; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 258, 375, 423; Ruffhead's Life of Pope; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
HOOKE, ROBERT (1635–1703), experimental philosopher, was born on 18 July 1635 at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, his father, the Rev. John Hooke, being minister of the parish. Although of a sickly constitution, he was sprightly and quick-witted; but headaches precluded study, and the design of educating him for the church was abandoned. Left to himself, he sought diversion in constructing mechanical toys, among others a wooden clock ‘that would go,’ and a model of a ship ‘with a contrivance to make it fire off some small guns, as it was sailing across a haven of a pretty breadth.’ His father died in October 1648, leaving him 100l., with which he went to London, and became for a short time a pupil of Sir Peter Lely. He then entered Westminster School, and lived in the house of Dr. Busby [q. v.] Here he acquired Latin and Greek, with a smattering of Hebrew, and other oriental languages, and astonished his teachers by mastering the six books of Euclid in one week. It is added that he did besides, ‘of his own accord, learn to play twenty lessons on the organ, and invented thirty several ways of flying.’
In 1653 he entered Christ Church Oxford,
