See Loekhart s Biographic Sketch (1852), and the Rev. R. H. D. Barliam s Life and Remains (3d ed., 1877).
HOOK, Walter Farquhar (1798–1875), son of the Rev. Dr James Hook, dean of Worcester, and nephew of the witty Theodore, was born in London, 13th March 1798. Educated at Tiverton and Winchester, he graduated at Oxford (Christ Church) in 1821, and after holding an incumbency in Coventry, 1829-37, and in Leeds, 1837-59, was nominated dean of Chichester by Lord Derby. He had received the degree of D.D. in 1837. His friendship towards the Tractarians exposed him to considerable per secution, but his simple manly character and zealous devotion to parochial work gained him the support of widely divergent classes. Throughout life he held steadily by sober high-church principles, and the earnest, elevated tone of his mind is exemplified in such sermons as " Hear the Church ! " which was preached before the court in 1837, and subsequently passed through many large edi tions. The vigorous practical turn of his Christianity is attested by the erection in the parish of Leeds, during his incumbency, of 21 new churches, 32 parsonages, and over 60 schools, in addition to the rebuilding of the parish church at a cost of .28,000. His literary works, which are numerous, attain the limit of their design in advancing Boms incidental plea or in contributing to the student s re sources. The principal are An Ecclesiastical Bioyraplty, containing the Lives of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines (8 vols., 1815-52), A Church Dictionary (8th ed., 1859), The Means of Rendering more Effectual the Education of the People (10th ed., 1851), The Cross of Christ (1873), The Church and its Ordinances (sermons, 4 vols., 1876), and Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (12 vols., 1860-76). He died 20th October 1875. A memorial church has been erected in his honour at Leeds; it is a 13th century Gothic structure, designed by Sir G. G. Scott (cost .25,000), and was consecrated 29th January 1830.
(See Life and Letters of Dean Hook by his son-in-law, AV. R. W. Stephens (2 vols., 1878), and Parish Sermons (1879).
HOOKE, Robert (1635-1703), an original and ingeni ous experimental philosopher, was bora at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, July 18, 1635. His father, who was minister of the parish, destined him for the church ; but his constitutional ill-health precluded study, and threw him instead on the resources afforded by his precocious mechani cal genius. From the workshop of Sir Peter Lely, where he was placed after his father s death in 1648, he was transferred to the house of Dr Busby, master of West minster School ; and there his education progressed with surprising rapidity both in its classical and mathematical branches. In 1653 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, as servitor; and ten years later he took his M.A. degree by special recommendation of Lord Clarendon, then chancellor of the university. After 1655 he was employed and patronized by the Hon. Robert Boyle, who turned his skill to account in the construction of his celebrated air-pump. Hooke s inventive faculty exercised itself, between 1657 and 1659, in devising thirty different methods of flying, and more profitably in regulating the movement of watches by the application of the balance spring. In 1675 a lively controversy arose between him and Huygens respecting their rival claims to this ingenious invention. The truth seems to be that the original idea belonged to Hookc, but that the coiled form of the spring, on which its practical utility depends, was due to Huygens. On the 12th of November 1662 Hooke was appointed curator of experi ments to the Royal Society, and filled the office with extra ordinary diligence and skill during the remainder of his life. In 1664 Sir John Cutler instituted for his benefit a mechanical lectureship of 50 a year, and in the following year he was nominated professor of geometry in Gresham College, where he subsequently resided. After the great fire of 1666 he constructed a model for the rebuilding of the city, which was highly approved, although the design of Wien was preferred. During the progress of the works, however, Hooke acted as surveyor, and accumulated in that lucrative employment a sum of several thousand pounds, discovered after his death in an old iron chest, which had evidently lain unopened for above thirty years. He fulfilled the duties of secretary to the Royal Society during five years after the death of Oldenburg in 1677, publishing in 1681-82 the papers read before that body under the title of Philosophical Collections. A protracted controversy with Hevelius, in which Hooke urged the advantages of tele scopic over plain sights, brought him little but discredit. His reasons were good ; but his offensive style of argument rendered them unpalatable and himself unpopular. Many circumstances concurred to embitter the latter years of his life. The death, in 1687, of his niece, Mrs Grace Hooke, who had lived with him for many years, caused him deep affliction ; a law suit with Sir John Cutler about his salary (decided, however, in his favour in 1696) occasioned him prolonged anxiety; and the repeated anticipation of his discoveries inspired him with a morbid jealousy. Marks of public respect were not indeed wanting to him. A degree of M.D. was conferred on him at Doctors Commons, December 7, 1691, and the Royal Society made him, in 1690, a grant to enable him to complete his philosophical inventions. While engaged on this task he died, worn out with disease and toil,"March 3, 1703, and was buried in St Helen s Church, Bishopsgate Street.
