Background
He was born in Ireland. His father, also called John Hooke, was a nonconformist Protestant minister. He married Elizabeth Lambert, daughter of imprisoned Parliamentary general John Lambert.
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John Hooke
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Hooke"s education included grammar school in Kilkenny College and university in Trinity College Dublin. In 1675 he moved to England to undertake legal studies at Gray"s Inn in London, and qualified as a barrister in 1681. The marriage brought useful connections within commercial circles and Hooke"s legal career flourished.
Having bought land in West New Jersey and considered emigrating to America during the reign of King James II, Hooke decided to remain in England after the Revolution of 1688 brought William of Orange to power.
Gaining favour with the new regime, he was promoted to serve as a judge in North Wales in 1689. He became the senior judge in the area in 1695, and added a position Chester to his other duties.
He became one of the founders of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1699 and remained involved with the operation of the SPCK for many years. Again he made influential friends and contacts in political, business and legal circles in London.
He was dogged by controversy and involved in complicated legal actions from 1707 until the end of his life.
Accused of accepting gifts contrary to the rules governing his position as a judge, he was investigated by a committee of the House of Commons. Hooke died in 1712 with neither controversy satisfactorily settled.
Politics
In a 1710 letter to Robert Harley, senior minister in the administration of Queen Anne, Hooke refused to declare himself either a Whig or a Tory in politics. This refusal to clearly identify with one or the other of the major parties may have complicated the later years of Hooke"s life.
