John Hooker (English constitutionalist)

Portrait of John Hooker (c.1527–1601) of Exeter. British (English) School, 16th/17th century. Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
Arms of Hooker alias Vowell, of Exeter: Or, a fess vair between two lions passant guardant sable[1]

John Hooker (or "Hoker") alias John Vowell (c. 1527–1601) of Exeter in Devon, was an English historian, writer, solicitor, antiquary, and civic administrator. From 1555 to his death he was Chamberlain of Exeter. He was twice MP for Exeter in 1570/1 and 1586, and for Athenry in Ireland in 1569 and wrote an influential treatise on parliamentary procedure. He wrote an eye-witness account of the siege of Exeter during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. He spent several years in Ireland as legal adviser to Sir Peter Carew, and following Carew's death in 1575 wrote his biography. He was one of the editors of the second edition of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, published in 1587. His last, unpublished and probably uncompleted work was the first topographical description of the county of Devon. He founded a guild of Merchant Adventurers under a charter from Queen Mary.[2] He was the uncle of Richard Hooker, the influential Anglican theologian.[3]

  1. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.479
  2. ^ Hooker, Joseph Dalton, Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker O.M., G.C.S.I., 2001, p.7 [1]
  3. ^ Worth, R. N. (1895). A History of Devonshire. London: Elliot Stock. p. 40.