Walter Farquhas Hook
Walter Farquhas Hook [1]
an eminent Anglican divine, son of Dr. James Hook (1771-1828), dean of Worcester, grandson of James Hook (1746-1827), organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and nephew of Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841), an eminent English author, was born in London, March 13, 1798. He graduated at Christchurch College, Oxford, in 1821, and was successively curate at Wappingham, Isle of Wight, and in Birmingham, and vicar of Trinity Church, Coventry, till 1837, when he was made vicar of Leeds. Here, during his incumbency of twenty-two years, 21 new churches, 32 parsonages, and more than 60 schools were erected in his parish, chiefly through his instrumentality. He was especially popular among the working classes. In 1859 he became dean of Chichester, and in 1862 a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was appointed chaplain in ordinary to George IV, in 1827, and retained' the office under William IV and Victoria, preaching on the accession of the latter his celebrated sermon on Hear the Church, of which more than 100,000 copies were sold. He died October 20, 1875. Dean Hook was eminently conservative in theology, and a High- Churchman. His publications are, Church Dictionary (7th ed. 1854, 8vo): — Eccles. Biography (1845-52, volumes 1-8, 12mo): — Sermons on the Miracles (1847-48, 2 volumes 8vo): — Sermons on Various Subjects (2d ed. 1844, 8vo): — Sermons before the University of Oxford (1847, 12mo): — The Rights of Presbyters Asserted (anonymous): — Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, from the Anglo-Saxon period to Juxon (Lond. 1860-77, 12 volumes, 8vo): — Disestablished Church in the United States (Lond. 1869, 8vo). Dr. Hook's wife, a model of a saintly and beautiful character, was the author (anon.) of Meditations for Every Day of the Year, and The Cross of Christ. She died in 1871. See Church of England Quar. Rev. April 1881, art. 10; Men of the Time (Lond. 1856); Rel. Revelation 4 th series, 12:502; Fraser's Magazine, 19:1; Life and Letters of W.F. Hook, D.D., FRS by his son-in-law, W.R.W. Stephens, prebendary of Chichester (Lond. 1880).
