Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bullokar, John
BULLOKAR, JOHN (fl. 1622), lexicographer, was alive from about 1580 to about 1641, and was a doctor of physic, residing at Chichester in 1616, where he was attached in some way to his 'singular good ladie, the Ladie Jane, Vicountesse Mountague' (his English Expositor, Dedication). Bullokar makes no reference to William Bullokar, the phonetist [q. v.], who promised an 'Expositor' (that is, a dictionary) not many years before John Bullokar's was produced; though it is quite probable he was the 'chyld' for whose benefit the other, as he tells, translated certain passages of 'Cato.' John Bullokar was in London about the year 1600, seeing a dead crocodile that had been brought there (Cornhill Mag. No. 258, p. 724), beyond which there is nothing, except as to his books, but conjecture. He wrote his 'Espositor' in his youth, 'at the request of a worthy gentleman whose love prevailed much with him' (Dedication); in those 'yonger yeares' the compilation of it 'cost him some observation, reading, study, and charge' ('To the Courteous Reader, not paged); and then, having no 'leasure as much as to looke on' his 'little vocabulary' (ib.), he had to 'keep it restrained of libertie.' On 17 Oct. 1616, however, he gave it to the world, under the 'noble tuition' of the Viscountess Mountague, the title being 'An English Expositor, teaching the Interpretation of the hardest Words used in our Language, with sundry Explications, Dascriptions, and Discourses.' In the November of 1618 he published 'A True Description of the Passion of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, as it was acted by the blondie Jewes, and registered by the blessed Evangelists; in English Meetre,' this being a life of Christ turned into six-lined stanzas. In 1621 came a new issue of the 'Expositor;' and in 1641 one more, shortly after which it seems certain that John Bullokar died, for a fourth edition, which appeared in 1656, is stated to he 'newly revised, corrected, and, with the addition of above a thousand words, enlarged. By W. S.' In a fifth edition, published at Cambridge in 1676, under the editorship of 'A Lover of the Arts,' Bullokar's 'Dedication' and address 'to the Courteous Reader' are omitted. A sixth edition must have closely followed this, for in 1684, still at Cambridge, another was published 'now for the seventh time revised, and there was yet a further issue from London in 1710, revised by R. Browne, 'author of the "English School Reform'd." '
[Dedication to English Expositor; ib. To the Courteous Render, not paged; Cornhill Mag. No. 258, p. 724.]