his professional services. For many years he was an active member of the council of the society, and one of the chief promoters of Thomas Wright's ‘Biographia Britannica Literaria.’ In 1826, in conjunction with Lord Brougham, Dr. Birkbeck, George Grote, and others, he took part in the formation of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but in 1846, like many others, he disapproved of the publication of the society's ‘Biographical Dictionary’ (Gent. Mag. 1846, i. 511).
Tooke was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 12 March 1818. He was present at the first annual meeting of the Law Institution on 5 June 1827, and was mainly instrumental in obtaining a royal charter of incorporation for that society in January 1832. For some years he was the usual chairman of the meetings and dinners, and when Lord Brougham was meditating a measure for the establishment of local courts, he addressed to him a letter in defence of the profession of an attorney (ib. 1831, i. 74). From an earlier period he was a leading member of the Society of Arts; in 1814 he was the chairman of the committee of correspondence and editor of the ‘Transactions,’ and in 1862 he was elected president of the society. For services rendered to the Institution of Civil Engineers he was elected an honorary member of that corporation. From 1824 he was honorary secretary and from 1840 one of the three treasurers of the Royal Literary Fund Society.
At the general election of 1830, in conjunction with his friend Sir John William Lubbock [q. v.], Tooke unsuccessfully contested the close borough of Truro. After the passing of the Reform Bill, however, he on 15 Dec. 1832 was elected, and represented the borough until July 1837 (Courtney, Parliamentary Representation of Cornwall, 1889, p. 14). He was afterwards a candidate for Finsbury, but did not proceed to a poll, and on 30 June 1841 he unsuccessfully contested Reading. During the five sessions that he sat in parliament he supported reform, and gave his vote for measures for the promotion of education and for the abolition of slavery; but in later life his views became more conservative. He died at 12 Russell Square, London, on 20 Sept. 1863, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. In 1807 he married Amelia (d. 1848), youngest daughter of Samuel Shaen of Crix, Essex, and by her he left a son—Arthur William Tooke of Pinner, Middlesex—and two daughters.
Though assiduous in business, Tooke had an hereditary taste for literature. In 1804 he published anonymously, in two volumes, ‘The Poetical Works of C. Churchill, with Explanatory Notes and an Authentic Account of his Life’ (Annual Review, 1804, pp. 580–5; Critical Review, May 1804, pp. 17–23). This was republished in three volumes in 1844 under his own name in Pickering's ‘Aldine Poets’ (Gent. Mag. 1844, ii. 161–4), and was reprinted in two volumes in the same series in 1892. In 1855 he compiled ‘The Monarchy of France, its Rise, Progress, and Fall,’ 2 vols. 8vo (Gent. Mag. 1855, ii. 47). More recently he privately printed verses written by himself and some of his friends, under the title of ‘Verses edited by M.M.M.,’ 1860. These initials represented his family motto, ‘Militia Mea Multiplex.’ He also wrote a pamphlet, signed W. T., entitled ‘University of London: Statement of Facts as to Charter,’ 1835. He was a contributor to the ‘New Monthly Magazine,’ the ‘Annual Register,’ and the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’
His portrait was painted by J. White for the board-room of the governors and directors of the poor of the parishes of St. Andrew, Holborn, and St. George's, Bloomsbury, and engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner.
[Gent. Mag. 1863, ii. 656–9; Illustr. London News, October 1863, p. 373, with portrait; Men of the Time, 1862, p. 753.]
TOOKER, or TUCKER, WILLIAM (1558?–1621), divine, born at Exeter in
1557 or 1558, was the third son of William
Tooker of that town by his wife Honora,
daughter of James Erisey of Erisey in
Cornwall (Westcote, Devonshire, 1845, p. 526). He was admitted to Winchester
College in 1572, and became a scholar at
New College, Oxford, in 1575, graduating
B.A. on 16 Oct. 1579 and M.A. on 1 June
1583, and proceeding B.D. and D.D. on
4 July 1594. In 1577 he was elected to a
perpetual fellowship, and in 1580 was appointed a canon of Exeter. In 1584 he was
presented to the rectory of Kilkhampton in
Cornwall, and in the following year resigned
his fellowship on being collated archdeacon
of Barnstaple on 24 April. In 1588 he was
appointed chaplain to the queen and rector
of West Dean in Wiltshire. In 1590 he
became rector of Clovelly in Devonshire,
but resigned the charge in 1601. In 1597 he
published 'Charisma sive Donum Sanationis'
(London, 4to), an historical vindication of
the power inherent in the English sovereign
of curing the king's evil. This work won
him especial regard from Elizabeth, whose
possession of the power was a proof of the
validity of her succession. Tooker was a
