Samuel Crooke

Samuel Crooke (1575 – 1649) was a seventeenth-century cleric of the Church of England and a noted preacher. During the English Civil War he was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause.

He was born at Great Waldingfield in Suffolk, second son of Thomas Crooke, rector of the parish and later reader at Gray's Inn; Samuel seems to have been a family name on his mother's side. His father was a prominent member of the "godly elite", whose Calvinist views caused the Church authorities to regard him with some suspicion, although his position at Gray's Inn protected him from any serious harm. Samuel clearly inherited his father's religious views. Two of his brothers achieved fame: Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet, as founder of Baltimore, County Cork, and Helkiah Crooke as royal physician and author of one of the first textbooks on anatomy. Samuel's brother-in-law, Stephen Egerton, was another leading Puritan preacher.

Samuel went to the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood; he entered the University of Cambridge as a scholar of Pembroke Hall, and was elected a fellow, but the election was disallowed. Soon afterwards he became a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was appointed reader in the public schools, and in accordance with college statutes took holy orders in 1601. He was a fine linguist, who could speak French, Italian and Spanish and read Hebrew and Arabic.

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