I 
A Biographical’ Notice of Sam. Crooke, Rector of Wrington, A.D. 
1602-1649. By E. GREEN. 
(Read March 12th, 1873.) 
. Samuel Crooke was born on the 17th of January, 1574, at 
Great Waldingfield, in the county of Suffolk, of which place his 
father, Thomas Crook, D.D., was Rector.* He was educated at 
Merchant Taylor’s School, and then entered Cambridge as a 
scholar at Pembroke Hall. Here he was much esteemed for his 
great industry, his comely person, and agreeable society. He 
became skilled in music, and accurate in Greek, Hebrew and 
Arabic. He also spoke and well understood Italian, Spanish and 
French, and had read many works in those languages. These 
qualifications caused him to be elected almost unanimously a 
Fellow of Pembroke Hall, but the Master opposing, and giving 
his vote against him, he was disqualified. Being thus rejected at 
Pembroke he was afterwards admitted a first foundation Fellow 
of Emmanuel College, and was there considered one of its choicest 
ornaments. He was also appointed Rhetoric Reader and then 
Philosophy Reader in the Public Schools. Asa qualification for 
his Fellowship he took orders on the 24th Sept., 1601, and what 
was then considered a rare thing for the Fellow of a College to 
do, commenced preaching at Caxton, near Cambridge, and it 
is recorded that he preached twenty-eight sermons in eleven 
months. In Sept., 1602, he was presented by Sir Arthur Capell, 
of Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, to the Rectory of Wrington, 
and went at once to his new work, to “ manure and manage a 
most uncultivated spot,” and amongst “a people who had never 
before known a preaching minister.” In his parish, and the 
country round, he was the first who, “by preaching of the Gospel, 
brought religion into notice and credit” there. 
Soon after he was settled in his new home, he married “ one of 
his own tribe,” Juditha, the eldest daughter of Mr. Walsh, a 
minister in Suffolk, and a “ great and rare light in his time.” 
- * Athence Cantab. 
Vor. IIL, No. 1. 
