THE HOOKEE ANCESTEY 7 



maternal grandfather, Dawson Turner, of Yarmouth, banker, 

 botanist, and antiquarian, was especially interested in the cryp- 

 togams, made collections, and published sumptuous volumes. 



The Hookers, who claimed lineal descent from John Hooker, 

 alias Vowell, the historian, and uncle of Eichard, the ' Judicious,' 

 author of the ' Ecclesiastical Polity,' were a Devonshire family 

 settled in Exeter, who dropped their original name of Vowell 

 in the sixteenth century. 



There is a very old parchment genealogical tree taken from 

 the Heralds' College in 1597, continued since and completed 

 from other sources, which traces the Hooker ancestry for 

 five centuries. The first name of the series. Seraph Vowell, 

 hailing from Pembroke, suggests a Welsh origin in Ap-Howell. 

 The second in descent, Jago Vowell, marries Alice Hooker, 

 daughter and heiress of Eichard Hooker of Hurst Castle, 

 Hampshire, whose family name is adopted with his own. 

 Hence the constant repetition in the genealogy of ' Vowell 

 alias Hooker.' 



Though offshoots of the Hookers, especially after the 

 Civil War, are found as successful traders at Crediton or as 

 far afield as London, where one became Lord Mayor, the Hooker 

 family is most closely associated with Exeter, where it is 

 still represented. Thus a John Hooker was M.P. for Exeter 

 in 1470 ; Eobert Hooker, youngest bom and sole survivor of 

 twenty brothers and sisters, in 1529, and his son, another John, 

 in 1571. This latter John was the first Chamberlain of Exeter, 

 and wrote a book on the antiquities of Exeter, still preserved 

 in the city archives. He exempHfied the active business 

 capacity of many of his name by founding the first ' Guild of 

 Merchant Adventurers ' under a charter from Queen Mary. 

 It was not long before the Devon Merchant Adventurers were 

 typified by his kinsman, John Oxenham, Drake's comrade, 

 and the first Englishman to sail on the Pacific. Adventure 

 also took John Hooker with Sir Peter Carew to Ireland, where 

 he became a member of the Irish Parliament in 1568. 



But the world owes him a greater debt. He suppHed the 

 means for educating his nephew Eichard, the ' Judicious ' 

 Hooker. Next after the Chamberlain comes the Vicar of 



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