THE HOOKER ANCESTRY 7 
maternal grandfather, Dawson Turner, of Yarmouth, banker, 
botanist, and antiquarian, was especially interested in the cryp- 
togams, made collections, and pubhshed sumptuous volumes. 
The Hookers, who claimed hneal descent from John Hooker, 
alias Vowell, the historian, and uncle of Richard, the ' Judicious,' 
author of the ' Ecclesiastical PoKty,' 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, 
haihng from Pembroke, suggests a Welsh origin in Ap-Howell. 
The second in descent, Jago Vowell, marries AHce Hooker, 
daughter and heiress of Richard 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 ; Robert 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 exemplified 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 Enghshman to sail on the Pacific. Adventure 
also took John Hooker with Sir Peter Carew to L'eland, where 
he became a member of the Irish Parhament in 1568. 
But the world owes him a greater debt. He supphed the 
means for educating his nephew Richard, the ' Judicious ' 
Hooker. Next after the Chamberlain comes the Vicar of 
