Crooke, Andrew (c. 1605-1674), bookseller and publisher

Crooke served his apprenticeship to bookseller Roger Potts from1622 to 1629. He thereafter set up shop at ‘the sign of Green Dragon’, which sign, despite moving premises, he kept for the entirety of his career. Crooke slowly but surely climbed the ranks of the Stationers’ Company. He took the livery in 1638 and was elected to the Court of Assistants in 1653. Crooke served as both under-warden (1660-1661) and upper-warden (1663-1664) before completing two terms as Master of the Company (1665-1667). Outside the Company, Crooke was also the representative of Farringdon Within for the city of London’s common council (1656-1657, 1659-1663, 1667). Crooke is perhaps best remembered as Thomas Hobbes’s publisher. He entered Leviathan, Hobbe’s most famous and most controversial work, in the Stationers’ Register in 1651. Crooke though was not only Hobbe’s publisher, but his agent more widely. He was responsible for a large part of Hobbes’s correspondence, which was directed through Crooke’s shop. From as early as 1673, Crooke’s nephew William succeeded to this position as Hobbe’s man and thereafter managed the philosopher’s letters, both written and printed. Andrew Crooke died on 20 September 1674.

Assistant (1653-1674); Under-warden (1660-1661); Upper-warden (1663-1664); Master (1665-1667); Representative of Farringdon Within (1656-1657, 1659-1663, 1667)

William Crooke (father); Edmond Crooke (brother), bookseller; John Crooke (brother), bookseller; Susan Rancle (first wife); Elizabeth Needham (second wife); William Crooke (nephew), bookseller

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography