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John Hooker was, as far as we know, Thomas Hooker’s oldest son. From reading Thomas Hooker’s will, it would appear that he was worried or at least unsure about the boy who was only 16 when the father died. Apparently John had expressed a desire to return to England and perhaps no particular desire to become a minister, or at least not a puritan minister in New England.
He did return to England and to Oxford which was more traditional in its theology and possibly more liberal in its views of behaviour. It is possible that John married but there is no clear evidence of that. He was frustrated in his attempts to climb the church hierarchy and we have no evidence to suggest why this was so as he seemed to have been a popular man in the University circles
At the age of 53, John Hooker apparently committed suicide as his body was burried by his friends in the dead of the night. A suicide victim could not be burried in sacred grounds. It is possible that he was a homosexual and that the persecution of homosexuals became too much to bear. We will never know.
Edward Hooker writes of John:
4 John Hooker (Thomas), son of Rev. Thomas Hooker and Susannah Hooker, of Hartford, Colony of Conn. He was the first son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and undoubtedly the first son of the second marriage. He was probably born in or about 1626 but no record of his birth has ever been found. Most
probably he was born at Chelmsford, Essex, England, where his father was at that time lecturer, and where he probably married his second wife Susannah. John Hooker came with his father to New England, but there is little known of his early life in the New England Colony. He was instructed and fitted for college by his father, very probably assisted by Rev. Mr. Stone, and he returned to England to finish his education by a collegiate course when his father died and it is from his father’s will, made but a few hours before his death, that the most that is known of the son John is learned.
The will
expressly intimates that John was not at that time of age, yet it
also intimates that the question of marrying had been pre
sented to his father, which would seem to suggest that he could
not have been much under age. The will makes his receipt of
a part of the estate contingent upon his pursuing his studies to
completion and entering the ministry, which is strongly sugges
tive that a proposition that he should relinquish his studies and
his proposed entry into the minstry had been presented to his
father.
The will while making no objection to his seeking a
wife in England, expressly forbids him to “Marry and Tarry”
there, which also suggests that this plan of life had been pre
sented to his father, and from these suggestive items of the will,
we can weave a very plausible and a very probable story, yet
there is no positive evidence than this will to prove it.
It would seem most probable that Rev. Thomas Hooker
should desire his son to pursue his studies at Emanuel Col
Second Generation
lege Cambridge, the especial home of Puritanism, where he
himself had been educated, but there is no evidence in the will,
nor elsewhere so far as known, to indicate this preference, and
in due time John Hooker became a student at Oxford, a strong
Established Church precinct, and emphatically opposed to the
liberalism of Cambridge.
John Hooker completed his studies and entered the minis
try, taking orders in the Established Church of England, thus
obeying the letter but not the spirit of his father’s will, and in
like manner he avoided the injunction of his father forbidding
him to marry and tarry in England, by not marrying, though
he tarried there.
John Hooker became a curate at Mazeworth, Bucks, and
tradition says that he became very dissipated, yet his genial
good fellowship won for him a place in the hearts of the people
and probably shielded him from any disciplinary action on the
part of those above him.
When at last the aged vicar died there seems to have been
a reluctance on the part of the patron of the Church to promote
Mr. Hooker to the Vkarship. After some delay the Bishop col
lated John Hooker to the Vicarship, and here he remained until
his death, apparently maintaining his reputation as a jovial,
rollicking, sporting Parson. He died in 1684 and the record
of his death, though very simple, seems to suggest a weird
story of the end. He was found dead in his bed, and buried
by his friends privately at midnight, and this private midnight
burial seems to suggest a suicidal ending, and a secret burial
to avoid the severe inflictions which the penal laws of England
at that time prescribed for the bodies of suicides.
With the death of Mr. Hooker that branch of the family
came to an end, and only the son, Samuel Hooker, minister
at Farmington, Colony of Conn., remained to perpetuate the
name.
Buchinghamshire, England: