Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/306

 and Explained by Short Questions and Answers,’ 1679. 17. ‘Æsop's Fables. English and Latin,’ 1700. 

HOOLE, ELIJAH (1798–1872), orientalist, son of Holland Hoole, a shoemaker, of Manchester, was born there in 1798, and entered the grammar school 6 April 1809, leaving in 1813 to help in his father's business. After studying privately, he became a probationer for the Wesleyan ministry in 1818, and was chosen a missionary by the Wesleyan methodist missionary committee in November 1819. He arrived in Madras in September 1820, having lost his library and outfit by shipwreck on the way, and after short stays there and at Negapatam he settled at Bangalore in April 1821. He was recalled to Madras in March 1822, and was elected a member of the committee for revising the Tamil version of the Bible. During his stay in Southern India, Hoole published a number of translations into Tamil, including portions of the Bible, a book of hymns (Madras, 1825), tracts on methodism, and a life of Wesley. In 1828 he was forced by ill-health to leave India, and shortly after his return to Europe was appointed a superintendent of schools in Ireland. He removed to London in 1834, and became assistant-secretary, and from 1836 till his death one of the general secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He died on 17 June 1872. Hoole married, in 1835, Elizabeth, third daughter of Charles Chubb, the lock maker.

In addition to his Tamil translations, Hoole edited a number of missionary works, and wrote (1) an account of his experiences in Southern India, under the title, ‘A Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India from 1820–8,’ London, 1829; an enlarged edition, with the title, ‘Madras, Mysore, and the South of India,’ appeared in London in 1844. 2. ‘The Year-book of Missions,’ 1847. 3. ‘Oglethorpe and the Wesleys.’ He also contributed articles to the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society’ and ‘London Quarterly Review,’ and edited two books on missions by W. Lawry, 1850 and 1851.



HOOLE, JOHN (1727–1803), translator, son of Samuel Hoole, a watchmaker and inventive mechanician, by Sarah, daughter of James Drury, clockmaker was born in Moorfields, London, in December 1727. He was ‘regularly’ educated (as Johnson put it) in Grub Street, under an uncle known as the ‘metaphysical tailor,’ whom Johnson used to meet at a club with Psalmanazar (, ed. Hill, iv. 187). He afterwards learnt Latin, French, and a little Greek in a school at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, kept by James Bennet, editor of Ascham's English works. His nearsightedness disqualified him for his father's trade, and a place was obtained for him in the accomptant's office of the East India Company. He often attended Covent Garden Theatre, to which his father was machinist; but, at his father's desire, repressed an ambition to become an actor. He once, however, acted the ghost in ‘Hamlet.’ He then spent his leisure in studying Italian in order to read ‘Ariosto,’ having been fascinated when a boy (probably at Bennet's) by Sir John Harington's translation.

In 1757 he married Susannah Smith of Bishop Stortford, known as ‘the handsome quaker,’ and through her became acquainted with John Scott of Amwell [q. v.], whose life he wrote in 1785. He had to eke out a small income by extra working as a clerk and translating documents relating to the French operations in India during the seven years' war. On his promotion to the office of auditor of Indian accompts, he became more independent, and was, it is said, encouraged by the head of the office, a Mr. Oldmixon, also an Italian scholar, to write his tragedy ‘Cyrus.’ It was written in ‘rural retirement’ in a house at Wandsworth, which he found so pleasant that he remained there for some years, going to the India House by water. A fracture of the kneecap in 1770, the consequences of which were cured by two subsequent fractures, is almost the only personal incident recorded of him. A ‘State of East Indian Affairs,’ drawn up under his inspection, was printed in 1772.

On Oldmixon's death he became principal auditor at the India House, and resigned his post about the end of 1785. In April 1786 he retired with his wife and son, the Rev. Samuel Hoole, to the parsonage at Abinger, Surrey. He afterwards lived at Tenterden, Kent, with his aged mother and two sisters. He died when on a visit to Dorking 2 Aug. 1803. Hoole's writings [see below] brought him the acquaintance of literary persons, and in 1761 he was introduced by Hawkesworth to Johnson. In 1763 Johnson wrote a dedication to the queen of Hoole's ‘Tasso,’ in 1774 corrected Hoole's tragedy ‘Cleonice,’ and in 1781 applied to Warren Hastings to patronise Hoole's ‘Ariosto.’ Boswell records several meetings at the house of Hoole, who