author
Walter Farquhar Hook
1798–1875
A leading Victorian churchman, he helped reshape religious life in industrial Leeds and later served as Dean of Chichester. He was also a prolific writer whose books ranged from church reference works to a long history of the archbishops of Canterbury.
1 Audiobook
A church dictionary
by Walter Farquhar Hook
About the author
Born in London on March 13, 1798, Walter Farquhar Hook was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford, and became one of the best-known Anglican clergy of his time. He first served in Coventry, but his reputation was made in Leeds, where he was vicar from 1837 to 1859 during a period of rapid growth and social change.
In Leeds, Hook became known for energetic parish work and for expanding the church's presence in a fast-growing industrial city. He played a major part in the building of the present Leeds Parish Church, later known as Leeds Minster, and was widely associated with wider church and social improvements there. In 1859 he was appointed Dean of Chichester, a post he held until his death on October 20, 1875.
Hook was not only a church leader but also a substantial author. His works included reference books such as a church dictionary and a dictionary of ecclesiastical biography, and he spent many years writing his large-scale lives of the archbishops of Canterbury. That combination of practical ministry, public influence, and steady literary output helped make him an important figure in nineteenth-century English church life.