This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Helen Andrews. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: Unknown (1600s), United Kingdom
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Mary Tooke
Crooke, Mary (fl. 1657–92), printer and bookseller, was the daughter of Edmond Tooke , London haberdasher. She married John Crooke (d. 1669), king’s printer in Ireland. On his death, her brother Benjamin Tooke (d. 1716), a London bookseller who had previously been apprenticed to her husband (1657), was granted the patent of king’s printer in Ireland, which he held in trust for Mary and her sons, John, and Andrew (below), who were minors. In practice Mary became the king’s printer, and enjoyed the monopoly of printing, binding, and selling books in Ireland; she worked from Castle St. (1670–78), from King’s Printing House, Skinner Row (1678–83), and from Ormond Quay (1683–85), Dublin. She presented a silver cup to the Stationers’ Company of London (1677) and her apprentices were freed in London.
Her output was considerable and her standards low, but she maintained the business for her sons and resisted encroachment from rival printers: in 1671 she filed a petition to the lord lieutenant against Thomas Bladen, who was forbidden to print; in 1673, by order of the lord lieutenant in council, Bladen’s press was appropriated by the king’s printer. A further petition was taken out against Joseph Ray in 1680; her monopoly was presumably confirmed, though it was ignored by Ray.
In March 1671 Tooke and her son John were jointly made king’s printers of Ireland for their lives, and in August 1671 Tooke, by deed, declared his trusteeship of the office for Mary and his nephews. She brought John (1679) and Andrew (1680) into partnership, and by deed retained half of the profits for herself and her other children, and assigned a quarter of the profits to each of her sons, on the proviso that they attend to the business. In 1681 she transferred the Skinner Row printing house to her sons while she continued at Ormond Quay. In 1683 John died intestate and administration was granted to Mary. A dispute arose between Andrew and Mary: she dropped Andrew’s name from official documents and he ran his press in Skinner Row in rivalry. On 3 November 1684 Andrew filed two bills against Mary in the court of exchequer to negotiate for the patent rights of the king’s printer; in reply she referred to the deed of 1680 allowing her sons to share the profits on the condition that they attended to business, but complained they had neglected the business, wasted stock-in-trade, and that Andrew had set up his press in competition. An agreement was finally reached in 1685; Mary retired in that year and travelled to London to hasten the granting of the patent, which was duly granted in 1686 to Andrew and his partner Andrew Helsham (d. 1689), who became assigns of Tooke as king’s printers.
Mary and her husband John had four sons and three daughters. She made her will 23 June 1685 leaving 20s. to Andrew and to Banks, who may have helped Andrew in the printing house, £50 to William, and the remainder of her estate to her daughter Mary. Her second son, Andrew Crooke (c.1659–1732), printer and bookseller, was probably born in London. As assigns of Tooke as king’s printers, they printed government documents, proclamations, and William Penn’s Quaker’s elegy on the death of Charles (1686). Under James II Andrew lost his monopoly as king’s printer. Although the patent was confirmed in his own name in 1693, he presided over a period that saw the king’s printer’s monopoly of licensing stationers, and of printing, binding, and selling books, maintained in theory but broken in practice. In 1696 he was admitted to membership of the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist and presented a silver cup in 1697, though he never became a free brother. He probably surrendered his king’s printer’s patent rights to the guild, retaining only the right of official printing of acts, statutes, and proclamations. In 1695 he was summoned to the house of commons to explain his failure to print the session’s acts, and on occasions between 1697 and 1730 he was reprimanded by the house of lords for errors and for the poor quality of his printing and paper. He published ‘by authority’ the Dublin Intelligence (1690–93); almanacs, including A new almanac for 1705, the earliest known example of an ‘unquestionably Irish binding’ in calf with gilt edges and white endpapers; school books; and many Latin, German, and French works, becoming one of the principal stationers in Dublin.
He operated from Ormond Quay (1685–97), from Cork Hill or Blind Quay, near Copper Alley (1697–1709), and from Copper Alley (1710–32). John Dunton (1659–1732), a London bookseller, visited Dublin and commented on Crooke’s ‘extraordinary civility’, observing that ‘though his circumstances are not so great, yet his soul is as large, as if he were a prince . . . he is a great lover of printing, and has a great respect for all that are related to that noble mystery’ (Dublin Scuffle (1698), 392).
Andrew died 27 July 1732; his will was deposited in the Dublin prerogative court, but was destroyed during the civil war in 1922. He married Catherine Nowlan (d. c.1701); they buried seven of their children before 1700. Surviving children included a son and two daughters. He married secondly, a widow, Anne, who succeeded him as printer (though not as king’s printer) and bookseller in Dublin (1733–4).