Later Life
| “ | a verye ancient towne … and maye be equall with some cities for it is the cheffe emporium of that countrie and most inhabited with merchantes whose cheffest trade in tyme of peace was with Spayne … it is a clene and sweete towne, very well paved… | ” |
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—Hooker, on Barnstaple, in Synopsis Corographical, 261-262 |
Hooker continued to serve Exeter in his later years, becoming coroner in 1583 and recorder in 1590. He was also appointed as steward of Bradninch by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. By this time he was involved in the long task of organising and writing his historically-based description of his home county that he called Synopsis Corographical of the county of Devon. He probably started work on this before his friend Richard Carew began writing his similar Survey of Cornwall. In writing his Synopsis, Hooker was influenced by the style and structure of William Harrison's Description of England, which had been published in 1577 as part of the first edition of Holinshed's Chronicles.
Although Hooker revised Synopsis many times, he probably never completed it to his satisfaction. The work exists today as two almost identical manuscripts which were used as source material for many later topographical descriptions of the county: Thomas Westcote's Survey of Devon of 1630, and Tristram Risdon's Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon (c. 1632) are examples.
Read more about this topic: John Hooker (English Constitutionalist)
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