, a learned English schoolmaster, was the second of five sons of
, a learned English schoolmaster, was the second of five sons of Benjamin Tooke, citizen and stationer of London, and born in 1673. He was educated at the Charterhouse-school, and in 1690 sent to Clare-hall in Cambridge, where he took both the degrees in arts, that of B. A. in 1693, and of M.A. in 1697. In 1695, he was chosen usher of the Charterhouse-school; and, in 1704, professor of geometry in Gresham college, in the room of Dr. Hooke; being recommended by a testimonial from the master, Dr. Burnet, and other officers of the Charterhouse. In Nov. following, he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1723, several thousand pounds were left him by his elder brother, Mr. Benjamin Tooke, a bookseller in Fleet-street; yet, notwithstanding this addition to his fortune, he still held his place of usher in the Charterhouse-school, and was preferred to the mastership of the school in 1728; and, the year after, married the widow of Dr. Henry Levett, physician to the Charterhouse. He then, as he was obliged by the statutes, resigned his professorship of Gresham, and from that time attended no other business but his school. This began to be too much for him, for he had some years before declined in his health, till at length he fell into a dropsy, which carried him off, Jan. 20, 1731, in his fifty-eighth year. He was buried in the Charter-house*chapel, in the middle of which is placed a white marble monument, in the form of a shield, against a pillar, with a Latin inscription upon it; to his memory. He had taken deacon’s orders, and sometimes preached, but devoted himself principally to the instruction of youth, for which he was no less fitted by his temper than learning.