Benjamin Tooke (1642?–1716; fl. 1669–1716)
Benjamin Tooke I, printer in Dublin, 1669–85; bookseller at the Anchor in Duck Lane, in London, 1669; bookseller at the Ship in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1670–.
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)
TOOKE (BENJAMIN) I, printer in Dublin, 1669–85 (?); bookseller in London (i) Anchor, Duck Lane, 1669; (2) Ship, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1670–; (3) Middle Temple Gate, Fleet Street. 1669–1716. According to Timperley, this celebrated bookseller was bom about 1642, and is supposed to have been the son of the Rev. Thomas Tuke, vicar of St. Olave's, Old Jewry; but the bookseller always spelt his name as Took or Tooke. He served his apprenticeship with John Crooke, and was admitted a freeman of the Company of Stationers in February 1665/6. He succeeded Crooke in 1669 as King's Printer in Dublin, and, like him, combined the office withibookselling in London. The last entry in the Term Catalogues of a book printed by him in Dublin was made in 1685. He began as a London bookseller by advertising two books, one in partnership with George Sawbridge, from the Anchor in Duck Lane, in 1669; in the next year he moved to St. Paul's Churchyard, where his business rapidly throve. He is best remembered as Dean Swift's bookseller, and through Swift's good offices he obtained several ofiices of profit, including that of Printer to the Queen in 1713. He also published for other leading men of letters in Ireland. In 1689 he was junior warden of the Company of Stationers, and was for some years Clerk of the Company and Treasurer from 1677 to 1702, when he resigned in favour of Joseph Collyer. He was one of the largest publishers of the time, and held shares in all the most important undertakings. He died in 1716, leaving a son Benjamin to carry on the business.
Notes & Queries "London Booksellers Series" (1931–2)
TOOKE, BENJAMIN. For some years before the opening of the century he was established at the Middle Temple Gate, Fleet Street, where he continued till his death in 1716. He was well-known as bookseller to Swift and Pope, as well as in the capacities of warden of the Stationers' Company, and Treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The younger Benjamin, his son (b. 1670 and admitted to the livery, March, 1695) succeeded to the business in 1716, though he had been a junior partner since 1703. He died in 1723, leaving a large fortune to his brother Andrew, the headmaster of Charterhouse School.
—Frederick T. Wood, 17 October 1931