HOOKER, Edward William, clergyman, born in Goshen, Connecticut, 24 November, 1794; died in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, 31 March, 1875. He was the direct descendant of Thomas Hooker and Jonathan Edwards. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1814, and at Andover theological seminary in 1817. In 1821 he became pastor of a Congregational church in Green's Farms, Connecticut, and after holding this charge eight years edited the "Journal of Humanity," at Andover, Massachusetts, one of the first temperance papers in the country, and was also general agent of the American temperance society. He was pastor of a Congregational church in Bennington, Vermont, from 1832 till 1844, when he became professor of sacred rhetoric and ecclesiastical history in East Windsor theological seminary. From 1856 till 1862 he was pastor of the Congregational church in Fair Haven, Vermont, after which he spent the remainder of his life in retirement. He received the degree of D. D. from Williams in 1840. Having studied sacred music from an early age, Dr. Hooker presented a report on the subject to the general convention of ministers in Vermont in 1840. This was attacked by a writer in Boston through the "New England Puritan," and led to a series of articles exposing the impositions of compilers of music, who had made alterations in the new editions of their music books, rendering the previous editions useless. This controversy attracted much attention at the time. Dr. Hooker possessed a musical library, and published essays and tracts on sacred music. He was the author of "A Plea for Sacred Music"; a "Memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. Huntington Smith" (1845): and "The Life of Thomas Hooker" (Boston, 1849).