HOOPER, George, an eminent English divine, was born at Grimley, Worcestershire, on the 18th of November 1640. Having been instructed in grammar and classical learning, first at St Paul's, and afterwards at Westminster School, where he was a king's scholar, he was thence elected, 1657, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degrees at the regular periods, and distinguished himself by his knowledge in philosophy, mathematics, Greek and Roman antiquities, and the oriental languages. In 1677 he was appointed almoner to the Princess of Orange, and went over to Holland, where he resided about a year, and then returned. In 1680 he is said to have been offered the divinity professorship at Oxford, which, however, was conferred on Dr Jane. In 1685 he attended the Duke of Monmouth in the Tower, and had much free conversation with that unfortunate nobleman, to whom, in his last moments, Hooper administered the consolations of religion. In 1691 he succeeded Dr Sharp in the deanery of Canterbury; in 1698 he was appointed preceptor to the Duke of Gloucester; and in 1701 he was chosen prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation. In May 1703 he was nominated to the bishopric of St Asaph; and in March following he was translated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, over which he presided during the long period of twenty-three years and a half. Bishop Hooper died at Berkley, Somersetshire, whither he had been accustomed occasionally to retire, on the 6th of September 1727, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. Besides some sermons, he published several works in his lifetime, and left a number of manuscripts, some of which he permitted to be printed. The following is a catalogue of both, viz. 1. The Church of England free from the imputation of Popery, 1682; 2. Discussion of the Controversy between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, concerning the Infallible Guide; 3. The Parson's case under the Land-tax, 1689; 4. A Discourse concerning Lent, 1694; 5. A Calculation of the credibility of Human Testimony, Phil. Trans. for October 1699; 6. New Danger of Presbytery, 1737; 7. Marks of a Defenceless Cause; 8. A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Lower House of Convocation from February 1700 to June 1701; 9. De Valentinianorum Haeresi conjectura, quibus illius Origo ex Ægyptiaca Theologia deducitur, 1711; 10. An Inquiry into the State of the Ancient Measures, 1721; 11. De Patriarchæ Jacobi Benedictione Conjecturæ. Among the manuscripts above mentioned, are a Latin sermon, and a Latin tract on Divorce. A beautiful edition of the works of Hooper was printed at Oxford, 1757, in folio, under the superintendence of Dr Hunt, professor of Hebrew. (A.)