Robert Hooke: 17th-century English polymath and experimentalist

Robert Hooke was born on 18 July 1635 in the seaside town of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. He was the fourth and last child of the Reverend John Hooke († 1648) and Cecily Gyles († 1665). His father probably studied at the University of Oxford and was ordained there. About 1615 he entered the service of Sir John Oglander (1585-1655), governor of the Isle of Wight, to teach at Brading his son George. There John Hooke married Cecily Gyles in 1622 in his second marriage. Besides Robert he had three other children with her: Anne († 1661), Katherine (* 1628) and John (1630-1678). Around 1625 his father became curate of the Anglican All Saints Church in Freshwater.

What little is known about Hooke's childhood comes from his fragmentary autobiography, begun on 10 April 1697 and available to his first biographer, Richard Waller. In it, Hooke recalled a carefree childhood marred by occasional bouts of stomach trouble and headaches. He tinkered with mechanical toys, disassembled an old copper clock into its component parts, and reproduced the parts in wood. He also made a model of a sailing ship, barely a metre long and able to float, whose cannons were even said to be capable of firing. Hooke's talent for drawing was revealed during a visit by the miniature painter John Hoskins (c. 1590-1664/5).

Until November 1647, the English Civil War, which began in 1642, had little effect on the lives of the mostly royalist inhabitants of the Isle of Wight. On November 11, 1647, King Charles I escaped his guards in London and fled to the Island, arriving two days later. Surrender negotiations between the royalists and parliamentary representatives began soon after in Newport.

On September 23, 1648, Hooke's father drew up his will and appointed his friends Nicholas Hockley, Robert Urrey, and Cardell Goodman (c. 1608-1654) as his executors. Shortly after Charles's surrender on October 8, 1648, Hooke's father died. His funeral took place on 17 October 1648. He left his son Robert 40 pounds, his best chest, and all his books. To this was added £10 from the estate of Robert Hooke's grandmother Ann Giles.

At the age of 13, Robert Hooke came to London. How he got there is not known. Possibly he traveled in the company of Cardell Goodman or in that of the miniature painter John Hoskins. In London he was first a pupil of the painter Peter Lely for a short time. He is also said to have been taught by Samuel Cowper, a nephew of Hoskins. At the end of January 1649 Hooke was in the care of Richard Busby (1606-1695), in whose household he lived and who instructed him. Busby had been head (headmaster) of WestminsterSchool since 1638. During his time at Westminster, Hooke became fluent in Latin, acquired a good knowledge of Greek, and was able to pick up some Hebrew. He showed talent for mathematics and special skill as a draftsman. He also learned to use the lathe and play the organ.

In 1653 Hooke left Westminster School in London to continue his education at Christ Church in Oxford. Westminster School had a close relationship with Christ Church, and so he met some of his fellow students there again. Richard Lower had been studying there since 1649, and John Locke had enrolled a year earlier. At Oxford Hooke was at first the fellow (servitor) of a "Mr. Goodman" and was to play the organ as a choir pupil. Arranged by Busby, he lived in the household of Thomas Willis from 1654, assisting him in his chemical experiments at Beam Hall in Oxford's St John's Street. Willis was a member of a group of naturalists around the head (Warden) of Wadham College, John Wilkins. This group was committed to the experimental observation of nature as inspired by Francis Bacon in Novum Organum in 1620. This group included Jonathan Goddard, John Wallis, William Petty, Christopher Wren, and Seth Ward, among others. Wilkins had written Mathematical Magick in 1648, a widely acclaimed work on the principles of levers, pulleys, gears, and worms, in which he speculated about flying automata and a possible trip to the moon. During this period Hooke constructed a flying machine and improved the accuracy of pendulum clocks for Seth Ward, who used them in his astronomical observations.

As early as 1653, Wilkins had invited Robert Boyle to Oxford, who was making no progress with his chemical experiments in Dublin. Boyle finally settled in Oxford in the autumn of 1655, and from the following year Hooke was part of Boyle's household as an assistant. Boyle, inspired by Otto von Guericke's work, wanted to construct his own improved "air pump." With Hooke's significant participation, the difficult undertaking finally succeeded around 1659. Together, Boyle and Hooke conducted investigations into the properties of air. The results of these experiments, completed in December 1659, were published by Boyle in The Spring of the Air, published in 1660, in which he described 43 experiments on the construction and application of the new air pump, and in the preface of which he expressly acknowledged Hooke's merit.

On 31 July 1658 Hooke was matriculated at Oxford University. However, he did not acquire an academic degree during his time at Oxford. After 1659, the members of the Oxford group around Wilkins gradually moved to London.