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Alexander Cruden (31 May 1699 – 1 November 1770) was the Scottish author of an earlyBible concordance, a proofreader and publisher, and self-styled Corrector of the nation's morals.
Alexander Cruden was born inAberdeen in Scotland (baptised on 8 June 1699, St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen, according to recent research) and was educated atAberdeen Grammar School andMarischal College,University of Aberdeen, and became an excellentLatin,Greek and Biblical scholar.
He took the degree of Master of Arts, but soon after began to show signs of insanity, owing to a disappointment in love. After a term ofconfinement he recovered and removed to London. In 1722 he had an engagement as privatetutor to the son of a country squire living at Eton Hall, Southgate, and also held a similar post atWare.[1]
In 1729 he was employed by the10th Earl of Derby as a reader andsecretary, but was discharged on the 7th of July for his ignorance ofFrench pronunciation. He then lodged in a house inSoho frequented exclusively by Frenchmen, and took lessons in the language in the hope of getting back his post with the earl, but when he went toKnowsley Hall inLancashire, the earl would not see him.[1]
Cruden's Bible Concordance became well-known, and further editions were published after his death. It has not been out of print since 1737 and is still encountered today on the shelves of priests and biblical scholars.
There were some primitive concordances before Cruden; however, they were unsystematic, popular aids rather than scholarly tools. Cruden worked alone and produced the most consistent and complete concordance until the introduction of computerised indexing. As well as compiling occurrences, he also invented a new method of presentation, which showed the surrounding sentence rather than just the verse reference. It provided the literary context and so made the concordance significantly easier to handle for false positives.
Cruden presented the first edition of his work on 3 November 1737 toQueen Caroline (wife ofGeorge II); but she died some days later without rewarding Cruden, who had to go into debt to finance the printing. The second edition of theConcordance was dedicated toKing George III and presented to him in person on 21 December 1761; the King awarded Cruden £100 for his efforts. The third edition was published in 1769. After the slow success of the first edition, the second and third made Cruden considerable profit.
As well as producing the concordance, Cruden worked as a proofreader and bookseller. Several editions of Greek and Latin classics are said to have owed their accuracy to his care. He opened a booksellers shop in theRoyal Exchange. In April 1735 he obtained the title of bookseller to the Queen by recommendation of theLord Mayor and most of theWhigaldermen. The post was an unremunerativesinecure. After failing to obtain the honour of knighthood, he was nominated as Parliamentary candidate for the City of London in 1754, but he decided to withdraw.[1] At some point after this, Cruden adopted the title ofCorrector. Cruden saw it as his personal mission to safeguard the nation's spelling and grammar, and through that, the nation'smoral health. He was particularly concerned with misspelt signs, graffiti, swearing and the keeping of theSabbath,[citation needed] and was in the habit of carrying a sponge, with which he effaced all inscriptions and signs which he thought incorrect or contrary to good morals.[1]
He was treated with the respect due to his learning by officials and residents in both (Oxford and Cambridge) universities, but experienced some boisterous fooling at the hands of the undergraduates. At Cambridge he was knighted with mock ceremonies. There he appointed deputy correctors to represent him in the university. He also visitedEton,Windsor,Tonbridge, andWestminster schools, where he appointed four boys to be his deputies.An Admonition to Cambridge is preserved among letters from J. Neville of Emmanuel to Dr. Cos Macro, in theBritish Museum.[1]
Against the radicalJohn Wilkes, whom he hated, he wrote a small pamphlet, and used to delete with his sponge the number 45 wherever he found it, this being the offensive symbol of Wilkes.[1]
The Correctors Earnest Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, published in 1756, was occasioned by theearthquake at Lisbon. In 1762 he saved an ignorant seaman, Richard Potter, from the gallows, and in 1763 published a pamphlet recording the history of the case. In 1769 he lectured in Aberdeen as Corrector, and distributed copies of the fourth commandment and various religious tracts. The wit that made his eccentricities palatable is illustrated by the story of how he gave to a conceited young minister whose appearance displeased himA Mother's Catechism dedicated to the young and ignorant.[1]
Cruden published a pamphlet dedicated to Lord H. (probably Harrington, a Secretary of State) entitledThe London Citizen exceedingly injured, or a British Inquisition Displayed. He also published an account of his legal problems, dedicated to the King.[1]
He superintended the printing of one ofMatthew Henry'sCommentaries, and in 1750 printed a smallCompendium of the Holy Bible (an abstract of the contents of each chapter). In 1761 Cruden compiled "A Complete Concordance to the Apocrypha", generally known asCruden's Concordance.The Scripture Dictionary, compiled during Cruden's later years, was printed in Aberdeen in two volumes shortly after his death in 1770.[1]
After his University education, Cruden was set to enter the church until hismental health was called into question and he wasinstitutionalised. This was the first of several stays in mental hospitals throughout his life.
Cruden's frequent institutionalisation is a matter of academic debate. Traditionally, Cruden's apparent madness has been interpreted as the other side of his focused brilliance. However Julia Keay argued that he was not mad, but he was initially put away to silence his criticisms of incestuous marriages among the nobility, and later by women who rejected his unwanted affections;[2] he paid unwelcome addresses to a widow which resulted in an enforced stay in Matthew Wright's Private Madhouse inBethnal Green, London.[1]
In September 1753, through being involved in a street brawl, he was confined in an asylum inChelsea for seventeen days at the insistence of his sister (Mrs. Isobella Wild of Middle Green Langley). He brought an unsuccessful action against his friends, and seriously proposed that they should go into confinement as an atonement.[1]
In April 1755 he printed a letter to The Speaker and other Members of theHouse of Commons, and about the same time anAddress to the King andParliament. Also in 1755 he paid unwelcome addresses to the daughter of SirThomas Abney, of Newington (1640–1722).[1]
Cruden was never married.
Cruden died suddenly while praying in his lodgings in Camden Passage,Islington, on 1 November 1770. He was buried in the ground of a Protestant dissenting congregation in Dead Man's Place,Southwark. He bequeathed a portion of his savings for abursary at Aberdeen, which preserves his name on the list of benefactors of the university.[1]
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Macfadyen, Dugald (1911). "Cruden, Alexander". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 522.When, in 1739, he obsessively stalked ladies above his station, informing them that God had chosen each of them for his spouse, he was imprisoned in a madhouse; years later, in 1753, he was once again confined in a mental institution after getting into a fight with a group of drunken youths who were swearing and blaspheming in the London streets.
