Alexander Cruden

Alexander Cruden (31 May 1699 1 November 1770) was the Scottish author of an early Bible concordance, a proofreader and publisher, and self-styled Corrector of the nation's morals.

Early life and career

Alexander Cruden was born in Aberdeen in Scotland (baptised on 8 June 1699, St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen, according to recent research) and was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, and became an excellent Latin, 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 of confinement he recovered and removed to London. In 1722 he had an engagement as private tutor to the son of a country squire living at Eton Hall, Southgate, and also held a similar post at Ware.

In 1729 he was employed by the 10th Earl of Derby as a reader and secretary, but was discharged on the 7th of July for his ignorance of French pronunciation. He then lodged in a house in Soho 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 to Knowsley Hall in Lancashire, the earl would not see him.

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 to Queen Caroline (wife of George II); but she died some days later without rewarding Cruden, who had to go into debt to finance the printing. The second edition of the Concordance was dedicated to King 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.

Corrector

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 the Royal Exchange. In April 1735 he obtained the title of bookseller to the Queen by recommendation of the Lord Mayor and most of the Whig aldermen. The post was an unremunerative sinecure. 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. he paid unwelcome addresses to a widow which resulted in an enforced stay in Matthew Wright's Private Madhouse in Bethnal Green, London.

In September 1753, through being involved in a street brawl, he was confined in an asylum in Chelsea 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.

In April 1755 he printed a letter to The Speaker and other Members of the House of Commons, and about the same time an Address to the King and Parliament. Also in 1755 he paid unwelcome addresses to the daughter of Sir Thomas Abney, of Newington (1640–1722).

Cruden was never married.

Death

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 a bursary at Aberdeen, which preserves his name on the list of benefactors of the university.