Abraham Hooke was made a Warden of the Society of Merchant Ventures of Bristol in 1702, and retained the position in 1703, the year of his first slave trade.
He was elected by the city along with John Knight as Burgess who represented them in Parliament in 1661, though Hooke requested Lord Ossory be placed in his stead.
Upon his death in 1677, he donated 680 British Pounds to St. Stephen Parish, where 8 shillings in bread a week was to be distributed at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital.
The Gambia was one of the most popular places for merchants like Hooke to acquire their human cargo because of its geographical locale and proximity to Bristol and the New World.
Shorter distances traveled aboard these sailing vessels meant fewer deaths among the slaves during the middle passage.
Hooke's merchant ships dropped off slaves to feed the islands demand for labor, sugar being plantation owner's main cash crop.
There, there is another hiatus, ending in 1736 when the Betty Snow brought 400 slaves (the largest haul in a single voyage funded by Hooke) to be sold in Virginia.