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.

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.

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] 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.

In 1762 he saved an ignorant seaman, Richard Potter, from the gallows, and in 1763 published a pamphlet recording the history of the case.

[1] Cruden published a pamphlet dedicated to Lord H. (probably Harrington, a Secretary of State) entitled The London Citizen exceedingly injured, or a British Inquisition Displayed.

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 his mental health was called into question and he was institutionalised.

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 in Bethnal Green, London.

[1] 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).

[1] 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.