William Tooker (or Tucker) (Exeter, 1557 or 1558 – 19 March 1621) was an English churchman and theological writer, who was archdeacon of Barnstaple and later dean of Lichfield.
In 1597 he published Charisma sive Donum Sanationis (London), a historical vindication of the power inherent in the English sovereign of curing the king's evil.
Tooker traced the healing power back to (the legendary) Lucius of Britain; but he rejected the contemporary beliefs about touch pieces as superstitions.
[1] In 1604 he published a treatise entitled Of the Fabrique of the Church and Churchmens Livings (London), dedicated to James I, whose chaplain he was, in which he attacked the tendency of puritanism towards ecclesiastical democracy, on the ground that it paved the way for spiritual anarchy.
Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of Duellum sive Singulare Certamen cum Martino Becano Jesuita (London, 1611), written against Martin Becanus in the allegiance oath controversy, in defence of the ecclesiastical authority of the English king, to which Becanus replied in Duellum Martini Becani Societatis Jesu Theologi cum Gulielmo Tooker de Primatu Regis Angliae, Mainz 1612.