Samuel Crooke (1575 – 1649) was a seventeenth-century cleric of the Church of England and a noted preacher. During the English Civil War he was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause. He was born at Great Waldingfield in Suffolk, second son of Thomas Crooke, rector of the parish and later reader at Gray's Inn; Samuel seems to have been a family name on the mother's side. His father was a prominent member of the "godly elite", whose Calvinist views caused the Church authorities to regard him with some suspicion, although his position at Gray's Inn protected him from any serious penalty. Samuel clearly inherited his father's religious views. Two of his brothers achieved fame: Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet, as the founder of Baltimore, County Cork, and Helkiah Crooke as royal physici