Alexander Cruden wrote to Sloane in letter 4250 requesting his recommendation for his application to become bookseller to the Queen. Cruden (1699-1770), was a biblical scholar and bookseller. He began as a proof-corrector and bookseller at the Royal Exchange in London before becoming bookseller to the Queen.
He published a number of works including ‘Cruden’s Bible Concordance’, which was the most extensive index of the Bible to be produced, still in production to this day. Cruden also published a number of different pamphlets concerning a number of issues he was concerned with.
Throughout this he maintained an ad hoc position as a ‘Corrector’: Cruden saw it as his personal mission to safeguard the nation’s spelling and grammar, and through that, the nation’s moral health. In 1730 he was committed to a private madhouse in Bethnal Green after his mental deterioration, though he escaped after 9 weeks and published against the people who had incarcerated him. He returned to proof-correcting and lived a quiet life.
Reference:
Alexander Cruden to Hans Sloane, 1734-12-21, Sloane MS 4053, f. 358, British Library, London.
(Lionel Alexander Ritchie; Cruden, Alexander; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6841, accessed 18/08/17])
Alexander Cruden, Wikipedia, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cruden, accessed 19/08/17]
Dates: to
Occupation: Unknown
Relationship to Sloane: Virtual International Authority File: