William Tooke (1777–1863)

William Tooke FRS (1777–1863) was an English lawyer, politician, and President of the Society of Arts.

He was the younger son of William Tooke the historian; Thomas Tooke was his elder brother. Born at St. Petersburg on 22 November 1777, he came to England in 1792, and was articled to William Devon, solicitor, in Gray's Inn, with whom he entered into partnership in 1798. Subsequently, he was for many years at 39 Bedford Row, in partnership with Charles Parker, and then in the firm of Tooke, Son, & Hallowes.

In 1825 Tooke took a prominent part in the formation of the St. Katharine's Docks, and was the London agent of George Barker, the solicitor of the London and Birmingham Railway.

He shared in the foundation of London University in Gower Street. He was one of its first council members (19 December 1823), and continued as treasurer until March 1841. He worked for the charter for the Royal Society of Literature on a pro bono. He was an active member of the council of the society, and one of the main promoters of Thomas Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria. In 1826, with Lord Brougham, George Birkbeck, George Grote, and others, he took part in the formation of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but in 1846 he was one of those who disapproved of the publication of the Society's Biographical Dictionary.

Tooke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 12 March 1818. He was present at the first annual meeting of the Law Institution on 5 June 1827, and was instrumental in obtaining a royal charter of incorporation for it in January 1832. From an earlier period he was a leading member of the Society of Arts; in 1814 he was the chairman of the committee of correspondence and editor of the Transactions, and in 1862 he was elected president of the society. For services to the Institution of Civil Engineers he was elected an honorary member. From 1824 he was honorary secretary and from 1840 one of the three treasurers of the Royal Literary Fund Society.

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