I heard him reade at Gresham College on the sixth chapter of Clavis Mathematica, an excellent lecture: quaere for his papers which the bishop of Sarum haz.
He was a temperate man and of strong constitution, but tooke his sicknesse of which he dyed by setting up often for astronomicall observations. He lyes buried in the church of St. Bennet Finke in London, neer the Old Exchange.
His deare friend the bishop (then of Exon) gave to the Royall Societie a very faire pendulum clock, dedicated to Mr. Rooke's memory, with this inscription[904]:—
Societati Regali ad scientiam naturalem
promovendam institutae
dono dedit
Reverendus in Christo pater, Sethus, episcopus
Exon, ejusdem societatis sodalis
in memoriam
Laurentii Rook
viri omni literarum genere instructissimi
in Collegio Greshamensi primum Astronomiae
deinde Geometriae professoris
dictaeque societatis nuper sodalis,
qui obiit Jun. 26, 1662.
Seth <Ward>, now lord bishop of Salisbury, hath all Mr. Rooke's papers: quod N.B.
[905]M.S.
Hic subtus sive dormit sive contemplatur
Qui jamdudum animo metitus est
Quicquid aut vita aut mors habet
V.C. Laurentius Rooke e Cantio oriundus
In Collegio Greshamensi
Astronomiae primo, dein Geometriae professor,
Utriusque ornamentum et spes maxima,
Quem altissima indoles, artesque omnifariae,
Mores pellucidi, et ad amussim probi,
Consuetudo facilis et accommoda,
Bonis doctisque omnibus fecere commendatissimum:
Vir totus teres et sui plenus
Cui virtus et pietas et summa ratio
Desideria metusque omnes sub pedibus dabant.
Ne se penitus saeculo subducere mortuus possit
Qui iniquissima modestia vixerat
Sethus Ward episcopus Exon
Sodalis et symmystae desideratissimi
Longas suavesque amicitias
Hoc saxo prosecutus est.
Obiit Junii XXVII, A.D. MDCLXII, aetat. XL.
M.S.
This inscription was never set up; made, I thinke, by Ralph Bathurst; quaere Mr. Abraham Hill.