• Name: Tooke, William
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 22  November  1777
• Death Date: 23  September  1863
• Occupation: lawyer
• Occupation: promoter of arts and literature

The attribution of the diary's 'Tooke's' for the 1820s is based largely on the final entry, since the vast majority of those before are simply cases of Godwin calling on Tooke and therefore give us little information. But the last entry makes clear that he is closely linked to University College, which indeed Tooke was, having been involved in its establishment:
27.01.1832 'University, w. Whites, Thomson, Bostock, Romilly, Tooke, Coates and Taylor ' .
On several occasions Godwin calls on Tooke with Charles Clairmont and there is a suggested link with Brougham, who had played a major role in founding London University and was president of University College. It is therefore probable that Godwin was trying to get Charles a place.

There is one case of 'W Tooke' in the 1790s, but this is at Horne Tooke’s and it is probable that this is a rare use of the initial to describe Horne Tooke's benefactor William Tooke, no relation to the William Tooke of this entry. On 25 September 1802 Godwin notes the death of W Tooke and this clearly refers to Horne Tooke's benefactor. Thus, the two W Tooke entries in 1803 have been identified as the William Tooke of this entry.

From her letters, it seems that William Tooke was friend and correspondent to Mary Hays (see Correspondence) and that that Hays was also familiar with William's brother Thomas and their father William Tooke (1774-1820). Moreover, this trio of Tookes would account for entries to ‘Tookes’ (plural) as William Tooke (the benefactor) had no children and Horne Tooke’s children have different surnames and would have been referred to as such.

On this basis, the ‘Tookes’ and the ‘Tooke’ associated with Mary Hays’s circle are treated as this William also. What remains unexplained are the references to Mrs and Miss Tooke in 1799, 1800 and 1804 – since there is no evidence of a daughter in William Tooke the elder's family, Thomas Tooke married in 1802 and William Tooke the younger in 1807.

• DNB.
• The Correspondence (1779-1843) of Mary Hays, British Novelist, ed. by Marilyn L. Brooks (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) pp. 323, 331, 336, 342, 344-5.

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.