CRUDEN, Alexander (1701-1770), author of the well-known Concordance to the English Bible, was born at Aberdeen in 1701. He studied at Marischal College with the intention of entering the church, and took his Μ.A. degree after the usual curriculum of four years. He was prevented from fulfilling his purpose, however, by an attack of insanity, caused by a disappointment in love. After being for some time in confinement he partially recovered, and removed to London, where he employed himself as a private tutor and a corrector of the press. In 1732 he opened a bookseller’s shop near the Royal Exchange, but met with little success. His Concordance, a laborious, comprehensive, and accurate work, which has been of the utmost service to biblical students, was commenced in 1733. The first edition appeared in 1737, and was dedicated to Queen Caroline, who died a few days after the work was presented to her, leaving its author without the acknowledgment he had been led to expect. A second and revised edition appeared in 1761. In the interval between the publication of the two editions he was twice confined in a lunatic asylum, where he seems to have been treated with great cruelty. His chief delusion was that he had received a special divine commission to reform all manner of abuses, and he accordingly assumed the title of Alexander the Corrector. He was in the habit of carrying a sponge with which he effaced all inscriptions that seemed to him contrary to good morals, and in particular he showed his detestation of Wilkes by obliterating the number 45 (the offensive number of the North Briton) wherever he found it. Besides labouring constantly at the improvement of his Concordance, he prepared a number of other works, including a Brief Compendium of the Bible, a Scripture ...