CRUDEN, ALEXANDER (1 701--17 io), author of the well known Biblical concordance (q.v.), was born at Aberdeen on May 31, 1701, and educated at Marischal college. After a term of con finement for insanity he removed to London, where he became a tutor, and afterwards opened a bookseller's shop in the Royal Ex change. In 1735, he obtained the unremunerative post of book seller to the queen, and then in 1737 he finished his concord ance. Cruden's piety and exceptional intellectual powers were marred by periods of insanity. After a brief confinement in a mad house at Bethnal Green, he published a pamphlet dedicated to Lord H. (probably Harrington, secretary of State) entitled The London Citizen exceedingly injured, or a British Inquisition Dis played, and dedicated an account of his trial to the king. About 174o he became a proof-reader, and several editions of Greek and Latin classics are said to have owed their accuracy to his care. He superintended the printing of one of Matthew Henry's commen taries, and in 175o published a small Compendium of the Holy Bible, and also a larger edition of the Concordance.
Adopting the title of "Alexander the Corrector," he assumed the office of correcting the morals of the nation, especially with regard to swearing and Sunday observance, and petitioned parlia ment for a formal appointment in this capacity. On being released from a third confinement for insanity, he published The Adven tures of Alexander the Corrector (1755). The Corrector's Earnest Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain (1756) was occasioned by the Lisbon earthquake. The Scripture Dictionary was printed in Aberdeen in two volumes shortly after his death. His biographer, Alexander Chalmers, says that a verbal index to Milton (edition of Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol, in 1769) was Cruden's. Cruden died in London on Nov. 1, 1770. The latest concordance to the Scriptures based on Cruden's work appeared in 1927.