CROOKS, a surname peculiarly Scottish. A gentleman of this name, a native of Scotland, Mr. Ramsay Crooks, latterly president of the American Fur Company, New York city, formed one of the celebrated expedition to the north-west coast of North America, in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, conducted under the auspices of Mr. John Jacob Astor, an enterprising merchant of New York, and of which Mr. Washington Irving has given an account in his Astoria. He had previously been a trader with the Indians of the south, and had business relations with Mr. Astor. Fuller and more correct details are contained in a work by M. Gabrielle Franchere of Montreal, one of those employed by Mr. Astor in founding his colony, a translation of which was published at New York in 1854. In it the name of Mr. Ramsay Crooks, as one of the most active of the adventurers, finds honourable mention. After enduring all sorts of fatigue, dangers, and heir-breadth escapes, he, as well as Messrs. R. M’Lelland and Robert Stuart, who were also engaged in the expedition, finally reached St. Louis and New York. Mr. Crooks was dead previous to Nov. 20, 1860. His son, also named Ramsay Crooks, was long a merchant of high standing in New York. For some details relative to the expedition above referred to, see life of Donald Mackenzie, post.