By hooke or crooke.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist

Proverbes, Part 1, ch. 11 (1546)
    (Source)

The phrase most likely derives from English tenant rights to gather firewood "by hook or by crook" -- as much loose timber as could be pulled down from branches by a (shepherd's) crook, or cut with from underbrush by a (pruning) billhook. The phrase first appears in the 14th Century.