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National Maritime Museum

Hood, Samuel, Admiral, 1st Viscount Hood, (1724-1816)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0064 HOO

Held at: National Maritime Museum

Title: Hood, Samuel, Admiral, 1st Viscount Hood, (1724-1816)

Date(s): [1760-1815]

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 4ft; 122cm

Name of creator(s): Hood | Samuel | 1724-1816 | 1st Viscount Hood | Admiral

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Samuel Hood, elder brother of Viscount Bridport (q.v.) entered the Navy in 1741 and was made a lieutenant in 1746. His first command was in the Mediterranean in 1754. In 1757 he was at the blockade of Brest and was successful in a noteworthy single-ship action. Between 1760 and 1763 he served in the Mediterranean. He was employed during the peace and in 1767 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, North America, in the ROMNEY. From 1771 to 1776 he commanded the ROYAL WILLIAM, guardship at Portsmouth, and in 1778 was appointed Resident Commissioner at Portsmouth Dockyard. In the following year he was created a baronet and in 1780 promoted to rear-admiral, when he went in the BARFLEUR, with reinforcements to Rodney in the West Indies. Here he too part in the taking of St. Eustatius and the manoeuvering off Martinique. When Rodney sailed for England, Hood went to North America to reinforce Admiral Graves (q.v.) and commanded the rear squadron at the battle of Chesapeake in 1781. Early in 1782 Hood worsted De Grasse at Frigate Bay at St. Kitts, and soon afterwards took an important part in the battle of the Saints, the Ville de Paris surrendering to the BARFLEUR. As a result in 1782 Hood was raised to the Irish Peerage and was Member of Parliament for Westminster, 1785 to 1788 and 1790 to 1796 and for Reigate, 1789 to 1790. Between 1787 and 1788 he was Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, having been promoted to vice-admiral, and from 1788 to 1795 he served at the Board of Admiralty. At the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, where he commanded the forces which took Toulon In August 1793. However, he had to withdraw to Corsica in December. In late 1794 he returned to England. He was promoted to admiral and in 1796 was appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital, which post he held until his death. He was raised to the British peerage in 1796. See David Hanoi ed. , 'Letters of Lord Hood, 1781-82' (Navy Records Society, 1895).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Adml Samuel Hood consisting of twenty-one official letterbooks, 1767 to 1794, and some five hundred loose letters, 1771 to 1815. Among Hood's correspondents were George III, 1778, 1782; Sir George Rodney (1719-1792), 1781 to 1782; Prince William Henry, 1786 to 1787; Lord Howe (q.v.), 1787; Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville (q.v.), 1794; and Lord Nelson (q.v.), 1794. There are also a collection of charts of the Mediterranean, drawn between 1760 and 1761, and some papers relating to diplomatic affairs, 1793 to 1794, and to Hood's appointment as Governor of Greenwich Hospital. In the collection of Hood family papers presented by Commander Mackinnon in 1952 and Mrs Mackinnon in 1968, there are some private letters from Hood to Lord Bridport (q.v.), 1779 to 1802, and one from Hood to his sister after the battle of the Saints.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue online at the: National Maritime Museum website .

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers were deposited on loan by Viscount Hood in 1950 and were supplemented by a smaller group in 1954.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Edited by Sarah Drewery, Jul 2011.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 2010-11-17


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
International relations

Personal names
Dundas | Robert Saunders | 1771-1851 | 2nd Viscount Melville | Scots statesman
George III | 1738-1820 | King of Great Britain and Ireland
Hood | Alexander | 1726-1814 | Viscount Bridport | naval officer and politician
Hood | Samuel | 1724-1816 | 1st Viscount Hood | Admiral
Howe | Richard | 1726-1799 | Earl Howe | Admiral of the Fleet
Nelson | Horatio | 1758-1805 | 1st Viscount Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe | Vice-Admiral
Rodney | George Brydges | 1719-1792 | 1st Baron Rodney | Admiral
William Henry | 1743-1805 | Prince | Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Corporate names
Greenwich Hospital

Places
Mediterranean Sea | Seas