IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0064 MKH/501-512
Held at: National Maritime Museum
Title: Hood, Alexander, Admiral (1726-1814)
Date(s): [1761-1799]
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 1 box
Name of creator(s): Hood | Alexander | 1726-1814 | 1st Viscount Bridport | Admiral
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Alexander Hood, younger brother of Samuel, Viscount Hood, entered the Navy in 1741 and was made lieutenant in 1746. During the Seven Year War he served in the Mediterranean and under Hawke in the Channel. He was made captain in 1756 and, after further service in the Channel and in the Mediterranean, was promoted to rear-admiral in 1780. From 1784 to 1790 he was a Member of Parliament for Bridgwater, after which he sat for Buckingham until 1796. In 1787 he was promoted to vice-admiral and in 1794 to admiral. In that year he was appointed second-in-command of the Channel Fleet, under Lord Howe, and took part in the battle of the First of June, after which he was given an Irish peerage. In the following year when Howe was ashore because of ill-health, he won a partial victory over the French Fleet. For this action, he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain. When Howe finally retired in 1797, Hood was made Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. In 1800 he was relieved by St. Vincent and accepted no further active command. He was created a viscount in the same year.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Adml Alexander Hook consisting of letters from Bridport to his first and second wives, 1761 to 1799. There are also a number of other letters, including two from Lord Howe, 1787.
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 form a small part of the collection presented by a descendant, Commander Mackinnon, in 1952.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Edited by Sarah Drewery, Jul 2011.
Date(s) of descriptions: 2010-11-16