Hoodfamily

Hood (family), the surname of a most distinguished family of naval officers, of whom the most celebrated are: - Sir Samuel, first Viscount Hood, who was born in 1724, and became a commander in 1754, and a captain in 1756. In command of the Antelope, 50, he drove ashore the Aquiltm, 50, in 1757, and in command of the Vestal in 1759 he captured the Bellone. In April, 1781, he engaged the French off Martinique, in September following he was second in command in the action off the Chesapeake, and in 1782 he repulsed Do Grasse at St. Kitts. In 1782 also, as second in command under Rodney, he took part in the total defeat of the French in the West Indies, and was in consequence raised to the Irish peerage. In 1787 he became a vice-admiral, and in 1793 was made commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, where he took possession of Toulon and the large fleet lying there, reduced Corsica, and performed other great services. He became an admiral in 1794, and died in 1816.

Sir Samuel, a cousin of the above, was born in ] 762, commanded the Renard in the action of April 12th, 1782, and was posted in 1784. He served in the reduction of Corsica, and was with Nelson at Teneriffe and at the Nile. In 1799 he expelled the French from Naples; in 1801 he commanded the Venerable, 74, in Sir James Saumarez's actions; and in 1803, as commodore in the West Indies, won a K.B. for the capture of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. In 1807 he took possession of Madeira, and in 1808 he effected the destruction of the Russian Sevolod, 74. He died in 1814.

Arthur William Acland, grandson of Captain Alexander Hood, killed in command of the Mars, was born in 1824, served in the China War in 1857, was director of naval ordnance in 1869-74, and a Lord of the Admiralty in 1877-79, 1885-86, and 1886-89, and, after having retired as an admiral, was raised to the peerage in 1892 as Lord Hood of Avalon; so that the family possesses the unique honour of having gained three naval peerages.