Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/440

 sing of the Enemy, if any attempt of Invasion be made,' which he wrote in 1571 and submitted to Elizabeth on 1 Sept. 1580. It is extant in Lansd. MS. cxix. art. 3, with 'Another Discourse by the same Person, concerning the Overthrow of the Enemies at their own Doors.' A similar treatise is 'Captain Hitchcock's Petition and Proposal to the Queen for stationing some Ships of War in the Ohannel to annoy Foreign Enemies and protect Friends,' extant in Lansdowne MS. cxiii. 10. A fourth tract by Hitchcock is among Foxe's MSS. (Lansd. MS. ccclxxxix.), entitled 'A Discourse for Defence against the threatened Invasion of the Holy League' (cf., Annals, n. ii. 368-70). None of these appear to have been printed, but on New Year's day 1580-1 Hitchcock published his scheme for developing the Newfoundland herring fisheries, with the title 'A Politique Platt for the Honour of the Prince, the greate profite of the Publique State, reliefe of the Poore, preservation of the Rich, reformation of Roges and Idle Persons, and the wealthe of thousands that knowes not howe to live' (London, Ihon Kyngston, 1 Jan. 1580) ; prefixed are verses by the author's brother Francis. Hitchcock's book was commended by Thomas Mun [q.v.] in his 'England's Treasure by Forraign Trade ' (cap. xix.), and Tobias Gentleman [q. v. Suppl.] and John Keymer [q. v. Suppl.] wrote books developing Hitchcock's argument. This was followed in 1590 by 'The Quintessence of Wit, being a corrant comfort of conceites, maximes, and politicke devises, selected and gathered together by Francisco Sansovino. . . translated out of the Italian tung. . . ' (London, Edward Allde, 28 Oct. 1590 ; dedicated to Robert Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury). Hitchcock brought 'a second part' of Sansovino's work from the Netherlands in 1586, which he promised to translate and publish, but does not seem to have done so. His last work was 'The Arte of Warre ; being the onely rare booke of Myllitarie Profession : drawn out of all our late and forraine services, by William Garrard, gentleman, who served the King of Spain in all his Warres fourteen yeares, and died A.D. 1587. . . corrected and finished by Captain Hitchcock, anno 1591' (London, 1591, 4to ; dedicated to Robert Devereux, earl of Essex) ; to it Hitchcock appended 'A generall Proportion and order of Provision for a Yeere ... to victuall a Garrison of one thousand Souldiours.'  HODDESDON, CHRISTOPHER (1534–1611), master of the Merchants Adventurers' Company, born in 1534 (Cat. State Papers, Dom. 1601–3, p. 165), was son of Simon Hoddesdon of Hoddesdon and Edgeworth, Hertfordshire, by his wife Jane, daughter of John Etheridge of Edgeworth. In a letter written to Sir Robert Cecil in 1602, Hoddesdon states that in 1544, when he was only ten years old, he 'came from Dantzig by land through all the marine towns except Stade and Emden, and found no Englishman trading nor cloth to be sold but by the steleyard men' (id. p. 160). It was to developing English trade in the north-east of Europe that Hoddesdon devoted his life. In youth he was a clerk in the office of Sir George Barnes (more correctly Barne), merchant, alderman, and in 1552 lord-mayor of London, whose granddaughter he married ; she was Alice, daughter of Alexander and sister of Christopher Carleill [q. v.], while (Sir) Francis Walsingham was her step-father. These relationships explain much of Hoddesdon's subsequent career. In May 1553, when Richard Chancellor [q. v.] was sent to open up the trade with Russia, Hoddesdon, according to his own account, accompanied him. He also went with Chancellor on his second voyage in 1555, and was left in Russia as agent for the company. For two years his headquarters were at Nijni Novgorod ; then he became head of the English factory at Moscow, and he is mentioned in Jenkinson's letter from that city dated 18 Sept. 1559 [see ], The Russia trade was exceedingly profitable, and Hoddesdon states that during his residence at Moscow he obtained 13,644l. for English goods which cost only 6,608l.

Hoddesdon returned to England in 1562 to supervise his own business in London ; but early in 1567 the company sent him to Narva to develop English trade in the Baltic, and Queen Elizabeth, by letters dated 16 March 1566-7, recommended him to the j protection of the kings of Denmark and Sweden. He took with him seven ships containing 11,000l. worth of cloth, kerseys, and salt, which he disposed of at a profit of 40 per cent. In 1569 he was again sent to Narva, where he remained for some years as chief of the English factory he had established there. In the following year he asked the Russia Company to send out thirteen ships well armed under the command of William Borough [q. v.], and on 10 July following this squadron defeated six Polish pirate ships off Tiiter in the gulf of Finland. Hoddesdon himself wrote announcing this victory to Ivan IV of Russia. 