Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/417

 12 s. vii. OCT. so. 1920] NOTES AND QUERIES.

341

LONDON, OCTOBER SO, 1920.

CONTENTS. No. 133.

JfOTES :-The Two Families of Naval Hoods : their Birth- places and Connexion with Butleigh. 341 Among the Shakespeare Archives: The Death of Master Robert Arden : John Shakespeare, Taster, 1556-7, 343 Notes on Dorothy Osbome's Letters, 344 Italian Literary Criticism in the Eighteenth Century : Francesco Montani di Pesaro, 346 Harry Groat-The Early Days of Railways Basket Chair Mr. Serjeant Ballantine's Fee, 348.

QUERIES: High Constables Sir Oscar Oliphant R. Dalton Barham Benson -. Celebrated Gambler Edward Dixon Robert Roe of Cambridge, 349 Corry The Talbot Inn, Ashbourne Dr Badams : Date of Death Cheval or Chevall Richard Elwell, Winchester Scholar Ivory in A frica Poultry and Fruit The Duke of Sussex, 1773-1843, 350 Earliest English Poetess Stones in Wood Pavement "That" and " Which" Dr. Johnson at Chester, 1774" A Book of Clothes"" Me Hercule !" Authors of Quotations Wanted, 351.

flF PLIES: Edmund Pyle, D.D. French Songs Wanted.

352 St. Cutlayce Westminster Abbey: Restorations

Past and Prospective Crusaders from Sussex Swift at Havisham Feckenham Forest Records : Prince Rupert's Ring: John Ruf: German Customs Ben Jonson's 'Timber,' 353 Theana Heathtown or Heathton, juxta Wolverharapton The "Goose Club" Neopurgensis The Original War Office, 354 London Posimark* William Brown, Admiral, in Service of Argentine Republic, 355 " Heightens, Tightem, and Scrub' Chamberlain Willow Pattern China, 356 Thurlow Family H z n or H.z.n. Floor Coverings of the Tudor Epoch, 357 Latin as an International Language Denny, De Oeene, <fec.. Families Mrs. O. F. Walton Francis Lherondel I Poisoned King of France Elizabeth Chud- Ifigh, Duchess of Kingston, 358 Author Wanted The Lights of London : State Trials, 359.

"NOTES OX BOOKS: 'Old and New Sundry Papers' ' H. L. Mencken : Fanfare : The American Critic : Biblio- graphy ' ' Quarterly Review.'

^Notices to Correspondents.

THE TWO FAMILIES OF NAVAL HOODS :

THEIR BIRTHPLACES AND CONNEXION WITH BUTLEIGH.

"SOME time ago I cited differing statements in books on Somerset as to the memorial column at Butleigh ; one that it was erected to the memory of Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, and the other crediting it to the memory of Admiral Viscount Hood, also a Samuel Hood. Not having at that time personally visited the place, I was inclined (so far as my memory serves) to take it for granted that the latter statement was correct influenced thereto by the fact that Viscount Hood's father was Vicar of Butleigh, whereas the other Admiral's father apparently lived in Dorset and never at Butleigh. But I have now personally verif.ed the fact that the former statement

made in the ' Little Guide ' to Somerset, is correct, and that Mr. Edward Hutton is wrong in his reference, in 'Highways and Byways in Somerset,' to

" Viscount Hood, the eldest son of Samuel Hood, the vicar of Butleigh, whose monument in the woods on the hill above Butleigh is a landmark hereabouts."

Messrs. Bacon & Co. make another mistake by marking the column in their map of the county "Sir Alexander Hood's column."

There is considerable confusion about all these Hoods, five of them, or rather six including the father of three, in the Navy. Dorset probably can claim to have been the native county of the latter, but I think Somerset is entitled to the two Viscounts. Viscount Hood's biographer in 'D.N.B.,' Sir J. K. Laughton, states that he was born on Dec. 12, 1724, at Thorncombe in Dorset ; whereas, the 'Little Guide ' to Somerset says that it was at Butleigh in Somerset. As to his younger brother, Viscount Brid- port, the ' Little Guide ' to Dorset states (p. 50) that he was born at Thorncombe ; the 'D.N.B.' is silent as to the place of his birth, but the date was Dec. 2, 1726.

The statement in the ' Little Guide ' to Somerset on page 29, that the former was born at Butleigh is no doubt correct, for the tablet to their father, the Rev. Samuel Hood, in Butleigh Church states that he was " Vicar of this Parish with Baltonsbury united 38 years .... preferred to the Vicarage of Thorn- combe in 1761 and to the Rectory of Horn- combe Burnel in 1763, in the County of Devon." He became Vicar of Butleigh in 1724, and does not seem to have left for a year or two after receiving the preferment of Thorncombe, or there may have been a delay of that length in the appointment of a, successor, for the same tablet records that his son, the Rev. Arthur William Hood, D.D., " succeeded his worthy father in this Vicarage in 1763."

The connexion therefore of the Rev. Samuel Hood with Thorncombe did not begin until 1761 at the earliest. (The 4 D.N.B. ' by the by, erroneously places Thorn- combe in Devon instead of Dorset. It is true it is on the border. ) What authority has the ' Little Guide ' to Dorset for the assertion that Viscount Bridport was "born at Thorn- combe " ? As their father was Vicar of Butleigh in those years, and did not go to Thorncombe until 1763, what should Mrs. Hood have been doing at Thorncombe in those early years ? The Vicar had been Master of the Grammar School at Beaminster