p. 91, described a tombstone near Kirklees with an illegible inscription as the hero's grave, and supplied in his appendix (p. 576) an obviously spurious epitaph, which gave the date of his death as 18 Nov. 1247; this was stated by Thoresby to have been found among the papers of Thomas Gale, dean of York [q. v.] (cf. Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, p. cviii). Ritson, in his 'Collection of the Ballads' (1795), quoted at length the conclusions of his antiquarian predecessors, and treated Robin Hood as strictly historical.
Thierry in his 'Conquête de l'Angleterre,' 1830, identified Robin Hood with the chief of a troop of Saxon bandits (cf. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe). Subsequently it was suggested that he was a leader of the exhæredati, or proscribed followers of Simon de Montfort, who were reduced to great straits after the battle of Evesham in 1264 (London and Westminster Review, March 1840, repr. by Gutch, i. 112 sq.) Joseph Hunter, in 1852, tried to show that Robin Hood was contemporary with Edward II, was an adherent of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster [q. v.] in the insurrection of 1322, and afterwards entered the king's household. Edward II certainly made a progress in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Nottinghamshire, where Robin Hood's exploits are chiefly located in the ballads, in the autumn of 1323, and exchequer documents prove that a person named Rooyn Hode subsequently received payment as a 'vadlet' or 'porteur du chambre' in the royal household between 24 March and 22 Nov. 1324. On the last date 'Robyn Hode, jadys un des porteurs, pour cas qil ne poait pluis travailler,' received 5s. But other official documents show that the name Robert Hood was not uncommon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and there is nothing whatever to prove that the 'porteur' Robin Hood had any connection with the reputed outlaw, while the other Robert Hoods of the time held official positions which adequately differentiate them from the ballad hero. The 'Lytell Geste' undoubtedly connects the hero with a King Edward; but another early ballad associates him more definitely with Queen Catherine, apparently queen of Henry V, who flourished a century later, and a third Scottish ballad describes his courtship with Jack Cade's daughter. Hunter's theory, although more ingenious than the other historical and antiquarian theories, rests on no more secure foundation.
[The fullest discussion of the Robin Hood legends is given by Professor F. J. Child in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, pt. v. pp. 39 sq. (Boston, U.S.A., 1888). Professor Child has collected thirty-nine ballads on the subject. The introduction to the Robin Hood ballads in Percy Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall (1867), i. 1 sq., is useful. See also Catalogue of the MS. Romances in the Brit. Mus. ed. C. A. Ward, pp. 516 sq.; Thoms's Early English Prose Romances, vol. ii.; Ritson's Collection of Ballads concerning Robin Hood, 1795 (cf. re-issues of 1832 and 1885), which prints besides the ballads all the legendary and fabricated information about Robin's career, and a mass of interesting literary referances to him; the Lytell Geste or Robyn Hode, edited by J. M. Gutch (1847), which is somewhat more critical than Ritson's book; Hunter's Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hood,a tract (1852); Wright's Essays on Mediæval Literature, ii. 164 sq. (the Popular Cycle of the Robin Hood Ballads); Academy, vol. xxiv. (1883); Notes and Queries, passim; authorities noticed in the text.]
HOOD, Sir SAMUEL (1762–1814), vice-admiral, third son of Samuel Hood of Kingsland, Dorset, and younger brother of Captain Alexander Hood (1758-1798) [q. v.], was born on 27 Nov. 1762. He entered the navy in 1776 on board the Courageux with his cousin Samuel (afterwards Lord) Hood. In 1778 he was moved into the Robust with Alexander Hood, the future Lord Bridport, and in her was present in the action off Ushant 27 July 1778. In 1779-80 he served in the Lively sloop in the Channel; and in October 1780 was appointed to the Barfleur, again with Sir Samuel Hood, going out to the West Indies as second in command. He was shortly afterwards promoted to be lieutenant; and continuing in the Barfleur, was present in the several actions with De Grasse—off Martinique, 29 April 1781; off Cape Henry, 5 Sept. 1781; and at St. Kitts, 25-6 Jan. 1782. On 31 Jan. he was promoted by his cousin to the nominal command of the Renard sloop, then lying as a hospital ship at Antigua. Hood remained in the Barfleur as a volunteer, and was thus present in the actions off Dominica on 9 and 12 April, and at the capture of the French squadron in the Mona passage on 19 April 1782. He continued in the Barfleur till the conclusion of the war, when he joined the Renard and took her to England. He then went to France, and in a two years' residence acquired an intimate knowledge of the language. On his return to England in 1785 he was appointed to the Weasel sloop on the Halifax station, and was there, 24 May 1788, posted to the command of the Thisbe frigate, which he brought home and paid off in the autumn of 1789. In May 1790 he commissioned the Juno, a 32-gun frigate, in which he went out to Jamaica. On 3 Feb. 1791, while lying in St. Anne's harbour, he succeeded, during a violent storm and at great
