Alexander Hogg was born in Polwarth, Berwickshire, in 1756—the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (née Hiddlestans) Hogg. 

Hogg joined Resolution for the Third Voyage as an AB on 10 February, 1776.  He does not feature in the records of the voyage, but must have impressed, as he became a ship’s purser not long after in 1782.  He prospered as a purser and was able to purchase a farm in Essex, where he eventually retired, though he was still on the Navy List in 1814. 

Hogg was one of the few men who served with both Cook and Nelson, accompanying the latter in his Nile and Copenhagen campaigns.

A nephew of Hogg’s, Thomas Hogg born in 1778 in Polwarth, would later emigrate to the United States, and become one of that country’s pioneering horticulturalists, running a business on Broadway, Manhattan, New York. 

A biographical sketch of Thomas Hogg recorded, “When about twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, he went to Raleigh in Essex, England, to take charge of a farm belonging to a Mr Alex Hume [sic], his uncle, who was purser to Capt. Cook on board the Endeavour [sic], and accompanied him in his celebrated voyage around the world”.¹ 

The events described would have taken place about 1800 and, of course, involved Alex Hogg (not Hume) and Resolution (not Endeavour)! 

Alexander Hogg died at Boxford, Suffolk, on 6 December, 1828.  There is a memorial to him at nearby St. Bartholomew’s Church, Groton.  It lies inside the church on a wall just above the entrance door.

The memorial reads:

In Affectionate memory of Alexander Hogg. Purser Royal Navy who served under Captain Cook during his last voyage. Lord Nelson at Aboukir, Copenhagen, etc. and whose mortal remains aredeposited south of this Church. Born at Berwick Died at Boxford, December 6th, 1828 Aged 72

A different Alexander Hogg operated as a publisher in London in the 1780s.² 

John Robson

References

1. The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.  1855.  Vol. V.  Pages 156-160. 
2. Cook’s Log, page 14, vol. 32, no. 4 (2009). 

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 38, volume 38, number 1 (2015).