Background
George Rooke was born in 1650. He was the son of Colonel Sir William Rooke and Jane Rooke (née Finch). Rooke joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1672.
George Rooke was born in 1650. He was the son of Colonel Sir William Rooke and Jane Rooke (née Finch). Rooke joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1672.
He was appointed to the first-rate HMS London, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Spragge, and saw action when a combined British and French fleet was surprised and attacked by the Dutch, led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, at the Battle of Solebay off the Suffolk coast in May 1672 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. He transferred to the first-rate HMS Royal Prince, flagship of the Duke of York, in 1673 and saw action again at the Battle of Schooneveld in June 1673.
Promoted to captain on 13 November 1673, Rooke was given command of the sixth-rate HMS Holmes and was deployed on convoy duties. After a period of service in the Army, Rooke transferred to the command of the fifth-rate HMS Nonsuch in April 1677 and conveyed Prince William of Orange to England in October 1677. He transferred to the fourth-rate HMS Hampshire in the Mediterranean in July 1680 to the fourth-rate HMS St David in the English Channel April 1683 and to the fourth-rate HMS Deptford in the Mediterranean in April 1688.
Rooke was at Bantry Bay (1689), Beachy Head (1690), and La Hogue (May/June 1692), where he distinguished himself and gained his knighthood. A year later he commanded the ill-fated 300-ship Smyrna convoy, but escaped blame for this débâcle. An MP for Portsmouth 1698–1708, Rooke held a command with the Dutch at the Copenhagen Sound in 1700 which called for prudent diplomacy between Denmark and Sweden. In 1702 he burnt a Franco-Spanish fleet at Vigo, and in August 1704 commanded at the capture of Gibraltar, subsequently fighting a bitter though drawn battle with the French Toulon fleet off Malaga. His success invited the jealousy of the Marlborough faction and this command proved his last.
He was Tory Member of Parliament for Portsmouth, member of the council of the Lord High Admiral.
In around October 1684 Rooke married to Mary Howe. After the death of his first wife he married Mary Luttrell in January 1701; they had one son. After the death of his second wife, he married Catherine Knatchbull in January 1706.
