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- John Wood was an English royal servant as keeper of cormorants for James VI and I from 1611. King James became interested in keeping cormorants which could be trained to fish for his amusement. He may have been inspired by the traveller's accounts of cormorant fishing in China by Odoric of Pordenone, Galeote Pereira, and Juan González de Mendoza, which were translated into English and printed by Richard Hakluyt, R. Willes, and R. Parke. In May 1610, Louis Frederick, Duke of Württemberg-Montbéliard saw James at Thetford. After dinner, the king took a coach to the river Ouse or Thet to fish with birds. The birds had been trained by a "master" who was able to make them dive for fish and eels. He could make them disgorge the fish with a signal. This was John Wood, who was officially appointed as "Master of the Royal Cormorants". In April 1611 he was paid £30 for his work training cormorants to fish. In May 1612 he was paid for acquiring more birds from the north. Another member of the family, his son, Robert Wood, helped set up cormorant houses near Westminster Palace in 1618. The site was called the "vine garden", leased from Lord Danvers. Robert Wood was a keeper of cormorants, ospreys, and otters, and a brick shed was built to house the birds and otters. The vine garden was moated, and new work included nine fish-ponds fed by Thames water for cormorant training. The ponds were stocked with carp, tench, dace and "a good store of eels". The site in Millbank was in the area of Romney Street (formerly Vine Street) and Tufton Street. In 1623 a servant of Francis Wortley stole a royal cormorant by forging a message, apparently as a practical joke. (en)
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- John Wood was an English royal servant as keeper of cormorants for James VI and I from 1611. King James became interested in keeping cormorants which could be trained to fish for his amusement. He may have been inspired by the traveller's accounts of cormorant fishing in China by Odoric of Pordenone, Galeote Pereira, and Juan González de Mendoza, which were translated into English and printed by Richard Hakluyt, R. Willes, and R. Parke. In 1623 a servant of Francis Wortley stole a royal cormorant by forging a message, apparently as a practical joke. (en)
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