Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet

Who was Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet?

Sir Mark Wood, 1st Baronet was an army officer and engineer. He was a Member of Parliament for Milborne Port, Gatton and Newark. He received a baronetcy on 3 October 1808.

Mark Wood was the eldest son of Alexander Wood of Perth, descended from the family of the Woods of Largo, to the estates of which Alexander succeeded on the death of his cousin, John Wood, sometime governor of the Isle of Man. Mark became a cadet of the East India Company's army in 1770, and went to India with his brother George, who died in 1824. Another brother was Sir James Athol Wood. He received his first commission on 7 July 1772 in the Bengal engineers, and rose to be colonel 26 February 1795. After a distinguished career in India, culminating in his appointment as surveyor-general in 1787 and chief engineer of Bengal in 1790, he returned to England on account of ill-health in 1793, and purchased the Piercefield House on the banks of the Wye. Wood entered the House of Commons for Milborne Port, Somerset, in 1794; he was returned for Newark in 1796, after a severe contest with Sir William Paxton.