Thomas Alcock (adventurer)
Thomas Alcock (died 1563) was an English traveller and adventurer and an agent or servant of the Muscovy Company from 1558 to 1563. According to one of his letters, preserved by Hakluyt, in 1558 he took his first journey overland from Moscow to Smolensk in Russia, and then through Poland towards Danzig. He was, however, prevented from proceeding further than Tirwill (probably Turovli on the Dvina), where he was imprisoned in irons for thirty-six days, probably at the instigation of rival traders and ambassadors from Danzig, Lübeck, and Hamburg, who, moreover, prevailed upon the king of Poland to stop all traffic through his dominions of the English trading to Muscovy. There is no further evidence as to the termination of this journey; but in all probability Alcock was allowed to depart for England by way of warning, with the loss of all the money and goods entrusted to him by the company. His second and last journey on behalf of the company was in 1563. Leaving Jeraslaue (Jaroslav), in Russia, he sailed down the Volga to Astracan (Astrakhan); he then coasted the western shores of the Caspian Sea, and proceeded to Shammaki (Shamakha) in the Caucasus; from there he travelled