Sir John Crofts, Kt., MP

CROFTS, John (c.1565-1628), of Chalgrove, Beds.; later of Little Saxham, Suff.

Family and Education

b. c.1565, s. of Thomas Crofts by Susan, da. of John Poley of Badley, Suff. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1581; G. Inn 1583. m. c.1590, Mary, da. of Sir Thomas Shirley I of Wiston, Suss., 3s. 2da. Kntd. 1599; suc. fa. 13 Apr. 1612.

Offices Held

J.p.q. Beds. from c.1592, sheriff 1600-1.

Biography The Crofts family had held land in West Stow, near Bury St. Edmunds since the time of Edward I, never achieving county status. Croft’s father probably settled West Stow on him at his marriage, but in the last years of Elizabeth’s reign he was resident in Bedfordshire. He did not succeed his father until well into the next reign and remains a shadowy figure: it is, for example, unlikely that he was the Queen’s messenger of his name active during the 1590s. He took part in the Earl of Essex’s expedition to Ireland, receiving his knighthood from Essex, and he may have been in the service of the East Anglian magnate Lord Wentworth, who was related to his mother’s family. In any event it was probably the Poleys who obtained him his return to Parliament for Thetford. He is not named in the known proceedings of the House, but as Member for Thetford he may have served on a committee concerning the draining of fens appointed on 3 Dec. He was described on a list of James I’s reign as ‘quite gone out of Bedfordshire’. His connexion with the Poley’s, a daughter’s marriage to Humphrey Mildmay, and his eldest son’s education at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, all suggest puritan religious views; but there is no indication of these in the brief will he made 1 Oct. 1627. He was buried, as he had requested, at Little Saxham on 29 Mar. 1628.

Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 90; Copinger, Suff. Manors, i. 404-6; C142/329/197; D’Ewes, 567; CSP Dom. 1591-4, p. 191; Add. 1580-1625, p. 527; APC, xvi. 313; xv. 16; VCH Beds. iii. 346; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 452; PCC 8 Scroope.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603 Author: Roger Virgoe Notes

From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/cr...

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Sir John Croftes1

M, #375627, b. 1563, d. 29 March 1628

Last Edited=23 May 2010

Sir John Croftes was born in 1563.1 He was the son of Thomas Croftes and Susan Poley.2,1

He married Mary Shirley, daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley.1 He died on 29 March 1628.1

He was invested as a on 6 August 1599 at Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland.1

He lived at Saxham Parva, Suffolk, England.1 At West Stow, Suffolk, England, (an unknown value).1

Children of Sir John Croftes and Mary Shirley

1.Samuel Croftes2

2.Edmund Croftes2

3.Thomas Croftes2 d. 1600

4.Charles Croftes2 d. 1608

5.Anne Croftes+2 d. 16 Jan 1637/38

6.Jane Croftes2

7.Dorothea Croftes2 d. 1659

8.Arabella Croftes2

9.Cecilia Croftes2 d. 1 Jan 1638

10.Frances Croftes2 b. 1589, d. Mar 1661

11.Sir Henry Croftes2 b. c 1590, d. c Mar 1667

12.Anthony Croftes2 b. c 1593, d. 1 Oct 1657

13.Mary Croftes2 b. Oct 1597

14.John Croftes2 b. Dec 1598, d. 1664

15.Alice Croftes2 b. 1608, d. 7 Oct 1678

Citations The Peerage

• 1.[S47] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), page 292. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Irish Family Records.
• 2.[S47] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Irish Family Records.

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• Pedigrees of the county families of Yorkshire (1874) Vol. 2 Pg.n258
• http://www.archive.org/details/pedigreesofcount02fost
  • Pedigree of Wentworth, of Elmsall, Bretton and Baron Wentworth, of Nettlested.
• http://www.archive.org/stream/pedigreesofcount02fost#page/n265/mode...
• http://www.archive.org/stream/pedigreesofcount02fost#page/n266/mode...
• SEE DOCUMENTS OR SOURCES __________________