At the feasts of our ancestors one dish in each course was the Standard. At the dinner given on occasion of the marriage of Roger Rockley and Elizabeth Nevile, 17 Henry VIII., the standard in the first course was a roe roasted, and in the second, two cranes. Sometimes the standard was only an ornament. In the curious accounts

It'm die Lune p'xa in expñs' in pane v d. ob. s'visia ix d. in stocfeys et aliciebz. iii d. & aliis pissibz de p' c'putat. in candelis q. in focalibz id. in feno v d. in ii. bous. avenaru viii d. in pomis & datis i d. ob. Sma ii s. ix d. ob. q.

It'm eodem die in speyserie empt. v s. vii d. in uno paria caligaru ii s. id. ...erunesse de uno peyr' Skenebens vid. et lib'at' garcõi amweyn p' de fectu... xx s. iij d. et liberat' Phl'o de Castro iii s. & computat' expendit' die apd Westminist'iu in passagio ob. It'm in eod. die in coferis empt. vis. It' liberat' Johë Perrot xii d. p' div'sis r'bz expendit' in Chepe. in uno cult'o ept' dño... in singulis empt. a som's. vid. in reperacõe singulis iij d. et liberat' Ha. Tomkeyn p' tanylm' Courtepey vide ij d. at'... de p' Mauncheys Dai vd. p' duobus garbis sagittaru xviii d. in beueraie p' sigillo de Som'.

Sma xliis. x d. ob.

Ssm vi Li. xiii s. vid. ob.

....

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.

SIR JAMES CROFT,

PRIVY COUNSELLOR AND COMPTROLLER OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

OUR prospectus announced, that it was one of the features of the New Series of this Work to give Biographical Memoirs of individuals who have been conspicuous in the history of England, but the particulars of whose lives had never been collected,

of the expenses attending the marriage of other members of the Nevile family, published by Peck, and afterwards by Dr. Pegge, and again by Mr. Croft of York, St. George, the Griffin, the White Plum-Tree, &c. are named as standards. At Archbishop Nevil's dinner, a hart powdered was one of the standards. The painted temples decorated with sweet-meats, which make their appearance at city-feasts, are the successors to the ancient Standard; or perhaps to the Standard and Subtlety united. The standard at this fish-feast (for it was in Lent), was half a salmon with the chine. Salmon chines broiled was a dish in the first course of fish at Archbishop Nevil's dinner, to which we have before referred; and we find them again at the dinners given by Warham and Nevil. So slowly do customs change even in things minute.

They appear to have been laying in stores at London previous to their return into the country; but this entry being at the bottom of the roll, the ink has in many parts of it nearly disappeared.

or of whom the accounts which have been written are either incorrect or imperfect. In commencing these notices with SIR JAMES CROFT we have been actuated not so much by the singular fact, that he has been wholly passed over by the editors of the "Biographia Britannica," and of the various Biographical Dictionaries, as by a wish to render impartial, though tardy justice, to a soldier and a statesman who has been so unjustly neglected.

An elegant biographer of the present day has remarked, with great justice, that "in reading the lives of eminent persons, we feel a desire to know somewhat of their family and descendants; that until their families become extinct, they seem to have still a certain mode of existence; and that it is not until then that the grave appears wholly to have closed over them'."

A conviction of the interest which is felt in the families of distinguished men would alone justify a digression, for the purpose of gratifying it; but in a work of this kind, no apology can be necessary for rendering the articles which may be devoted to memoirs of illustrious individuals a succinct but accurate history of their respective families, since there are few ancient houses but can boast of more than one member who has, in some way, distinguished himself. The family of Croft, of Croft Castle, in Herefordshire, affords an immediate and striking example of the truth of this observation; for, in almost every generation from the commencement of the fourteenth century, records exist of the services of its representatives; and it presents one of the very few instances in which property has descended from father to son for more than seven hundred years.

In Doomsday Book, Bernard de Croft is stated to have possessed the tenement of Croft, in Herefordshire 2, and in the reign of Henry the Third, 1243, his descendant, Hugh de Croft, held lands there by Knight's service3. In 1274, Roger de Croft was sub-escheator to the King for the county of Hereford *; and in July, 1297, John de Croft was returned from that county, as holding lands there of the annual value of £20 and upwards, and was subsequently summoned to serve with horse and arms beyond the seas". His son, Sir Hugh, was lord of Croft; and in the 33rd Edw. I. 1305, was created a Knight of the Bath: in

Lodge's Life of Sir Julius Cæsar.

2 Vol. i. p. 185.

3 Testa de Nevill, pp. 62, 66, bis.

4 Rotuli Hundredorum, vol. i. pp. 185, 186.

5 Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs.

Comp. Garder, 33 Edw. I. cited in Anstis' Collections for the Order of the Bath, p 5, where notice of the Robes allowed him on the occasion occurs.

1313-14, he was commanded to raise 1000 foot soldiers from the counties of Salop and Stafford, to serve against the Scots 1, and in 1315, he was knight of the shire for Herefordshire, in which year he was again ordered to serve in Scotland 3; and, according to Hollingshed, he was killed by the Lacies in Ireland, whither he was sent by the Lord Chief Justice Mortimer, to treat for peace. In a contemporary Roll of Arms in the Cottonian Collection 5, he is stated to have borne Quartile de argent e de azure endente, en l'un quarter un lion passaunt de or," which coat has been, and is still used by his descendants. At his death in 13176, his son Hugh was only eleven years of age in the 12th Edw. III. 1338, he received letters of protection, being then in the King's service 7; and in the same year was a justice of assize 8. His wife was Maud, the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Brian de Brampton, of Herefordshire, Knight, by whom he had Sir John de Croft, his son and heir ', who was knight of the shire for Hereford in 1357 ; and who was succeeded by his son, Sir John de Croft, Knight, who was captain of Merk Castle, near Calais, in the 4th Hen. IV. 1402, at which time he was a knight, and was frequently employed in negotiations in Flanders between that year and 1404*, the correspondence relative to which is still extant. By Janet, the third daughter and co-heiress of the renowned Owen Glendower, he left issue, William Croft, Esquire 7, of whom the only

1 Rotuli Scotiæ, vol. i. p. 120.

2 Duncombe's Collections.

3. Appendix to the First Peerage Report, p. 249. 4 Hollingshed's History of Ireland.

6 Esch. 11. Edw. II. No.

Caligula, A. xviii.

7 Fœdera, N. E. vol. ii. p. 158.

8 Rolls of Parliament, vol. ii. p. 101. Several writs were issued to Hugh de Croft, in the 9th and 10th Edw. III., to raise troops from Huntingdonshire, and who was probably the same individual. Rotuli Scotia, vol. i. pp. 350, 360, 372-3-4, 404-7, 421-2.

9 Harleian MSS. 1545, 5799.

Pedigrees in Harl. MSS. 1159, 1140, 1434, 1545, 5799.

Duncombe's Collections for Herefordshire. His wife is said to have been a daughter of John Haviock.

3 Fœdera, Ed. 1708, vol. viii. pp. 279, 344, 375-6. A Matthew, alias Makyn Crofte, and a James Crofte, were men at arms at the battle of Agincourt; the former is described as an esquire in the act of resumption, 7th and 8th Ed. IV., by which a grant of an annuity of twenty marks is reserved to him. (Rot. Parl., vol. v. p. 609. Battle Roll of Agincourt.)

4 Fœdera, vol. viii. pp. 344, 375-6. 5 Cottonian MSS. Galba, B. 1. 6 Pennant's Wales, p. 302. Pedigree in Walwyn's MSS. Harleian MSS. 6596, 2121, 1545, 5799, 1157, 1159, 1140, 5058. She is said, in the Harleian MSS. 1969, to have married to her second husband, Sir Richard Monington, and to her third, Sir John Upton; and, according to some topographical collections for the county of Hereford, made in the seventeenth century, and preserved in the Harleian MSS. 6868, f. 37, the following arms stood in Croft church: "In Croft church, Arms, CROFT, WITH GLYNDORE's daughter, Cornwall, Skolls, Harbert, Sir James Croft, with Warnecomb, Blunt," but they do not now exist.

7 The Harleian MSS. before cited, and Vincent's MS. in the College of Arms, marked 115, and the MS. in that repository marked D, x11.

fact known is, that he was summoned to serve in the French wars in the 7th Hen. VI. 1427-8', and was living in 1434 *. His eldest son, Sir Richard Croft, was one of the most celebrated soldiers of his times. The first notice which occurs of him is in a letter from King Edward the Fourth, when Earl of March, and his brother the Earl of Rutland, to their father the Duke of York, about 1456, in which they complained of his and his brother's " odieux reule and demenynge," hence, it is presumed, that they were intrusted to his custody; which opinion is corroborated by the circumstance of his wife Eleanor, the daughter of Sir Edward Cornwall, Baron of Burford, and widow of Sir Hugh Mortimer, Knight, being called " Lady governesse," to the young princes at Ludlow". Sir Richard's attachment to the house of York was both manifested and rewarded after the accession of Edward to the throne. He was appointed general receiver for the earldom of March, in the shires of Hereford and Salop, and in the lordship of Wigmore, Radnor, and Melleneth, and parker of Gatelegh, which offices are specially reserved to him in the act of resumption of the 1st Henry VII. He was present at the battle of Tewksbury; and having taken the Prince of Wales prisoner, he brought him before Edward, in pursuance of the King's proclamation, when the young Prince was barbarously murdered, notwithstanding the assu

Harleian MSS. 5058, f. 30b, and f. 31.

2 Walwyn's MSS. penes Rev. J. Duncombe. By Margaret, daughter of Walwyn, he had issue, Sir Richard Croft, first son, mentioned above; Richard, second son, who by the description of Richard Croft the younger, received a grant of lands, together with Thomas Croft, Esquire, 1461, (Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 586), and was apparently spoken of in the letter noticed in the text from Ed. IV., when Earl of March, and his brother, the Earl of Rutland, circa 1456, and died 18th Henry VII. 1502, (Cotton. MSS. Claudius, C. viii). His will is dated 12th August, 1501, and was proved 16th March, 1501-2, in which he described himself "of Chipping Norton” (Record in Doctors' Commons, marked Bluymyr, 14); he married Ann, daughter of Fox, by whom he had issue Hugh, son and heir; Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Fienes, Knight; Lionel; and Ann, who married Sir John Rodney of Stoke Rodney, co. Somerset (Will before quoted). William Croft had also a daughter, who married John Dombleton, alias Downton, Esquire (Harleian MSS. 1566, fol. 116); and it is probable that he had a third son, Thomas, who received a grant of lands with Richard Croft, the younger, in 1461 and 1473 (Cal. Rot. and Patent Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 589, and vol. vi. p. 84b): this Thomas Croft was Ranger of Whichwode Forest in Oxfordshire, Bailiff of Fawnhope in Hertfordshire, and Parker of Pembragge, also in Herts (Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 342). He committed "a detestable murder in the Marches of Wales," and thereby forfeited all his offices, and took sanctuary at Baudeley, 7th Hen. VII., 1491 (Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 441), and levied a fine of a third part of the manor of Shotswell in Warwickshire with Elizabeth his wife, 12th Ed. IV. 1472, by which it appears, that she was coheir to the lands formerly belonging to Sir John Beauchamp (Dugdale's Warwick, Ed. 1765, p. 385).

3 Authorities cited in note 7 in the last page.

4 Ellis's Original Letters, First Series, vol. i. p. 9. 5 Ancient Charters in the British Museum, xiv. 3. 6 Rolls of Parliament, vol. v. p. 589.