Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/441

 of B.D. had been conferred on him in 1740, and that of D.D. in 1749. Accompanying the Duke of Bedford to Ireland on his appointment to the office of lord-lieutenant, he was soon after promoted, in November 1757, to the bishopric of Kilmore; and having held that see for fourteen years, he was translated to the archbishopric of Dublin, by patent dated 5 March 1772. In 1777 he incurred the vituperative attacks of Dr. Patrick Duigenan, who, in his 'Lachrymae Academicae,' took occasion to censure him severely because he had, as visitor of Trinity College, Dublin, spoken rather favourably of Provost Hutchinson, against whom that publication was specially directed. Cole says of him that he was 'a portly, well-looking man, of a liberal turn of mind, and a social and generous disposition.' His publications are: He died at his palace of St. Sepulchre's, in the city of Dublin, 10 Dec. 1778, and was buried in the southern aisle of St. Patrick's, but there is not any inscription to his memory. His only son, John Francis Cradock, changed his name to Caradoc, and was raised to the Irish peerage in 1819, with the title of Baron Howden; and his widow, Mary Cradock, died 15 Dec. 1819, aged 89, and was buried in the Abbey Church, Bath.
 * 1) 'A Sermon before the University of Cambridge,' 1739.
 * 2) 'Sermon before the House of Commons,' 1752.
 * 3) 'Fast Sermon,' on Jeremiah vi. 8, 1758.
 * 4) 'A Charge delivered at his Primary Visitation in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin,' 1772.



CRADOCK, JOHN FRANCIS (1762–1839). [See .]

CRADOCK, JOSEPH (1742–1826), man of letters, was the only surviving son of Joseph Cradock of Leicester and Gumley, and was born at Leicester 9 Jan. 1741–2. He was inoculated in spite of the prevailing prejudice. His father was threatened by the mob, and had to pay the surgeon 100l. His mother died in 1749, and his father afterwards married Anne Ludlam (d. 1774), sister of two well-known mathematicians. Cradock was educated at the Leicester grammar school. He lost his father in 1759, and was soon afterwards sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which Richard Farmer, his schoolfellow, was then tutor. He had already acquired a taste for the stage and for London society, and left Cambridge without daring to face the examination for a degree. In 1765 he married Anna Francesca, third daughter of Francis Stratford of Merivale Hall, Warwickshire. During his honeymoon the Duke of Newcastle, as chancellor, conferred upon him the M.A. degree. He took a house in the fashionable quarter, Dean Street, Soho; became known to the wits, and an enthusiastic playgoer. In 1766 Farmer dedicated to him the well-known essay on the ‘Learning of Shakespeare.’ Cradock soon afterwards settled at a mansion which he had built at Gumley, and upon a scale which led to embarrassment. He was high sheriff of Leicestershire in 1766 and 1781. In 1768 he was elected F.S.A. He gave private theatricals at Gumley, where Garrick offered to play the Ghost to his Hamlet, and in 1769 took a conspicuous part at the Stratford jubilee. He collected a fine library and amused himself with landscape gardening. A little book, called ‘Village Memoirs’ (1774), gives his views upon this subject, and upon religion and life in general. His musical skill procured him a welcome at Lord Sandwich's seat at Hinchinbroke, where Miss Ray sang in oratorios, while Lord Sandwich performed on the kettledrum. He was a patron of the music meetings at Leicester, originated in 1771 for the benefit of the infirmary. There was a great performance in 1774, when an ode written by Cradock, set to music by Boyce, was performed, and among the audience were Lord Sandwich and Omai, the native of Otaheite. In 1771 a tragedy by Cradock, called ‘Zobeide,’ founded on Voltaire's ‘Les Scythes,’ was performed at Covent Garden with success. Voltaire acknowledged the work in a note dated Ferney, 9 Oct. 1773, in which he says:—

In 1773 he wrote a pamphlet called ‘The Life of John Wilkes, Esq., in the manner of Plutarch,’ a Wilkite mob having broken his windows in Dean Street. In 1777 he published ‘An Account of some of the most Romantic Parts of North Wales,’ having ascended Snowdon in 1774. From 1783 to 1786 he travelled through France and Holland, his wife's health having failed. After his return his own health compelled him to withdraw from society, though he took part in various local movements. In 1815 he published ‘Four Dissertations, Moral and Religious.’ His wife died 25 Dec. 1816. In his later years he was very intimate with John Nichols, the antiquary. In 1821 he published a little novel against gambling, called ‘Fidelia.’ In 1823 growing embarrassments induced him to sell his estate and library and retire to London on a small