Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/55

  with others to carry the invitation to Norwich (MS. Records of Merchant Taylors' Company).

In the autumn of 1610 the court of the Merchant Taylors' Company made preparations for Craven's approaching mayoralty, and on 6 Oct. unanimously voted a hundred marks ‘towards the trimming of his ldships house’ (ib.). Craven was lord mayor of London for 1610–11, and the show, which had been suspended for some years, was revived with splendour. Christian, prince of Anhalt, was entertained with all his ‘Germayne trayne’ at the feast at the Guildhall afterwards (, Progresses of James I, ii. 370). In July 1611 Craven became alderman of Lime Street (vice Cordwainer) ward, in consequence perhaps of his having moved his residence from St. Antholin's to ‘a fair house builded by Stephen Kirton’ (see Survey of London, 1618) in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, Cornhill. This house, of which there is a print in the British Museum (reproduced London Journal, 26 Sept. 1857), was on the south side of Leadenhall Street; it was leased to the East India Company in 1620 and pulled down, and the East India House erected in 1726 (, History of London, p. 1003), which in 1862 was superseded by the present buildings. During Craven's mayoralty his name appears in connection with certain loans to the king (, Issues of the Exchequer during the Reign of James I, p. 133). On 9 Jan. 1611 he was elected president of Christ's Hospital, which post he occupied up to his death. His donations to the hospital were lands to the value of 1,000l. at Ugley in Essex, and certain other legacies (Court Minutes of Christ's Hospital, March 1613–1614). On 2 July 1613 he conveyed to St. John's College, Oxford, the advowson of Creeke in Northamptonshire ‘upon trust that one of the ten senior fellows elected from (Merchant Taylors') School should be presented thereto’ (MS. Records of Merchant Taylors' Company). In 1616 Lady Elizabeth Coke, wife of Sir Edward Coke [q. v.], on occasion of the famous quarrel with her husband, was at his request handed over to the hospitality of Craven, who must have entertained her at his house in Leadenhall Street (, Court and Times of James I, Letters of Chamberlain and Carleton, 11 Oct. and 8 Nov. 1617). The king wrote him a letter of thanks, preserved at the Record Office (Calendar of State Papers, vol. xciv. 4 Nov. 1617, the king to Sir William Craven). It was in this year also that he joined with others in subscribing 1,000l. towards the repair and decoration of St. Antholin's Church (, London, bk. iii. p. 514). The last public act recorded of Craven is the laying of the foundation-stone of the new Aldgate on 26 May 1618 (ib. i. 18–19). On 1 July of the same year he attended the court of the Merchant Taylors' Company for the last time, his will being ‘openly read in court’ on the 29th (MS. Records of the Merchant Taylors' Company), and he was buried at St. Andrew Undershaft on 11 Aug., ‘where,’ as Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton, ‘there were above five hundred mourners.’ Craven had issue three sons and two daughters: William [q. v.], John (see below), Thomas, Elizabeth, and Mary. His arms were: or, five fleurs-de-lis in cross sable: a chief wavée azure; crest, a crane or heron rising proper. Motto, 'Virtus in actione consistit.'

The second son,, was founder of the Craven scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge. He was held in high esteem by Charles I, who created him Baron Craven of Ryton, Shropshire, 21 March 1642–3. He died in 1649, and left no issue by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William, lord Spencer. By his will, dated 18 May 1647, he left large charitable bequests to Burnsall, Skipton, Ripon, Ripley, Knaresborough, and Boroughbridge, and money for redeeming captives in Algiers. His most important legacy was that of the manor of Cancerne, near Chichester, Sussex, to provide 100l. for four poor scholars, two at Cambridge and two at Oxford, with preference to his own poor kinsmen. The first award under the bequest was made at Cambridge 16 May 1649. The fund was immediately afterwards sequestrated by parliament, and on 7 May 1651 a petition was presented for the payment of the scholarships. In 1654 the sequestration was discharged. The value of the bequest has since considerably increased, and changes have been made in the methods of the award, but they are still maintained at both universities (, Annals of Cambridge, iii. 428;, Peerage, ed. Brydges, v. 447; , Craven, ed. Morant, p. 510; Sussex Archæological Collections, xix. 110).

[MS. Records of Merchant Taylors' Company and other authorities cited above.]  CRAWFORD, ADAIR (1748–1795), physician and chemist, born in 1748, was a pupil at St. George's Hospital. After he had