Thomas Crooke (priest)

Thomas Crooke (c.1545–1598) was a sixteenth-century English clergyman, who was noted for his strongly

Calvinist views. He was the father of several children, including the lawyer and politician Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet, founder of the town of Baltimore, County Cork, and of Helkiah Crooke

, Court physician to King James I.

Life

He was born at Cransley in Northamptonshire. From his will, we know that he had several siblings and that his father after his mother's death remarried a Mrs. Joyner, who was still alive in 1595. His son Thomas in his will of 1629 left a legacy to "my good old Aunt Hudson", who was probably the elder Thomas's sister; she was still alive in 1635. Sir George Croke, one of the High Court judges who heard the Case of Ship Money, is sometimes referred to as his cousin, but the exact connection between them is unclear.

He went to school in

ordained in 1568 in Norwich and presented to the living of Great Waldingfield, Suffolk in 1571. He graduated Doctor of Theology from Pembroke College, Cambridge

in 1578.

Great Waldingfield- Thomas was vicar here from 1571

From the beginning of his career, he belonged to the "godly elite", the circle of Calvinist clerics who included

will

(a very long and detailed one) he was buried in St. Mary Woolchurch "without superstition or vanity... since it is there that a great part of my poor labours has been bestowed for many years".

Family

His wife was a Miss Samuel. In addition to Sir Thomas Crooke, they had four sons:

Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, who married Stephen's niece Margaret Tyndal Winthrop

.

References

Usher, Brett "Thomas Crooke" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004
Ekin, Des The Stolen Village-Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates O'Brien Press Dublin 2008

Notes

^ "Crooke, Thomas (CRK560T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[1] "Crooke, Thomas (CRK560T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.