Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
1598-1679. An English lawyer and politician, who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1660. He was a Puritan and sided with the Parliamentary cause during the Civil War. He was raised to a peerage as Baron Crew by Charles II after the Restoration.
His wife, Jemima (nee Waldegrave). Their children: Thomas, Nathaniel. Jemima, Anne, Samuel.
This text was copied from Wikipedia on 14 November 2024 at 6:10AM.
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John Crew, 1st Baron Crew of Stene (1598 – 12 December 1679) was an English lawyer and politician, who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1660. He was a Puritan and sided with the Parliamentary cause during the Civil War. He was raised to a peerage as Baron Crew by Charles II after the Restoration.
Crew was the son of Sir Thomas Crew of Nantwich, Cheshire and Steane and his wife Temperance Bray, daughter of Reynold Bray of Steane. His father was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1623 to 1625. Crew entered Gray's Inn in 1615 and matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford on 26 April 1616, aged 18. He was called to the bar in 1624.[1]
In 1624, Crew was elected Member of Parliament for Amersham and was re-elected in 1625. He was elected MP for Brackley in 1626. In 1628 he was elected MP for Banbury and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[1]
In April 1640, Crew was elected MP for Brackley in the Short Parliament. He was elected MP for Northamptonshire in November 1640 for the Long Parliament. He voted against the attainder of Strafford, but supported Parliament when Civil War came, although he was a moderate, suspicious of the Army and supported the Self-Denying Ordinance. He was chosen chairman of the Commons Committee on Religion, was one of the parliamentary commissioners sent to negotiate with the Royalists at Uxbridge in 1645, and was one of those entrusted with the custody of the King at Holdenby House after the Scots handed him over to Parliament in 1647. However, the following year the army leaders, knowing that he would oppose the trial of the King, had him arrested and he was excluded from his parliamentary seat in Pride's Purge. He returned to the Commons as MP for Northamptonshire in 1654 for the First Protectorate Parliament but was once again excluded by the government. Despite this, he was summoned by the Lord Protector to sit in his new House of Lords, which first met in 1658. After the collapse of the restored Rump he resumed his seat in the briefly resurrected unpurged House, then was elected once more for Northamptonshire in the Convention Parliament. He was appointed to the Council of State, and was one of the delegation sent to meet Charles II at The Hague and arrange his return to the throne.
On 20 April 1661, Crew was created Baron Crew of Stene in recognition of his efforts to promote the Restoration, and thereafter retired from active politics. A wealthy man, he had bought a large house in Lincoln's Inn Fields during the 1650s, and was a well-regarded host; Samuel Pepys, who was a retainer and poor relation of his son-in-law Edward Montagu and mentions him many times in his diaries, was a frequent guest.
Crew died in 1679 and was buried at Steane, Northamptonshire.[1]
Crew married Jemima Waldegrave, daughter of Edward Waldegrave of Lawford Hall in Essex.[1] Their children included:
John Crew, born 1598, eldest son of Sir Thomas Crew, Sergeant-at-Law and Speaker of the House of Commons. He sat for Brackley in the Long Parliament. Created Baron Crew of Stene, in the county of Northampton, at the coronation of Charles II. He married Jemima, daughter and co-heir of Edward Walgrave (or Waldegrave) of Lawford, Essex. His house was in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He died December 12th, 1679.
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
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Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.
10 Annotations
First Reading
language hat • Link
Description of John Crew(e) and family
from Bryant's Pepys bio:
"[Pepys] often dined at the table of Montagu's father-in-law, the Presbyterian magnate, John Crewe, at his fine new house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here he was always welcome: the Crewes, for all their greatness, were simple-hearted folk, and with the young members of the family, Lady Montagu and her brothers, Thomas and John, Pepys was almost on terms of equality. As for old John Crewe himself, he was always ready to discuss business or politics with this intelligent, respectful, prudent young man, his son-in-law's servant and kinsman, as he waited at his bedside or coach door. Only his wife was somewhat of a trial: 'the same, weak, silly lady as ever', Pepys found her long after, 'asking such saintly questions'."
David Gurliacci • Link
Crew, Charles I, and Hinchingbrooke
In 1647, Charles I had been put in the custody of the puritans controlling parliament, and John Crew was one of those responsible for overseeing him in Northamptonshire.
In June, the army snatched the king from parliament's control, although Crew still may have accompanied him. The captive king, his military controllers and "probably Crew," all visited Hinchingbrooke, where Crew's pregnant daughter, Jemima Montagu, was then mistress.
(Source: Claire Tomalin's "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self," 2002, p. 28)
David Gurliacci • Link
1648 -- A "secluded member" of parliament
Crew was one of the members of parliament who were removed in Pride's Purge of December 1648. The purge removed members who were not enthusiastic about putting King Charles I on trial.
chip • Link
And it was this Parliament that remained that was called the Rump. When one realizes how all this was in the minds of the next several generations, it is easier to see happenings in the colonies and France as predetermined.
vicente • Link
Ld. Crewe introduced.
In the like Manner John Lord Crewe was introduced, between the Lord Mountagu and the Lord Rockingham; and his Writ being read, he was brought to the Barons Bench, and placed next below the Lord Ashley
From: British History Online
Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 11 May 1661. House of Lords Journal Volume 11, ().
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
vicenzo • Link
Headlines jan 9th in the daily Grail 'Lord Crewe gets to decide the fate of curates and their stipen'
ORDERED, That the Lord Crewe is added to the Committee for Allowances to Curates.
From: British History Online
Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 9 January 1662. Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11, ().
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Date: 13/01/2005
Terry F • Link
"He had three brothers: Thomas (of Crawley, Hunts.), Nathaniel (of Gray's Inn), and Salathiel (of Hinton, Northants.)" L&M, iii.253.n2.
Terry Foreman • Link
John Crew, 1st Baron Crew of Stene (1598 – 12 December 1679) was an English Puritan politician, who sided with the Parliamentary cause during the Civil War but was raised to a peerage by Charles II after the Restoration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John…
Second Reading
Bill • Link
CREW, JOHN, first Baron Crew of Stene (1598-1679), son of Sir Thomas Crew; M.P. for Amersham, 1625, for Brackley, 1626, 1640, for Banbury, 1628, for Northamptonshire, 1640; voted against Strafford's attainder, 1641 ; supported the 'self-denying ordinance'; arrested among the 'secluded members' for not approving Charles I's trial, 1648; M.P. for Northamptonshire, 1654, 1660; one of the council of state, 1660; met Charles II at the Hague; created Baron Crew of Stene, 1661.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Crew MP’s grandfather was a tanner of Nantwich, who put his two sons to the law. Both became Speakers of the House of Commons, a record which remains unique.
John Crew, a moderate Parliamentarian in the Civil Wars, was imprisoned at Pride’s Purge. Although summoned to Cromwell’s ‘Other House’, he never took his seat.
He returned to Westminster with the secluded Members, and moved the resolution condemning the execution of King Charles.
John Crew MP was returned for Northamptonshire for the third time at the general election of 1660. It is probable that most of the 19 references in the Journals are to him rather than to his son.
He derived additional political weight from the part played by his son-in-law Edward Montagu in the Restoration.
His only known speech was unfortunate; Pepys records on 29 Apr. 1660 that, according to Montagu, ‘Mr Crew did go a little too far the other day in keeping out the young lords from sitting’.
He served on the committees for the abolition of the court of wards and the continuance of the Convention, and took part in drawing up the instructions for the messengers to Charles II and the conference on the King’s reception.
John Crew MP was one of the delegation that met Charles II at The Hague. After the King’s return, as a leading Presbyterian he seems to have been chiefly interested in the bill for settling ministers, helping to draw up a proviso on crown livings.
Crew received a peerage in the coronation honours, and retired from public life. His Northamptonshire estate was estimated at £1,660 p.a.
Pepys describes his household as ‘the best family in the world for goodness and sobriety’. There is no evidence that he conformed, and on Christmas Eve 1662 he lamented the fate of ‘the poor ministers who are put out, to whom, he says, the King is beholden for his coming in, and that if any such thing had been foreseen, he had never come in’.
John, Lord Crew was considered an opposition peer from 1675 until his death on 12 Dec. 1679. He and was buried at Steane.
Highlights from https://www.historyofparliamenton…