William Crocker (of Devon)

William Crocker (fl. 14th c.), living during the reign of King Edward III (1327-1377), of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, was a Member of Parliament.[2] His descendants were the prominent Crocker family seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740. William Crocker is the earliest member of the family recorded in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon,[3] although one of his ancestors is known to have been Richard Crocker (fl.1335) of Devon, England, a Member of Parliament for Tavistock (UK Parliament constituency) in Devon in 1335.[4]

Canting arms of Croker of Lyneham: Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three crows proper[1]

The earliest known Devonshire seat of the Crocker family was Crocker's Hele,[5] in the parish of Meeth,[6] (in 2016 a 7-acre solar farm[7]) which in the 14th century was abandoned by William's grandson John II Crocker in favour of Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon, which he had inherited from his wife Alice Gambon, daughter and heiress of John Gambon of Lyneham.[4]

The Crocker family is believed to be one of the most ancient in Devon, reputedly of Anglo-Saxon origin, very rare for English gentry who mostly descend from Norman invaders who took part in the Norman Conquest of 1066. According to "that old saw often used among us in discourse", the traditional rhyme related by Prince (d.1723):[8]

"Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,
When the Conqueror came were at home"

The last male of the Crocker family of Lyneham was Courtenay Crocker (d.1740),[9] several times MP for Plympton.[10] The Cruwys family in 2014 still resides in its ancient manor house at Cruwys Morchard where, despite the traditional rhyme which seeks to give it Anglo-Saxon origins, it is first recorded in the reign of King John (1199-1216), or possibly a little earlier.[11] The senior branch of the Coplestone family died out in the male line in 1632,[12] but the Coplestones of Bowden in the parish of Ashprington survived a further century until the death without progeny of Thomas Coplestone (1688-1748), MP, whose heirs in 1753 sold Bowden to William Pollexfen Bastard of Kitley.[13]

References
  1. Pole, Sir William (d. 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p. 478
  2. Constituency not stated in biography of his son; own History of Parliament biography not on-line as of 2016
  3. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.254, pedigree of Croker of Lyneham
  4. "CROCKER, John, of Tavistock and Hele, Devon. - History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  5. Vivian, p.254
  6. Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.434; Pole, p.379; Risdon, p.261
  7. "Members Login - Devon Planning Applications - CPRE Devon". www.cpredevon.org.uk.
  8. Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, p.274
  9. Lysons, Daniel & Samuel, Magna Britannia, Volume 6, Devonshire (1822), Families removed since 1620, pp.173-225
  10. Prince, p.273
  11. Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.380
  12. Vivian, p.225, on the death of John V Copleston (1609-1632)
  13. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.389
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