Family and Education

bap. 31 Dec. 1618, 1st s. of John Crosland of Canon Garth, Helmsley by Jane, da. of Henry Atkinson of Little Cattall. m. by 1651, Bridget, da. of John Fleming of Rydal, Westmld., and coh. to her bro. William, 4s. 6da. suc. fa. 1635; kntd. 14 July 1642.1

Offices Held

Col. of horse (royalist) 1642-6; gov. Helmsley Castle 1644; constable, Scarborough Castle July 1660-d.2

Commr. for assessment, Yorks. (N. Riding) Aug. 1660-9, (W. Riding) 1661-9; j.p. (N. and W. Ridings) July 1660-d., York 1663, (E. Riding) 1666-d.; dep. lt. (W. Riding) c. Aug. 1660-d., (N. Riding) 1666-d.; lt. vol. horse (W. Riding) 1661-at least 1663; col. of militia ft. (N. Riding) 1661-d.; commr. for corporations, Yorks. 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662; sub-commr. for prizes, Hull 1665-7.3

Biography

Crosland’s ancestors seem to have been of little account before the 16th century, and he himself inherited only a lease of Helmsley rectory, valued at £100 p.a. Knighted on the eve of the Civil War, he held the neighbouring castle, the property of the Duke of Buckingham, for the King until forced to surrender to Fairfax, and then joined the garrison of Worcester. He was again in arms in the second Civil War, but compounded at one-sixth on 20 Apr. 1649. Shortly afterwards he married a Roman Catholic heiress who brought him property in Lancashire, and in 1653 he was returned as a Papist by the county committee, though he denied the charge. He involved himself in plans for a Cavalier rising in the north in 1655, and was imprisoned at Hull in the spring of 1658.4

In the Convention Christopher Clapham introduced a proviso to the indemnity bill requiring Sir Wilfred Lawson to make reparations to Lady Crosland for the plunder of Rydal, but it was rejected. Crosland himself, ‘a fine gentleman and a good soldier’, was appointed constable of Scarborough and returned for the borough at the general election of 1661. A moderately active Member of the Cavalier Parliament, he was appointed to 37 committees, including the committee of elections and privileges in seven sessions. None of them was of major political significance, but in the first session he was named to those to consider the shortfall in revenue (18 June) and the militia bill (3 Dec.). When the latter measure was returned from the Lords he was among those to whom the proviso for the assessment of peers was referred. He took no part in legislation against Protestant nonconformists, but on 17 Mar. 1663 he was appointed to the committee to hinder the growth of Popery, although soon afterwards he was maintaining a priest, presumably for the use of his wife and children. He was active as a militia officer in the suppression of the Derwentdale Plot, and was rewarded with the forfeited estate of one of the conspirators, a leasehold worth £300 p.a., though he had to pay £2,000 compensation to Sir Thomas Osborne, the landlord. He was twice appointed to committees concerned with the plight of the loyal and indigent officers, and listed as a court dependant in 1664, though he was probably a client of Buckingham, under whom he served in the West Riding volunteers. In partnership with Sir Thomas Gower he tendered unsuccessfully for the Yorkshire excise farm in 1665, but he served as sub-commissioner for prizes in the second Dutch war at a salary of £400 p.a. In this capacity he was involved in an international incident over the detention of a Swedish ship, and taken into custody, but he was released after Lords Arlington and Berkeley had pacified the irate resident. In May 1666 he received as the King’s gift a prize ship called the Black Bear. His last important committee was to receive information about the insolence of Popish priests and Jesuits on 20 Oct. 1666, but Osborne listed him as a court dependant in 1669 and he continued to be named to the elections committee. He died on 20 Aug. 1670 and was buried in Ripon Minster, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament. His younger sons all became priests and his grandson was registered as a Catholic non-juror in 1715.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: P. A. Bolton / Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. i. 184-5.
• 2. List of Officers Claiming (1663), 34; Townshend’s Diary (Worcs. Rec. Soc.) 144; Fairfax Corresp. iii. 120-1; Merc. Pub. 12 July 1660.
• 3. Reresby Mems. 40, 43; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 393; 1666-7, p. 124; H. B. M’Call, Fam. Wandesford, 291; HMC 8th Rep. pt. 1 (1881), 275; Nat. Maritime Mus. Southwell mss 17/15.
• 4. Royalist Comp. Pprs. (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xviii), 198; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1696; D. Underdown, Royalist Conspiracy, 141, 221, 276.
• 5. CJ, viii. 84; Bowman diary, f. 62 v; Reresby Mems. 43, 48-49; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 327; 1664-5, pp. 4, 208; 1665-6, pp. 396, 443; 1670, p. 694; PC 2/58/303, 312, 320; H. Aveling, Northern Catholics, 343; Browning, Danby, i. 29; ii. 30.