CROWLEY, John (1689-1728), of Barking, Suff.

Crowley inherited from his father the Crowley Iron Works in Durham, probably the biggest in the country. One of his sisters married Humphrey Parsons, another Sir John Hynde Cotton; of his daughters, one married the 2nd Earl of Ashburnham, another Sir William Stanhope, and the third Charles Boone. In September 1715 he was arrested on suspicion of being an active Jacobite, but he was soon released. During the Gyllenborg plot in 1716-17 (see Caesar, Charles), he was said to have offered £20,000 for the Pretender’s service.E. Hughes, N. Country Life in 18th Cent. 409; HMC Stuart, ii. 59; iii. 160. Regarded as one of the London Jacobites,Stuart mss 60/144. he was returned in 1722 and 1727, speaking, 26 Oct. 1722, against a motion for increasing the army. He died 2 Jan. 1728, leaving £70,000 to be divided between his children.PCC 6 Brook.