James Croft

Sir James Croft PC (c.1518 – 4 September 1590) was an English politician, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland, and MP for Herefordshire in the Parliament of England.

He was born the second but eldest surviving son of Sir Edward Croft of Croft Castle and his second wife Catherine Herbert, daughter of Sir Richard Herbert of Herefordshire, inheriting the estate on his father's death in 1562.

He was elected seven times as knight of the shire (MP) for Herefordshire (1542, 1563, 1571, 1572,1584, 1586 and 1589) and knighted in 1547.

During the Anglo-Scottish war of the Rough Wooing, Sir James was made commander of Haddington after James Wilford was captured in 1549. He was appointed lord deputy of Ireland on 23 May 1551. There he effected little beyond gaining for himself the reputation of a conciliatory disposition. On 21 December 1551, he wrote from Kilmainham to his former enemy Mary of Guise in Scotland, negotiating an exchange of hostages;

"Consydering the peaxe betwext the king my master and your grace, with the honnour that I had of your highness when I was at Haddington, it hath made me the bolder to become an humble suiter to your grace."

In January 1552 he was commissioned to look into the state of mining in Ireland and a controversy between the miners Robert Recorde and Joachym Goodenfynger. He acquired Tintern Abbey which later passed to the Colclough Baronets.

Croft was all his life a double-dealer. He was imprisoned in the Tower at the accession of Mary, for his support of Lady Jane Grey. He had been arrested by an officer of the Council of Wales on 21 February 1553. On his release he joined with Wyatt's rebellion. He was pardoned, and subsequently treated with consideration by Elizabeth after her accession.

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