Walter Cradock | |
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Born | 1606 |
Died | 1659 | (aged 53)
Occupation | Welsh Anglican clergyman |
Walter Cradock (Craddock, Cradoc) (c. 1606 – 1659) was a Welsh Anglican clergyman, who became a travelling evangelical preacher. He was a founder of the first Independent church in Wales in 1638, at Llanvaches, with William Wroth and William Thomas, an early Baptist.
He was born at Trefela, near Llangwm, Monmouthshire, and is believed to have been educated at the University of Oxford. His first position was as a curate, at Peterston-super-Ely, Glamorgan.
In 1633 William Erbery, Vicar of St.Mary's, Cardiff, Cradock his curate there, and William Wroth, were reported to William Laud, and the Court of High Commission turned them out for unorthodox preaching, and on the technical grounds and acid test of orthodoxy, of refusing to read the Book of Sports. From late in 1634 Cradock spent almost a year in Wrexham, preaching, and making a convert of Morgan Llwyd. From there Cradock had to move to Herefordshire, where he met Vavasor Powell. With John Miles, Cradock, Erbery, Powell, and Llwyd are the group of recognised Puritan leaders, who founded the later Welsh Nonconformist congregations, whether Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian or Quaker.