William Crashaw

William Crashaw or Butt (1572–1626) was an English cleric, academic, and poet.

The son of Richard Crashaw of Handsworth, South Yorkshire, by his wife, Helen, daughter of John Routh of Waleswood, he was born at Handsworth, and baptised there on 26 October 1572. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, admitted a sizar there on 1 May 1591. Two years afterwards the bishop of Ely's fellowship at St. John's became vacant by the death of Humphrey Hammond; and as the see was then unoccupied, the right of nomination became vested in Queen Elizabeth, who recommended Crashaw.

After being ordained Crashaw became a preacher, first at Bridlington and then at Beverley in Yorkshire. He commenced M.A. in 1595, and proceeded to the degree of B.D. in 1603. In 1604 he was collated to the second prebend in Ripon Minster, and he held it till his death. He was appointed preacher at the Inner Temple.

When Crashaw was presented by Archbishop Edmund Grindal to the rectory of Burton Agnes, Adrian Stokes denied the title of the archbishop to the advowson, and presented William Grene, who was admitted and instituted to the rectory. Sir Edward Coke as attorney-general, took up the dispute on behalf of the Queen, and the result was that Crashaw was removed from the living. He later managed to have this intervention reversed, in 1608. He became prebend of Osbaldwick in York Minster on 2 April 1617, and on 13 November 1618 was admitted to St Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel, London, on the presentation of Sir John North and William Baker.

Crashaw died in 1626, and his will was proved on 16 October of that year.

Crashaw was known as a scholar and preacher, and a strong Protestant. His main works were:

Crashaw was twice married. His first wife was the mother of the poet Richard Crashaw He married secondly, at All Hallows Barking on 11 May 1619, Elizabeth Skinner, daughter of Anthony Skinner of the parish. He commemorated her in a privately printed tractate, The Honovr of Vertve, or the Monument erected by the sorowfull Husband, and the Epitaphes annexed by learned and worthy men, to the immortall memory of that worthy gentlewoman, Mrs. Elizabeth Crashawe, who died in child-birth, and was buried in Whit-Chappell, October 8, 1620. In the 24 yeare of her age; James Ussher preached her funeral sermon, at a funeral noted for its large attendance. Crashaw placed a monument to her memory in the chancel of Whitechapel Church.

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