The CrokerFamily.co.uk

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History

History

The Croker name can be traced back to the cup bearer of Edward IV. The Crokers went from Devon to Ireland and then spread out across the globe.

Croker Database

We have an extensive database of CROKER births, marriages and deaths, together with information from various 19th Century census returns. There are also occasional CROCKER entries. If you are researching CROKERs in your family tree, please contact us with your query and we will try to help. We are particularly interested in CROKERs in and around Bristol in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Famous Crokers



John Wilson Croker

(December 20, 1780 - August 10, 1857) was a British statesman and author. He was born at Galway, the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1800. Immediately afterwards he entered Lincoln's Inn, and in 1802 he was called to the Irish bar. His interest in the French Revolution led him to collect a large number of valuable documents on the subject, which are now in the British Museum. In 1804 he published anonymously Familiar Epistles to J. F. Jones, Esquire, on the State of the Irish Stage, a series of caustic criticisms in verse on the management of the Dublin theatres. The book ran through five editions in one year. Equally successful was the Intercepted Letter from Canton (1805), also anonymous, a satire on Dublin society. In 1807 he published a pamphlet on The State of Ireland, Past and Present, in which he advocated Catholic emancipation. The following year he entered parliament as member for Downpatrick, obtaining the seat on petition, though he had been unsuccessful at the poll. The acumen displayed in his Irish pamphlet led Spencer Perceval to recommend him in 1808 to Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had just been appointed to the command of the British forces in the Iberian peninsula, as his deputy in the office of chief secretary for Ireland. This connection led to a friendship which remained unbroken till Wellington's death. The notorious case of the Duke of York in connexion with his abuse of military patronage furnished him with an opportunity for distinguishing himself. The speech which he delivered on March 14, 1809, in answer to the charges of Colonel Wardle, was regarded as the most able and ingenious defence of the duke that was made in the debate; and Croker was appointed to the office of secretary to the Admiralty, which he held without interruption under various administrations for more than twenty years. He proved an excellent public servant, and made many improvements which have been of permanent value in the organization of his office. Among the first acts of his official career was the exposure of a fellow-official who had misappropriated the public funds to the extent of £200,000. In 1827 he became the representative of the university of Dublin, having previously sat successively for the boroughs of Athlone, Yarmouth (Isle of Wight), Bodmin and Aldeburgh. He was a determined opponent of the Reform Bill, and vowed that he would never sit in a reformed parliament; he left parliament in 1832. Two years earlier he had retired from his post at the admiralty on a pension of £1500 a year. Many of his political speeches were published in pamphlet form, and they show him to have been a vigorous and effective, though somewhat unscrupulous and often virulently personal, party debater. Croker had been an ardent supporter of Robert Peel, but finally broke with him when he began to advocate the repeal of the Corn Laws. Croker is said to have been the first to use (Jan. 1830) the term "conservative". He was for many years one of the leading contributors on literary and historical subjects to the Quarterly Review, with which he had been associated from its foundation. The rancorous spirit in which many of his articles were written did much to embitter party feeling. It also reacted unfavourably on Croker's reputation as a worker in the department of pure literature by bringing political animosities into literary criticism. He had no sympathy with the younger school of poets who were in revolt against the artificial methods of the 18th century, and he was responsible for the famous Quarterly article on John Keats. Croker was criticised by Macaulay for his magnum opus, his edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson (1831). With all its defects the work had merits which Macaulay was not concerned to point out, and Croker's researches have been of the greatest value to subsequent editors. There is little doubt that Macaulay had personal reasons for his attack on Croker, who had more than once exposed in the House the fallacies that lay hidden under the orator's brilliant rhetoric. Croker made no immediate reply to Macaulay's attack, but when the first two volumes of the History appeared he took the opportunity of pointing out the inaccuracies in the work. Croker was occupied for several years on an annotated edition of Alexander Pope's works. It was left unfinished at the time of his death, but it was afterwards completed by the Rev. Whitwell Elwin and Mr WJ Courthope. He died at St Albans Bank, Hampton.

David Croker - Environmental Activist

(April 18, 1932 - July 2, 2006)
David Croker was a major participant in the public enquiries which preceded the building of the major stretch of the M3 around Winchester. He came to national prominence as a vigorous and eloquent leader of the campaign to prevent the digging of a cutting through Twyford Down. In spite of legal challenges in the High Court and the European Court of Justice, the campaign ultimately failed to save the down, but it was a productive failure, which had a wide-ranging impact upon road planning nationally.
Croker's campaigning style was vigorous and passionate, but never sentimental and emotive. It was based upon meticulous research and cogent argument, and he drew upon his professional expertise, honed at IBM, in the technological management of transport issues.
In later years he remained highly motivated by his environmental convictions and continued to campaign for a sustainable transport policy.

Richard "Boss" Croker

18411922, American politician, head of Tammany Hall from 1886 to 1902, b. Co. Cork, Ireland. He became prominent as Democratic leader of New York City's East Side and as an aide of John Kelly. He was elected (1868) alderman and held minor appointive offices, which increased in importance after Kelly succeeded (1871) William M. Tweed as boss. Croker became Kelly's chief lieutenant, and after Kelly's retirement (1884) Croker was the acknowledged Tammany boss. Croker was (1889–90) city chamberlain and brought about the elections of Hugh Grant (1888), Thomas F. Gilroy (1892), and Robert Van Wyck (1897) as mayors. The election (1901) of Seth Low as mayor of New York caused Croker's abdication as Tammany leader, and he was succeeded by Charles F. Murphy. Croker spent the remainder of his life in leisure in England and Ireland. He bred and owned the 1907 Derby winning racehorse, Orby.

Ted Croker

(February 13, 1924 - December 25, 1992) RAF Pilot, Professional footballer with Charlton Athletic, Secretary of the Football Association and inventor of the Croker Sno-Blo.

Thomas Crofton Croker

(January 15, 1798 - August 8, 1854), was an Irish Antiquary, born at Cork, for some years held a position in the Admiralty. He devoted himself largely to the collection of ancient Irish poetry and folk-lore. Among his publications are Researches in the South of Ireland (1824), Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825-27), Popular Songs of Ireland (1837), Daniel O'Rourke (1829), and Barney Mahoney (1832). He assisted in founding the "Camden" and "Percy" Societies.

 

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