The Crooke Baronetcy of

Baltimore, County Cork Baltimore (, ; , translated as the "Fort of the Jewels") is a village in western County Cork, Ireland. It is the main village in the parish of Rathmore and the Islands, the southernmost parish in Ireland. It is the main ferry port to Sherkin Isla ...

was a title in the

Baronetage of Ireland Baronets are a rank in the British aristocracy. The current Baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier but existing Baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Great Britain. Baronetage of England (1611–1705) James I of E ...

. It was created for

Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Crooke, 1st Baronet, of Baltimore (1574–1630) was an English-born politician, lawyer and landowner in seventeenth-century Ireland. He is chiefly remembered as the founder of the town of Baltimore, County Cork, which he developed into ...

in 1624. The Crooke family came originally from

Cransley Cransley is a civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It contains the village of Great Cransley but Little Cransley is in the adjacent parish of Broughton. At the time of the 2001 census, Cransley parish had 283 inhabitants, increasing to ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

; Thomas Crooke, the father of the first baronet, was a well-known preacher of strongly

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

views. Sir Thomas Crooke was granted substantial lands in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

in 1607. He founded the town of Baltimore, which was largely destroyed in the

Sack of Baltimore A sack usually refers to a rectangular-shaped bag. Sack may also refer to: Bags * Flour sack * Gunny sack * Hacky sack, sport * Money sack * Paper sack * Sleeping bag * Stuff sack * Knapsack Other uses * Bed, a slang term * Sack (band), an ...

in 1631, and he also gave his name to the village of

Crookhaven Crookhaven () is a village in County Cork, Ireland, on the most southwestern tip of the island of Ireland. With an out-of-season population of about sixty, it swells in the summer season to about four hundred, when the occupants of the seasonal ...

. He sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

as MP for

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

in the Irish Parliament of 1613-15. Although he claimed to have been moved principally by religious fervour in founding Baltimore, he was often accused of having founded the town to profit by the spoils of

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. Baltimore was described as a nest of pirates, which drew most of its wealth from the pirate trade. A

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

investigation in 1608 cleared him of any wrongdoing, but his innocence or guilt is still a matter of debate. The title became dormant in 1666, when the son of the 2nd Baronet, Thomas, obtained a patent on 12 July 1666 for certain lands, and on marrying the sister of the forfeiting proprietor of these lands (Ellen MacDermot MacCarthy, the daughter of Tiege MacDermot

MacCarthy MacCarthy ( ga, Mac Cárthaigh), also spelled Macarthy, McCarthy or McCarty, is an Irish clan originating from Munster, an area they ruled during the Middle Ages. It was divided into several great branches; the MacCarthy Reagh, MacCarthy of Mu ...

), he dropped the title. The Crookes of Crookstown House (near

Crookstown, County Cork Crookstown () is a small village in County Cork in Ireland, about 12 km east of the town of Macroom and about 1 km off the N22 Cork-Killarney road. It had a population of 245 as of the 2016 census, down from 285 in the 2011 census. H ...

) were descended from Sir Thomas.

Crooke Baronets of Baltimore 1624-1666

(1574-1630)Burke, Bernard, Sir. Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland, 4th ed.. London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1958. (page 196-197 Crooke). *Sir Samuel Crooke, 2nd Baronet (d.1635) *Sir Thomas Crooke, 3rd Baronet, who stopped using the title in 1666. *Thomas Crooke, presumed 4th Baronet (d. 1733) *William Crooke, presumed 5th Baronet (d. 1755) *Thomas Crooke, presumed 6th Baronet *William Crooke, presumed 7th Baronet (d. 1799) *William Crooke, presumed 8th Baronet *Thomas Crooke, presumed 9th Baronet (1817-1876) *Richard Crooke, presumed 10th Baronet (1870-1844) *John Crooke, presumed 11th Baronet (1920-?) *Roland Crooke, presumed 12th Baronet (1951-)

References

{{Reflist *Burke, John ''Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Scotland and Ireland'' *Usher, Brett "Sir Thomas Crooke" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' *Ekin, Des ''The Stolen Village-Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates'' O'Brien Press Dublin 2008 *Hanna, Mark G. "Pirate Nests and the rise of the British Empire" University of North Carolina Press 2015
Crooke Genealogy
Dormant baronetcies People from North Northamptonshire Irish people of English descent 1624 establishments in Ireland People from Baltimore, County Cork