John Crowley (3 November 1689 – 1728) of

Barking, Suffolk Barking is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is west of Needham Market on the B1078 road. The village is linear along the road with its centre being around the area known as Barking Tye ...

, was a British politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1722 to 1728. Crowley was the son of Sir Ambrose Crowley, MP and his wife Mary Owen, daughter of Charles Owen of London. He succeeded his father in 1713 and inherited the Crowley Iron Works in Durham, probably the biggest in the country. He married by a settlement dated 7 December 1715, Theodosia Gascoyne, daughter of Rev. Joseph Gascoyne of Enfield, Middlesex and Barking, Suffolk. One of his sisters married

Humphrey Parsons Humphrey Parsons ( – ) was an English merchant and Tories (British political party), Tory politician who twice served as Lord Mayor of London in 1730 and 1740. He also sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain, British House of Commons from ...

, another

Sir John Hynde Cotton, 3rd Baronet Sir John Hynde Cotton, 3rd Baronet (bap. 1686 – 1752) of Madingley Hall, Cambridgeshire was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons for 44 years from 1708 to 1752. The historian Eveline Crui ...

. In September 1715 he was arrested on suspicion of being an active Jacobite, but he was soon released. During the Gyllenborg plot in 1716 and 1717, he was said to have offered £20,000 for the Pretender's service. Crowley was a Freeman of the Draper's Company, and was a Common Councillor for. Dowgate, London from 1721 to 1727. He was regarded as one of the London Jacobites, and was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based i ...

at the

1722 British general election The 1722 British general election elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This was the fifth such election since the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Tha ...

. He spoke against a motion for increasing the army on 26 October 1722. In 1723 he stood unsuccessfully for Alderman for Billingsgate. At the

1727 Events January–March * January 1 – (December 21, 1726 O.S.) Spain's ambassador to Great Britain demands that the British return Gibraltar after accusing Britain of violating the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Britain ...

he was returned as MP for

Queenborough Queenborough is a town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England. Queenborough is south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to the Swale where it joins the River M ...

but was unsuccessful in a contest at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. He was elected Alderman for Dowgate on 28 September 1727. Crowley died on 2 January 1728, leaving £70,000 to be divided between his children comprising two sons and four daughters. His daughter Elizabeth married

John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham, PC (30 October 1724 – 8 April 1812), styled Viscount St Asaph from 1730 to 1737, was a British peer and courtier. Early life Ashburnham was the only son of John Ashburnham, 1st Earl of Ashburnham, b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowley, John 1689 births 1728 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Okehampton British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734