James Crofts (c. 1683–1732) was an officer of the British Army.

Biography

Born about 1683, Crofts was the natural son of

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlan ...

, by his mistress Eleanor Needham, a daughter of Sir Robert Needham. His father led the failed

Monmouth Rebellion The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ir ...

of 1685 and was beheaded in July of that year. The surname Crofts had been used by his father. Crofts entered the Army in the early part of the reign of Queen Anne, rose to the rank of colonel by 1706, and in 1718 succeeded Sir Robert Rich in the command of a regiment of dragoons, which was disbanded later the same year. On 6 July 1719 he obtained the colonelcy of the regiment of dragoons later known as the

9th Queen's Royal Lancers The 9th Queen's Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First and Second World Wars. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in forces, but w ...

, and in 1727 he was promoted to the rank of major-general. He died at his house in

Downing Street Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk ...

, London, in March 1732.

Descendants

Allan Fea Allan Fea (25 May 1860 – 9 June 1956), was a British historian, specializing in the English Civil Wars period and the House of Stuart, and an antiquary, after a first career as a clerk at the Bank of England. Life Fea was born at St Pancras, Lon ...

states that Crofts married a daughter of Sir Thomas Taylor (“after 1706, when he is described as single”) and had a daughter, Maria Julia; and that she married first a Mr Dalziel and secondly R. Wentworth Smyth-Stuart, who claimed to be Monmouth’s son by Henrietta Maria Wentworth.

John Ferdinand Smyth Stuart John Ferdinand Smyth Stuart (1745 – 20 December 1814), known until 1793 as John Ferdinand Smyth and mostly after that as Ferdinand Smyth Stuart, was a Scottish-born American loyalist and physician who claimed to be a great-grandson of King ...

claimed to be the son of this marriage, but many of his claims have been challenged by

Anthony J. Camp Anthony John Camp (born November 1937) is a British genealogist and former director of the Society of Genealogists. Early life and education Camp was born at Walkern, near Stevenage, Hertfordshire. His father was an agricultural carpenter and ...

. In another theory, James Crofts and his mistress Grace Camfield had a daughter who married Gibson Dalziel and was the mother of Maria Julia Dalziel, who then married Colonel Charles Smyth, the son of Monmouth and Lady Wentworth. However, the mother of Gibson Dalziel’s lawful children was an illegitimate daughter of John Augier.Gibson Dalzell, born 1698, the son of General Robert Dalziel, died in London in 1756, leaving estates in Jamaica to a daughter, Frances, and a son, Robert. The mother of his children was Susanna Caillard or Augier, daughter of John Augier (d. 1722), a Jamaica planter who freed his illegitimate children (including Susanna) in his will.
Will of Gibson Dalziel
PCC, 1756, ancestry.co.uk )

References

1732 deaths British Army major generals 9th Queen's Royal Lancers officers Year of birth uncertain {{British-Army-bio-stub