then to be accepted as ‘monies doubled upon the act,’ and the total debt computed at 552,000l. to be secured on the crown lands. But though Crisp and his partners were willing to take up this speculation, they could not get together more than 30,000l., and their petitions for more time were refused (Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1653–4, pp. 265, 353, 357). Other speculations were equally unfortunate. Crisp had advanced 1,500l. for the reconquest of Ireland, but when the lands came to be divided among the adventurers the fraud of the surveyors awarded him his share in bog and coarse land (Petition in Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement, p. 241). The prospect of the Restoration gave him hopes of redress, and he forwarded it by all means in his power. He signed the declaration of the London royalists in support of Monck (24 April 1660), and was one of the committee sent by the city to Charles II at Breda (3 May 1660, Kennet, Register, pp. 121, 133). In the following July Crisp petitioned from a prison for the payment of some part of the debt due to him for his advances to the state; his own share of the great sum owing amounted to 30,000l. (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 122). In the next three years he succeeded in obtaining the partial reimbursement of these debts, and the grant of several lucrative employments as compensation for the rest. In May 1661 he obtained for his son the office of collector of customs in the port of London, and in June he became himself farmer of the duty on the export of sea coal. He obtained 10,000l. for his services in compounding the king's debt to the East India Company, and two-thirds of the customs on spices were assigned to him until the remaining 20,000l. of his own debt was repaid (ib. 1661–2, pp. 14, 25, 331, 608). Once more in partnership with the survivors of the old customers he became a contractor for the farm of the customs, and Charles allowed them a large abatement in consideration of the old debt (ib. 1663–4, pp. 123, 676). On 16 April 1665 Crisp received a baronetcy, which lapsed on the death of his great-grandson, Sir Charles Crisp, in 1740. Crisp died 26 Feb. 1665–6. His body was buried in the church of St. Mildred, Bread Street, but his heart was placed in a monument to the memory of Charles I, which he erected in the chapel at Hammersmith. On 18 June 1898 his body was re-interred in the churchyard of St. Paul's, Hammersmith. His widow, Anne, daughter and heiress of Edward Prescott, salter (and apparently goldsmith), of London, signed 31 May 1669 her will, which was not proved till 6 Oct. 1699. The magnificent house built by Crisp at Hammersmith was bought in 1683 by Prince Rupert for his mistress, Margaret Hughes, and became in the present century the residence of Queen Caroline (Lysons, Environs of London, Middlesex, 402–9). Besides his eminent services in the promotion of the African trade Crisp is credited with the introduction of many domestic arts and manufactures. ‘The art of brickmaking as since practised was his own, conducted with incredible patience through innumerable trials and perfected at a very large expense. … By his communication new inventions, as water-mills, paper-mills, and powder-mills, came into use’ (‘Lives of Eminent Citizens,’ quoted in Biographia Britannica).
[Crisp's Collections relating to the Family of Crispe; Cal. of State Papers, Dom.; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Lloyd's Memoirs of Excellent Personages; Biog. Brit. ed. Kippis, vol. iv.]
CRISP, SAMUEL (d. 1783), dramatist, was only son of Samuel Crisp, by Florence, daughter of Charles Williams. At the solicitation of Lady Coventry he wrote a tragedy on the death of Virginia. The play was reluctantly accepted by Garrick, who contributed prologue and epilogue, and on 25 Feb. 1754 it was produced at Drury Lane, where the acting and the exertions of friends kept it running ten nights. But though there was little open censure, it was felt that an experiment had been made on the patience of the public which would not bear repetition. When a few weeks later ‘Virginia’ appeared in print, the critics—the Monthly Reviewers in particular—condemned plot, characters, and diction, with severity and, it must be admitted, with justice. Crisp, however, being under the delusion that he was a great dramatist, devoted himself with ardour to the task of revision, in the hopes of being completely successful in the following year; but Garrick showed little disposition to bring the amended tragedy on the stage, and at length was obliged to return a decided refusal. Crisp in bitter disappointment withdrew to the continent. ‘He became,’ in the words of Macaulay, ‘a cynic and a hater of mankind.’ On his return to England he sought retirement from 1764 with his friend Christopher Hamilton at the latter's country-house, Chessington Hall, not far from Kingston in Surrey, situate on a wide and nearly desolate common and encircled by ploughed fields. Here he was frequently visited by his sister, Mrs. Sophia Gast of Burford, Oxfordshire, by his old friend and protégé Dr. Burney, and by Burney's family. ‘Frances Burney he regarded as his daughter. He called her his Fannikin; and
