Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Croke, John (d.1554)
CROKE, JOHN (d. 1554), lawyer and author, was the son of Richard Croke of Easington, Buckinghamshire, descended from the family of Blount or Le Blount [see Blount, Sir Thomas, ad fin.] His mother was named Alicia. He was educated at Eton, whence he proceeded to Cambridge in 1507 as scholar of King's College. He left the university without taking a degree to study law at the Inner Temple. He became one of the six clerks in chancery in 1522, comptroller and supervisor of the hanaper 19 Sept. 1529, and clerk of the enrolments in chancery 11 Jan. 1534–5. Croke became a serjeant-at-law in 1546; was elected M.P. for Chippenham in 1547, and was master in chancery in 1549. He purchased an estate at Chilton in Buckinghamshire, where he built a large mansion, and was granted many monastery lands, including Studley Priory. He died 2 Sept. 1554, and was buried in Chilton church. Croke's wife, Prudentia, third daughter of Richard Cave and sister of Sir Ambrose Cave [q. v.], died before him. By her he had a son, Sir John Croke, the father of Sir John and Sir George Croke, two judges, both of whom are separately noticed. Croke wrote: 1. ‘Ordinances upon the Estate of the Chancery Court, 1554,’ printed in Sir Alexander Croke's ‘Hist. of Croke Family,’ from Brit. Mus. MS. Lansd. 163. 2. ‘Thirteen Psalms and the first chapter of Ecclesiastes translated into English verse,’ printed by the Percy Society in 1844.
[Harwood's Alumni Eton., p. 132; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab., i. 118; Sir A. Croke's Geneal. Hist. of Croke Family, i. 393, ii. 819, 821, 908.]