Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/69

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suddenly at the Queen's Hotel 10 May 1879, and on 21 June following his personalty was sworn under 1,200,000l. His son, William Crawshay, succeeded to the management of the extensive coalfields, and inherited his father's estate at Caversham in Berkshire.

[Engineer, 16 May 1879, p. 359; Journal of Iron and Steel Instit. 1879, pp. 328–30; Practical Mag. 1873, pp. 81–4 (with portrait).]

G. C. B.

CRAWSHAY, WILLIAM (1788–1867), ironmaster, the eldest son of William Crawshay of Stoke Newington, Middlesex, was born in 1788, and on the death of his grandfather, Richard Crawshay, became sole proprietor of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, near Merthyr Tydvil, South Wales. He was of all the Crawshays the finest type of the iron king. His will was law: in his home and business he tolerated no opposition. With his workmen he was strictly just. His quickness of perception and unhesitating readiness of decision and action made his success as an ironmaster when railways were first introduced. States wanted railways; he found the means, repaid himself in shares, and large profits soon fell into his hands. Before 1850 there were six furnaces at Cyfarthfa, giving an average yield per furnace of sixty-five tons; but under his management there were soon eleven furnaces, and the average yield was 120 tons, and the engine power was worked up to a point representing five thousand horse. He had ten mines in active work turning out iron ore, eight to ten shafts and collieries, a domain with a railway six miles in length, and large estates in Berkshire, Gloucestershire, and in other districts. Crawshay was in the habit of stacking bar iron during bad times; at one period during a slackness of trade Crawshay stacked forty thousand tons of puddled bars; prices went up, and in addition to his regular profit he cleared twenty shillings per ton extra upon his stock, realising by his speculative tact 40,000l. in this venture. In 1822 he served as sheriff of Glamorganshire. When Austria and Russia menaced the asylum of the Hungarians in Turkey in 1849, he subscribed 500l. in their behalf. He died at his seat, Caversham Park, Reading, 4 Aug. 1867, aged 79, leaving directions that he was to be buried within four clear days, and in a common earth grave. His personalty was sworn on 7 Sept. under two millions. The whole of his property in Wales was left to his son, Robert Thompson Crawshay [q. v.], his holdings in the Forest of Dean to his son, Henry Crawshay, and his estates at Treforest to Francis Crawshay. He was three times married.

[Gent. Mag. September 1867, pp. 933–5; Mining Journal, 10 Aug. 1867, p. 532; Engineer, 16 May 1879, p. 359.]

G. C. B.

CREAGH, PETER (d. 1707), catholic prelate, was probably a relative of Sir Michael Creagh, who was lord mayor of Dublin in 1688. On 4 May 1676 he was nominated by the propaganda to the united bishoprics of Cork and Cloyne, and on 9 March 1692–1693 he was, on the recommendation of James II, translated to the archbishopric of Dublin. He encountered great difficulties and troubles, was obliged to fly to France, and died at Strasburg in 1707.

[Brady's Episcopal Succession, i. 338, ii. 91; D'Alton's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 457.]

T. C.

CREAGH, RICHARD (1525?–1585), catholic archbishop of Armagh, called also Crvagh, Crewe, and in Irish O'Mulchreibe, was born about 1525, being the son of Nicholas Creagh, a merchant of the city of Limerick, and Johanna [White], his wife. Having obtained a free bourse from the almoner of Charles V, he went to the university of Louvain, where he studied arts as a convictor ‘in domo Standonica,’ and afterwards theology in the Pontifical College. He proceeded B.D. in 1555.

In or about 1557 he returned to Limerick, and in August 1562 he left that city for Rome by direction of the nuncio, David Wolfe. At this period he had a strong desire to enter the order of Theatines, but the pope dissuaded him from carrying out his intention. On 23 March 1563–4 he was appointed archbishop of Armagh. In October 1564 he reached London. Towards the close of that year he landed in Ireland, probably at Drogheda, and almost immediately afterwards he was arrested while celebrating mass in a monastery. He was sent in chains to London and committed to the Tower on 18 Jan. 1564–5. On 22 Feb. he was interrogated at great length by Sir William Cecil in Westminster Hall; and he was again examined before the recorder of London on 17 March, and a third time on 23 March. On the octave of Easter he escaped from the Tower and proceeded to Louvain, where he was received with great kindness by Michael Banis, president of the Pontifical College. After a short stay there he went to Spain, and about the beginning of 1566 he returned to Ireland. In August that year he had an interview with Shan O'Neil at Irish Darell, near Clondarell, in the county of Armagh.

On 8 May 1567 he was arrested in Connaught, and in August was tried for high treason in Dublin. Though acquitted, he