Mitford Crowe

Mitford Crowe or Crow (1669–1719) was an English merchant, politician, diplomat and colonial administrator.

Mitford Crowe, 1703 engraving by John Smith after Thomas Murray

Life

Mitford Crowe was the son of Patrick Crowe of Ashington, Northumberland, and brother of Christopher Crowe, diplomat, who married Charlotte, daughter of Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, widow of Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore. Mitford Crowe was first apprenticed to a Barbados merchant. He then into trade on his own account in Barcelona.[1] He was Member of Parliament for Southampton 1701–2.[2]

In early 1702 Crowe was nominated for the position of governor of Barbados; but he was instructed just days before the death of the king. On this occasion Bevil Granville became governor.[3][4]

Crowe was employed as British diplomatic agent in Catalonia, where he persuaded the Catalans to support the cause of Archduke Charles of Austria, the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne.[2] Sidney Godolphin sent him first to Genoa to contact the Catalans; and Cloudesley Shovell was required to liaise with Crowe on an attack against Barcelona.[5]

Lord Fairfax made Crowe one of the trustees under his patent for securing all wrecks occurring in the West Indies, and he was governor of Barbados from 1707 to 1711.[2] He quarrelled with the Barbados council, and Christopher Codrington stepped in to mediate.[6] Crowe's replacement Robert Lowther was appointed in July 1710 but was tardy in arriving on the island.[7]

Crowe was on good terms with Jonathan Swift, and is mentioned in Swift's letters from London in 1710–12. He died 15 December 1719.[2]

References

Notes
  1. Davies, J. D. "Crowe, Mitford". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6819. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Crow, Mitford" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  3. Cecil Headlam (editor) (1912). "Preface". Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 20: 1702. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 24 November 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Cecil Headlam (editor) (1912). "America and West Indies: March 1702, 2-5". Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 20: 1702. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 24 November 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  5. Roy A. Sundstrom (1992). Sidney Godolphin: Servant of the State. University of Delaware Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-87413-438-4. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  6. Mandelbrote, Scott. "Codrington, Christopher". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5795. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. Cecil Headlam (editor) (1924). "Preface". Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 25: 1710-1711. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 24 November 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Crow, Mitford". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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