Background
James Croft belonged to an old family of Herefordshire, which county he represented in parliament in 1541.
James Croft belonged to an old family of Herefordshire, which county he represented in parliament in 1541.
James Croft was made governor of Haddington in 1549, and became lord deputy of Ireland in 1551.
There he effected little beyond gaining for himself the reputation of a conciliatory disposition.
Croft was all his life a double-dealer.
He was imprisoned in the Tower for treason in the reign of Mary, but was released and treated with consideration by Elizabeth after her accession.
He was made governor of Berwick, where he was visited by John Knox in 1559, and where he busied himself actively on behalf of the Scottish Protestants, though in 1560 he was suspected, probably with good reason, of treasonable correspondence with Mary of Guise, the Catholic regent of Scotland; and for ten years he was out of public employment.
Croft established private relations with Parma, for which on his return he was sent to the Tower.
He was released before the end of 1589, and died on the 4th of September 1590.
Croft's eldest son, Edward, was put on his trial in 1589 on the curious charge of having contrived the death of the earl of Leicester by witchcraft, in revenge for the earl's supposed hostility to Sir James Croft.
By Charles II he was made bishop of Hereford in 1661.
Croft had married twice, firstly Alice, daughter of Richard Warnecombe of Ivington in Leominster and widow of William Wigmore of Shobdon with whom he had three sons (including Edward and James) and four daughters and secondly Catherine, the daughter of Edward Blount.
