The Craddock or Cradock or Cradocke family appears on this Man family web site for the following reason: in about 1635 Tobias Cradock married Susannah Bourne and they had at least two children:  Richard and Susannah.  Susannah married Dr. Henry Barnes and they had a daughter Susannah Barnes who married John Balchen.  John and Susannah's granddaughter Mary Balchen married John Man.  (i.e. Craddock > Barnes > Balchen > Man).  Because Susannah's brother Richard had an interesting career and also because his descendants include such important families as: the earls of Bessborough (Ponsonby), the earls of Jersey (Villiers), the earls of Westmoreland (Fane) and others we have created a separate page HERE just for him.

The Man family has a long history of researching its roots and the following facts are well known. On 26 February 1746/7 John Man (1718-1783) married Mary Balchen (1721-1798) at Holy Trinity, The Minories. John and Mary are the common ancestors of the Man family as all members are descended from their two sons: either Henry (1748-1799) or James (1755-1823).  Mary Man's sister, Elizabeth Balchen (1719-1796), married George Cumberland on 21 September 1749 and they had two children: Richard Dennison (1752-1825) and George (1754-1848). What we did not know until 2008 was how the Man family was connected to the Craddock family and Richard in particular and so what follows is a description of how the connection was made.

Early in the 20th Century a young woman by the name of Clementina Black set out for the British Museum and there began reading the fifteen volumes of the correspondence of George Cumberland and his brother Richard. She appears only to have managed reading the first volume but from this she produced a book called The Cumberland Letters (1912). In her introduction she writes about George and Richard's family as follows:

"On their mother's side [Elizabeth Balchen] they were of a creditable family. The great names among the Balchens were those of Admiral Sir John Balchen and a certain Richard Cradoc, described as having been a consul in Persia under Charles II, and as having returned to London in the year of the Great Fire, that is, in 1666."

Previous family researchers have not had much to say about the Balchens, indeed beyond Mary and Elizabeth's parents nothing much was known. Attempts have been made to connect this Balchen family to that of Admiral Sir John Balchen, but these have so far failed. An explanation as to why this has failed can be found here. Furthermore, the question of who Richard Craddock was and how he fits into the picture has remained unanswered until now. Indeed one suspects that, before The Cumberland Letters was published, Richard's existence was unknown among family members. Now we can piece together the relation between the Craddock and Man families .

We have noted above that around 1635 a young lawyer from London's Gray's Inn by the name of Tobias Craddock married Susannah Bourne and they had at least two children Susannah and Richard. Susannah married Henry Barnes of Somerset and they had a large family including a daughter Susannah (1663-1737). On 10 November 1691 at St Mary Abchurch, Susannah married a successful London linen draper by the name of John Balchen (1658-1721). In their turn John and Susannah had a large family, the eldest son of whom, Richard Balchen (1692-1738), an apothecary, was the father Mary Man and Elizabeth Cumberland. Thus for the first time we now know how Richard Cradock 'a consul in Persia' is related to the Balchen family, he being the great great uncle of Mary Man and Elizabeth Cumberland. Richard's father, Tobias is the common ancestor of all those members of the Man family recorded on these pages after 1740 and who are alive today.

A number of pieces of evidence tie Richard Craddock to the Balchen family in the manner described above but the most straightforward piece, discovered by Ed Man, is Richard's will dated 16th February, 1710, in which he says:

"I give, devise and bequeath to my Niece Susannah Balchen, her Heirs and Assignees all those my Messuages, Lands, Tenements and hereditaments situate and being in the County of Somerset which I bought of Henry Barnes, Deceased, To hold to my said Niece, her Heirs and Assignees forever."

Another piece of evidence comes from a court case (Jodrell against Cropp) in which Martha Balchen (Mary Man's mother) along with her recently married daughter Elizabeth Cumberland and various other members of the Balchen family are in a protracted legal battle over the codicil to the will of Sarah Boulter, one of Richard Craddock's daughters. The court case can be read here.

Having now established the relation between the Craddocks and the Mans via the Balchens, we will look more carefully at the Craddock family and in particular the descendants of our great (X8) uncle Richard Craddock.

The Craddocks are first found in Yorkshire, with some also in Co Durham. Tobias's father was John Craddock, our great (X9) grandfather, who attended Oxford as an undergraduate and then gained an MA from Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1601. On his appointment to the vicarage of Gainford in 1594, he purchased property in the parish and built Gainford Hall.

John Craddock was appointed chancellor and vicar general to Bishop Neile of Durham and in 1621 he became a J.P. and was an extremely diligent and zealous magistrate, perhaps overly so when it came to enforcing church doctrine. According to the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) Craddock and other members of the Cathedral's clergy (known as The Durham House group) took control over civil society in the north of England through their dominance of the bench of justices of the peace. In the parliament of 1621 it was claimed that the clergy outnumbered the gentry on the Durham commission of the peace. Neile's close advisor Chancellor Craddock, was certainly a more conscientious attender of meetings than many members of the gentry, and so he might well have dominated some sessions.

John Craddock died in 1627 and it was confidently rumoured that he had been poisoned by his wife (our great grandmother)! She was accused, tried, and acquitted although no records of this trial have yet been found.  Meanwhile we will move forward in time and down to London and take a look at Richard Craddock’s career.

As already mentioned above, Susannah and Richard's father was Tobias or Toby who was a barrister of Grays Inn.  Of their mother's family - Bourne - we know nothing, as yet.  Susannah and Richard's grandfather was John Craddock, D.D. who married Margaret Bateman the widow of a man called Robinson.  Of Margaret's family we know only that her father was William Bateman of Westmoreland. John Craddock's father was another John who married Ann Latus. To learn more about the Latus family follow this link. In turn John's father was another John who married Elizabeth Raine/Rayne daughter of George of Thringarth.  So going back in time on the maternal sides of these ancestors marrying into the Craddock we have:  Bourne (m. Toby) > Bateman (m. John) > Latus  (m. John) > Raine (m. John) > Tempest. To view a pdf document containing a genealogy of the Craddock family click here.  Of interest too is the Huddlestone family, the Waddington family, the Long family and the Cropp family. 

The Craddocks are found in Yorkshire and Durham. The earliest Cradddock that we know much about is Toby's father, John Craddock, our great (X9) grandfather, who attended Oxford as an undergraduate and who then became a Doctor of Divinity.  On his appointment to the vicarage of Gainford in 1594, he purchased property in the parish and built Gainford Hall.

John Craddock, D.D. was then appointed Archdeacon of Northumberland in 1604 (for more on this click here (<-- pdf)) and afterwards he was made Chancellor to the Bishop of Durham (Neilie) in 1619, as well as a J.P.  However, he was soon embroiled in a series of legal cases which are described here (<--- pdf) as he appears to have been an extremely diligent and zealous magistrate, perhaps overly so when it came to enforcing church doctrine.  According to the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) Craddock and other members of the Cathedral’s clergy (known as The Durham House Group) took control over civil society in the north of England through their dominance of the bench of justices of the peace. In the parliament of 1621 it was objected to strongly that the clergy outnumbered the gentry on the Durham commission of the peace and Craddock was certainly a more conscientious attender of meetings than were many members of the gentry, and so he might well have dominated some sessions.

John Craddock died in 1627 and it was confidently rumoured that he had been poisoned by his wife (our great grandmother)! She was accused, tried, and acquitted although records of this trial have not yet been found.   Another son of John's - Sir Joseph Craddock - married firstly Elizabeth Cruse and had by her Margaret who married Ralph Bowes. By his second wife Jane Maxton he had a daughter Peregrina who married Sir William Chaytor.  Jane Maxton's sister Ann married Thomas Bowes.  Joseph Craddock's father-in-law Anthony Maxton was: "... prebendary of the eighth stall at Durham, to which he was collated May 23, IK33. A Scotchman by birth, and recommended to Bishop Morton by Charles I Deacon, 1008, priest, 1609. Collated to Wolsingham rectory, June 21, 1614 : Middleton-in-Teesdale, July 10, 1619. Died about 1641, and was interred at Wolsingham. Left no son. Married his youngest daughter to Bowes of Streatlam; another to Sir Joseph Cradock; and another to Thomas Featherstone of Stanhope.  See Hutchinson, Hist Durham, ii. 201-202.

Joseph Craddock hid some of the cathedral plate in his garden at Harperley, as recorded, ante pp. 42, 63."  Joseph Craddock was also the Bishop of Chester's commissary and as such he acted against local Quakers, including George Fox, and his interactions with such folk can be read here.

There is much speculation but not a great deal of proof as to the connection between this Craddock family and the family of the same name originating in Caverswall in Staffordshire.  A short paper on this topic will be placed here shortly. A comparison of the two homes - Caverswall in Staffordshire and Gainford in Durham - where these two possible branches of the Craddock family lived can be viewed here.

Other Craddocks married into interesting families. For instance Anne Craddock married William Tweddell although there were no off spring. William's father John lived an interesting life which was captured in the book: 'Remains of the late John Tweddell: being a selection of his letters written ....' (<--- at least I believe this John  to be Anne's father-in-law).

In the 19th - 20th centuries some Craddocks achieved a certain renown militarily. For instance three brothers: Major Sheldon Cradock (1858-1922) served in the Boer War and World War I with distinction; Lt. Col. Montagu Cradock (1858-1929) was noted for campaigns both in Egypt and South Africa (and was the author, in 1904, of a book called Sport in New Zealand, all about the abundant fish & game, shooting, horse racing, yachting and polo found in that country.  This 300 page book can be read HERE.  And lastly Sir Christopher Cradock (1862-1914) who rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and who served in the Sudan and China and was later killed in action during the battle of Coronel.

An important article written by William Boutflower and that appeared in Archeologia Aeliana in 1918 on the long court case surrounding Thomas Cradock's will can be read here. Note the pages numbering is wrong -- the article is complete -- page 55 was mistakenly printed as 56 so there is no missing page 55.