Herbert Croft
Sir Herbert Croft, 5th Baronet (
November 1 1751 –
April 26 1816),
English author, was born at Dunster Park,
Berkshire, son of
Bishop Croft of Stifford, Essex.
He matriculated at
University College, Oxford, in March 1771, and was subsequently entered at
Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the bar, but in 1782 returned to Oxford with a view to preparing for holy orders. In
1786 he received the vicarage of
Prittlewell, Essex, but he remained at Oxford for some years accumulating materials for a proposed English dictionary. He was twice married, and on the day after his second wedding day he was imprisoned at Exeter for debt.
He then retired to
Hamburg, and two years later his library was sold. He had succeeded in 1797 to the
baronetcy, but not to the estates, of a distant cousin,
Sir John Croft, 4th Baronet. He returned to England in
1800, but went abroad once more in
1802. He lived near
Amiens at a house owned by Lady Mary Hamilton, said to have been a daughter of the
earl of Leven and Melville. Later he removed to Paris, where he died on the 26th of April 1816.
In some of his numerous literary enterprises he had the help of
Charles Nodier. Croft wrote the
Life of
Edward Young inserted in
Samuel Johnson's
Lives of the Poets.
In
1780 he published
Love and Madness, a Story too true, in a series of letters between Parties whose names could perhaps be mentioned were they less known or less lamented. This book, which passed through seven editions, narrates the passion of a clergyman named James Hackman for
Martha Ray, mistress of the
earl of Sandwich, who was shot by her lover as she was leaving Covent Garden in 1779 (see the
Case and Memoirs of the late Rev. Mr James Hackman, 1779).
Love and Madness has permanent interest because Croft inserted, among other miscellaneous matter, information about
Thomas Chatterton gained from letters which he obtained from the poet's sister, Mrs Newton, under false pretences, and used without payment.
Robert Southey, when about to publish an edition of Chatterton's works for the benefit of his family, published (November 1799) details of Croft's proceedings in the
Monthly To this attack Croft wrote a reply addressed to
John Nichols in the
Gentleman's Magazine, and afterwards printed separately as
Chatterton and Love and Madness ... (1800).
This tract evades the main accusation, and contains much abuse of Southey. Croft, however, supplied the material for the exhaustive account of Chatterton in
Andrew Kippis's
Biographia Britannica (vol. iv., 1789).
In
1788 he addressed a letter to
William Pitt on the subject of a new dictionary. He criticized Samuel Johnson's efforts, and in
1790 he claimed to have collected 11,000 words used by excellent authorities but omitted by Johnson. Two years later he issued proposals for a revised edition of
Johnson's Dictionary, but subscribers were lacking and his 200 vols. of manuscript remained unused. Croft was a good scholar and linguist, and the author of some curious books in French.
The Love Letters of Mr H. and Miss R. 1775-1779 were edited from Croft's book by Mr Gilbert Burgess (1895). See also John Nichols's
Illustrations ... (1828), v. 202-218.
