Johnny Brananas
2021-06-18 18:41:43 UTC
The gentry family name of Croke was sometimes rendered "Crooke" with mildly funny results.
The Oxford diarist Thomas Hearne wrote in 1726 of one member of the Croke family whom he called "Gracious Crooke."
On Wednesday last died, in St Peter's Parish in the East, Oxford, one Madam Best, wife of one Best, formerly an Excise man, who is still living, tho' many Years older than his Wife, who was about three score. Her maiden Name was Gracious Crooke, & she made a great noise formerly in Oxford before she married, when she lived in St. Aldate's Parish, where she kept ... Monkeys, & Dogs, and was reported to lye with them. She was carryed out of Town yesterday, in order to be buried at Kensington, her husband not mourning, to whom, it seems, she hath left nothing, but, I am told, she hath bequeath'd most to one Leybourne of Brasen Nose Coll.
Because of the Oxford connection, I assume she was "Gratious," daughter of Unton Croke, junior, shown here:
http://www.headington.org.uk/history/marston_history/famous_people/croke_unton.htm
Note that her paternal grandmother, the wife of Unton Croke/ Crooke, senior, was "Anne Hore, daughter and heir of Richard Hore of Marston."
So Anne Hore became Anne Cro[o]ke upon marriage, and her granddaughter Gracious Cro[o]ke became Gracious Best upon marriage (also known as Madam Best).
The Oxford diarist Thomas Hearne wrote in 1726 of one member of the Croke family whom he called "Gracious Crooke."
On Wednesday last died, in St Peter's Parish in the East, Oxford, one Madam Best, wife of one Best, formerly an Excise man, who is still living, tho' many Years older than his Wife, who was about three score. Her maiden Name was Gracious Crooke, & she made a great noise formerly in Oxford before she married, when she lived in St. Aldate's Parish, where she kept ... Monkeys, & Dogs, and was reported to lye with them. She was carryed out of Town yesterday, in order to be buried at Kensington, her husband not mourning, to whom, it seems, she hath left nothing, but, I am told, she hath bequeath'd most to one Leybourne of Brasen Nose Coll.
Because of the Oxford connection, I assume she was "Gratious," daughter of Unton Croke, junior, shown here:
http://www.headington.org.uk/history/marston_history/famous_people/croke_unton.htm
Note that her paternal grandmother, the wife of Unton Croke/ Crooke, senior, was "Anne Hore, daughter and heir of Richard Hore of Marston."
So Anne Hore became Anne Cro[o]ke upon marriage, and her granddaughter Gracious Cro[o]ke became Gracious Best upon marriage (also known as Madam Best).