William Craven 1st Earl Craven 1770-1825

Samuel Pepys' Diary. 10th March 1665. Home to dinner, and thence to the Committee of Tangier at White Hall, where my Lord Barkely [aged 63] and Craven and others; but, Lord! to see how superficially things are done in the business of the Lottery, which will be the disgrace of the Fishery, and without profit.

On 30th May 1767 [his father] William Craven 6th Baron Craven [aged 28] and [his mother] Elizabeth Berkeley Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach [aged 16] were married. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Augustus Berkeley 4th Earl Berkeley and [his grandmother] Elizabeth Drax Countess Berkeley and Nugent [aged 47].

On 28th September 1770 William Craven 1st Earl Craven was born to William Craven 6th Baron Craven [aged 32] and Elizabeth Berkeley Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach [aged 19]. He a great x 3 grandson of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland.

On 26th September 1791 [his father] William Craven 6th Baron Craven [aged 53] died at Lausanne, Switzerland. His succeeded son William [aged 20] succeeded 7th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire. His succeeded son William succeeded 8th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire.

On 13th October 1791 [his step-father] Charles Alexander Hohenzollern Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach [aged 55] and [his mother] Elizabeth Berkeley Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach [aged 40] were married at Lisbon [Map]. Elizabeth Berkeley Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach by marriage Margravine Brandenburg-Ansbach. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Augustus Berkeley 4th Earl Berkeley and [his grandmother] Elizabeth Drax Countess Berkeley and Nugent [aged 71]. They were fifth cousins. He a great x 4 grandson of King James I of England and Ireland and VI of Scotland. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland.

The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson Chapter 1. 1801. I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the Earl of Craven [aged 30]. Whether it was love, or the severity of my father, the depravity of my own heart, or the winning arts of the noble lord, which induced me to leave my paternal roof and place myself under his protection, does not now much signify; or, if it does, I am not in the humour to gratify curiosity in this matter.

I resided on the Marine Parade at Brighton, and I remember that Lord Craven used to draw cocoa trees, and his fellows as he called them, on the best vellum paper for my amusement. "Here stood the enemy," he would say, "and here, my love, are my fellows. There the cocoa trees, &c." It was, in fact, a dead bore. All these cocoa trees and fellows, at past eleven o'clock at night, could have no peculiar interest for a child like myself, so lately in the habit of retiring early to rest. One night, I recollect, I fell asleep; and, as I often dream, I said yawning, and half awake, "O Lord! O Lord! Craven has got me into the West Indies again." In short I soon found that I had made but a bad speculation, by going from my father to Lord Craven. I was even more afraid of the latter than I had been of the former. Not that there was any particular harm in the man beyond his cocoa trees; but we never suited nor understood each other.

On 12th December 1807 William Craven 1st Earl Craven [aged 37] and Louisa Brunton Countess Craven [aged 22] were married at his house in Berkeley Square, Mayfair. He the son of William Craven 6th Baron Craven and Elizabeth Berkeley Margrave Brandenburg-Ansbach [aged 56].

On 18th August 1809 [his son] William Craven 2nd Earl Craven was born to William Craven 1st Earl Craven [aged 38] and [his wife] Louisa Brunton Countess Craven [aged 24]. He a great x 4 grandson of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland. He married 5th September 1835 Emily Mary Grimston Countess Craven, daughter of James Walter Grimston 1st Earl Verulam and Charlotte Jenkinson Countess Verulam, and had issue.

On 15th August 1810 [his son] George Augustus Craven was born to William Craven 1st Earl Craven [aged 39] and [his wife] Louisa Brunton Countess Craven [aged 25]. He a great x 4 grandson of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland.

In 1815. Thomas Lawrence [aged 45]. Portrait of William Craven 1st Earl Craven [aged 44].

On 30th July 1825 William Craven 1st Earl Craven [aged 54] died. His succeeded son William [aged 15] succeeded 2nd Earl Craven in Yorkshire, 2nd Viscount Uffington, 8th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire.

On 27th August 1860 [his former wife] Louisa Brunton Countess Craven [aged 75] died.

[his daughter] Louisa Elizabeth Craven was born to William Craven 1st Earl Craven and Louisa Brunton Countess Craven. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland. She married (1) 1840 Frederick Johnstone 7th Baronet, son of John Lowther Johnstone 6th Baronet, and had issue (2) 15th August 1844 Alexander Haldane Oswald and had issue.