CRAUFURD, James (c.1744-1811).

Known at Eton as ‘Flesh’ to distinguish him from his elder brother ‘Fish’ Craufurd;2Eton Coll. Reg. 1753-90. Ld. Bessborough, Georgiana, 92. sometimes as the ‘young Fish’. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire describes him as ‘very gallant’ but lazy;3Ld. Bessborough, Georgiana, 92. Mme du Deffand, as ‘assez bon enfant’.4To Horace Walpole, 29 Apr. 1772. He was a reckless gambler. Lord March wrote to Selwyn, February 1773:5J. H. Jesse, Selwyn, iii. 27. Misdated ‘1772’; cf. Mme du Deffand to H. Walpole, 26 Feb. 1773.‘The Fish says that Colonel Craufurd continues to lose, and that he complains he has no money, nor anything now remaining of all his riches but bad debts.’ And Selwyn to Lord Carlisle, 4 Aug. 1775:6HMC Carlisle, 284. Craufurd has ‘paid another enormous sum for his brother, with which he torments or diverts everybody, while his brother does not seem to think himself obliged for a shilling’. In December 1774 John Craufurd applied to Lord Dartmouth for James to be made governor of East Florida.7HMC Dartmouth, ii. 238. In June 1779 James and Hare, bracketed for ‘foreign ministers’ in the King’s ‘minutes of arrangements for consideration’,8Fortescue, iv. 353. competed for the post of minister to Warsaw. Carlisle wrote to Selwyn, 21 May: ‘The old Fish’s importunity will beat me in my application for Hare, and the young Fish will go to Warsaw.’ But to Fish’s intense annoyance Hare won, and his brother was to go to Germany.9Jesse, iv. 156, 223. Then new complications arose: Craufurd asked ‘that he might remain in the Guards during his mission to Munich’; Lord North dallied; Fish, losing patience, arranged for an exchange between James and an officer going out to India; and James reluctantly accepted the arrangement.10North to the King, 17 Jan. 1780, Fortescue, v. 10-11. By the time North brought up the matter the King had already consented to the exchange—‘more advantageous to Lt.-Col. Craufurd than going to Munich’;11The King to North, 17 Jan. ibid. 11. and when North, with a guilty feeling, reverted to the subject12North to the King, 28 Jan. ibid. 13-14.—the Colonel foresaw ‘little prospect of early advantage in India’—the King expressed disapproval of officers in the Guards being in wartime ‘employed in foreign courts’—‘if I was to advise him I should think in his situation no means as advisable as his going to the East Indies’.13The King to North, 3 Mar. 1780, ibid. 25. When Craufurd was about to embark in May 1780, North obtained for him permission to retain during his absence the ‘very genteel and distinguished’ post he held ‘in her Majesty’s family’.14North to the King, 20 May, and the King to North, 21 May, ibid. 63-64.

When Craufurd was about to return to England, Lord Macartney wrote to John Macpherson from Fort St. George, 11 Jan. 1782:15Private Corresp. Lord Macartney, ed. Davies, 19.

Col. Craufurd is determined to go home and even grows a little angry at his friends attempting to dissuade him. He has £1,800 p.a., and yet says one reason for leaving us is that he cannot live upon it. He throws away in my opinion a brilliant fortune, whether considered in the light of affluence, or reputation.

Craufurd’s return for Horsham in November 1783 on Lady Irwin’s interest was arranged by her son-in-law Lord William Gordon who supported the Coalition Administration.16Laprade, 91, 101. So did Craufurd; and on Gordon going over to Pitt he lost his seat in 1784. There is no record of his having spoken in the House.

He died in New York 22 Mar. 1811.