CROPPE, John, of Bridgwater, Som.

No details of Croppe’s origins and early life have come to light, and it is just possible that the later Bridgwater MP was the man who in 1443 resided in the Bristol parish of All Saints. Bristol RO, All Saints parish recs., P/AS/D/CS B 5 c. He was not admitted to the freedom of Bridgwater’s merchant guild until 1455-6, paying 3s. as his entry fine, but by this date he had lived there for some time, and had served as churchwarden of the parish church of St. Mary for two successive years. During this term, Croppe and his fellow wardens had overseen extensive repairs to the church, and had felt justified in awarding themselves £1 4s. from parish funds for their efforts. Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, no. 786.

Although Croppe styled himself a skinner, his commercial activities were more wide-ranging than this trade would suggest. It is just possible that the MP should be identified with John Crope, a Southampton merchant and skinner, who in 1466 had indented to serve in the Calais garrison in the retinue of Ralph Wolseley*: CPR, 1461-7, p. 527. Thus, in 1456 he owed a Salisbury embroiderer the sum of £17 0s. 4d., and in 1463 he was suing a Bridgwater widow for £12 in payment for two tuns of Spanish wine. Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, nos. 788, 835.

Croppe was well regarded among his neighbours, who regularly called upon him to attest their deeds or serve as a feoffee of their property. Ibid., nos. 789, 811, 841; Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1468-85 (Som. Rec. Soc. lxx), nos. 968, 985-6. He was among the feoffees of William Gascoigne II* of the property Gascoigne had acquired for the chantry of the Holy Trinity, and by the 1470s had formed a connexion with as prominent a man as the royal justice Sir Richard Chokke. Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, nos. 780-3; 1468-85, no. 903. On other occasions, too, his opinions were valued: in 1466-7 the common bailiff of Bridgwater, John Russell, accounted for a payment to Croppe of 6s. 8d. ‘for his counsel’. Bridgwater Bor. Archs. 1445-68, no. 850. He is last heard of in the spring of 1481, and may have died not long thereafter.