CROSSE, John (1700-62), of Millbank, Westminster, and Rainham, Essex.

Returned as a ministerial candidate for Wootton Bassett, Crosse voted for the Government in every recorded division of that Parliament. Defeated at Great Marlow in 1734, but brought in by the ministry for Lostwithiel in 1735, he was recommended by old Horace Walpole to the British ambassador at Paris in 1739 as ‘a very good friend to my brother Walpole’.130 May 1739, Waldegrave mss. In the Westminster election of 1741 he used his local influence in support of the government candidates, one of whom, Lord Sundon, escaped from the mob in Crosse’s coach.2HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 220. Adhering to Walpole to the end, he was invited by Pelham to the Cockpit meeting in 1742, but was absent from the division on the Hanoverian troops, 10 Dec. 1742, voting against them 6 Dec. 17433Owen, Pelhams, 202. and 18 Jan. 1744. He returned to his allegiance in 1746, when he voted for the Hanoverians, classed as Old Whig, but did not stand in 1747. He died 12 Mar. 1762.