CREW, Thomas (1624-1697), of Steane, Northants.

Crew played no known part in public affairs before the mid-1650s, when his father – one of the Presbyterian grandees secluded at Pride’s Purge – once again began receiving appointments to local and national commissions, although he remained aloof from national politics.15Supra, ‘John Crewe I’. In the elections to the second protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1656, Crew was one of six men returned for Northamptonshire – allegedly as a result of sharp practice by Major-general William Boteler* on election day.16Supra, ‘Northamptonshire’; Bodl. Top. Northants. C.9, p. 109. Boteler’s electoral tactics aside, Crew almost certainly owed his election to his father’s status and considerable estate in the county.17Infra, ‘John Langham’. He received no committee appointments in this Parliament, made no recorded contributions to debate and was declared absent at the call of the House on 31 December 1656.18Burton’s Diary, i. 285.

In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s Parliament of 1659, Crew was returned for Brackley, which lay just two miles from the Crew family residence at Steane. In 1660, his father would be described as a prominent benefactor to the borough corporation.19Northants. RO, E(B) 613. Crew was named to four committees in this Parliament, including that set up on 12 April for preparing an impeachment against Boteler.20CJ vii. 632a, 637a, 637b, 639a. On 8 April, he served as a teller with Francis Gerard for the small majority in favour of putting the question that messages from the Commons to the Other House should be carried by MPs – the same manner in which the Commons had transacted business with the now defunct House of Lords. The opposing tellers were the anti-protectorate Presbyterian Hugh Boscawen and the crypto-royalist John Howe.21CJ vii. 632b.

By 1660, Crew – like his father – welcomed the prospect of a restoration of monarchy, and at the beginning of March, he and Sir Henry Yelverton† presented an address from the Northamptonshire gentry to General George Monck*, thanking him for the re-admission of the secluded Members.22Pepys Diary, i. 73; The Second Addresse from the Gentlemen of the County of Northampton (1660, 669 f.24.13). The return of Crew and William Lisle* for Brackley to the 1660 Convention was supported by all but six of the town’s 30 or so voters.23Northants. RO, E(B) 613; HP Commons 1660-1690, ‘Brackley’. Crew and his father were listed by Philip Lord Wharton as likely supporters of a Presbyterian church settlement.24G.F.T. Jones, ‘The composition and leadership of the Presbyterian party in the Convention’, EHR lxxix. 338. In May, Crew travelled to Holland, joining his brother-in-law Edward Montagu II* in attendance upon Charles II and was duly knighted in September.25Pepys Diary, i. 151, 161. Crew was nominated as a deputy lieutenant for Northamptonshire in the summer of 1660, but the crown evidently declined to approve his appointment.26SP29/11/166, f. 216; SP29/42/63, f. 117v; Add. 34222, f. 11.

Crew was returned for Brackley again in the elections to the Cavalier Parliament – of which he was one of the least active Members – and to the first Exclusion Parliament of 1679, in which he voted in favour of the Exclusion Bill. Having succeeded his father that year as Lord Crew of Steane, he voted for the bill again in the Lords.27HP Common, 1660-1690, ‘Thomas Crew’. In Northamptonshire, he was identified with Sir Edward Harley*, Richard Hampden*, John Swynfen* and other leading Presbyterians as a patron of godly ministers.28J.T. Cliffe, The Puritan Gentry Besieged, 106.

Crew died on 30 March 1697 and was buried in the family chapel at Steane.29CP. In his will, he charged his estate with bequests to his wife, daughters, relations and friends in excess of £2,500. His legatees also included his household chaplain – one Thomas Harris – and the rector of the Northamptonshire parish church of Hinton and his predecessor.30PROB11/442, ff. 100-101v. According to a contemporary report, Crew left his three daughters £20,000 apiece – which was either a reference to some pre-testamentary settlement or a gross exaggeration. He died without a surviving male heir and his title and the bulk of his estate passed to his brother, the Jacobite bishop of Durham.31Luttrell, Brief Relation, iv. 313.