{{Short description|19th-century Anglo-Irish politician and statesman}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = John Wilson Croker | image = John Wilson Croker by William Owen detail.jpg | image_upright = | alt = | caption = John Wilson Croker, by [[William Owen (painter)|William Owen]] | office1 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] | constituency1 = [[Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)|Aldeburgh]] (1830–1832)<br />[[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]] (1827–1830)<br />[[Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)|Aldeburgh]] (1826–1827)<br />[[Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)|Bodmin]] (1820–1826)<br />[[Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)|Yarmouth]] (1819–1820)<br />[[Athlone (UK Parliament constituency)|Athlone]] (1812–1818)<br />[[Downpatrick (UK Parliament constituency)|Downpatrick]] (1807–1812) | term_start1 = [[1807 United Kingdom general election|22 June 1807]] | term_end1 = [[1832 United Kingdom general election|3 December 1832]] | predecessor1 = | successor1 =
| office = [[First Secretary to the Admiralty]] | term_start = 12 October 1809 | term_end = 2 May 1827 | prime_minister = [[Spencer Perceval]]<br />[[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|The Earl of Liverpool]] | predecessor = [[William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington|William Wellesley Pole]] | successor = [[George Elliot (Royal Navy officer, born 1784)|George Elliot]]
| birth_date = 20 December 1780 | birth_place = [[Galway]], [[Ireland]] | death_date = 10 August 1857 (aged 76) | death_place = | citizenship = | alma_mater = [[Trinity College Dublin]] | party = [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] }} '''John Wilson Croker''' (20 December 1780{{snd}}10 August 1857) was an Anglo-Irish [[wikt:statesman|statesman]] and author.
==Life== He was born in [[Galway]], the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at [[Trinity College Dublin]], where he graduated in 1800.<ref>''[[Alumni Dublinenses]]: a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College in the University of Dublin]] (1593–1860)'', ed. [[George Dames Burtchaell]], [[Thomas Ulick Sadleir]] p. 194: Dublin, Alex Thom and Co, 1935</ref> Immediately afterwards he entered [[Lincoln's Inn]], and in 1802 he was called to the Irish [[Bar (law)|bar]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Croker, John Wilson|volume=7|page=481}}</ref>
He married Rosamond Pennell, daughter of William Pennell and Elizabeth Pennell (née Carrington))on 22 May 1806, in Waterford, Ireland.<ref name="Harris_On_Croker">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Nigel |title=Footnotes to History: The Personal Realm of John Wilson Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty (1809–1830), A "Group Family" |date=2015 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |location=Brighton & Eastbourne |isbn=978-1-84519-746-9 |edition=Hardcover}}</ref>
None of his children with Rosamond Pennell survived past 3 years old. He and Rosamond adopted Rosamond's younger sister (who was the 18th child of Rosamond's parents) and she was also (confusingly) named Rosamond Hester Elizabeth Pennell. The younger Rosamond was born in January 1810 in Waterford, Ireland (christened with the surname Pennell). Sometime between birth and 1814, she became part of the Croker family. The name she was better known by was the nickname "Nony" Croker.<ref name="Harris_On_Croker" /> Nony's portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence (commissioned by John Croker) is in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.<ref name="Albright-Knox">{{cite web |title=Portrait of Miss Rosamond Croker, 1827. Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 inches |url=https://www.albrightknox.org/person/rosamond-croker |publisher=Albright-Knox Art Gallery |access-date=19 April 2019}}</ref>
His interest in the [[French Revolution]] led him to collect a large number of valuable documents on the subject, which are now in the [[British Museum]]. In 1804 he published anonymously ''Familiar Epistles to J. F. Jones, Esquire, on the State of the Irish Stage'', a series of caustic criticisms in verse on the management of the Dublin theatres. The book ran through five editions in one year.<ref name="EB1911"/> Equally successful was the ''Intercepted Letter from Canton'' (1805), also anonymous, a satire on Dublin society in the guise of a report on the manners of the Chinese at Quang-tchen on the "[[Liffey River|Li-fee]]". During this period a rather scathing poem attributed to Croker led to the suicide of actor [[John Edwin (1768–1805)|John Edwin]], husband of [[Elizabeth Rebecca Edwin]].<ref name = "Dictionary">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Edwin, John (1768-1805)|display=Edwin, John (1768–1805)|volume=17}}</ref> In 1807 he published a pamphlet on ''The State of Ireland, Past and Present'', in which he advocated [[Catholic emancipation]].<ref name="EB1911"/>
He was a distant relation of [[Thomas Crofton Croker]], Irish writer and antiquarian, who served under him in the Admiralty.
==Parliamentary career== The following year (1808) Croker entered parliament as member for [[Downpatrick (UK Parliament constituency)|Downpatrick]], obtaining the seat on petition, though he had been unsuccessful at the poll. The acumen displayed in his Irish pamphlet led [[Spencer Perceval]] to recommend him to [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|the Duke of Wellington]], who had just been appointed to the command of British forces in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], as his deputy in the office of chief secretary for Ireland. This connection led to a friendship which remained unbroken till Wellington's death.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[File:Lady Barrow00.jpg|thumb|Rosamond Hester Elizabeth Pennell, Croker's adopted daughter. ''[[Portrait of Rosamond Croker]]'' by [[Thomas Lawrence]], 1827.]] The notorious case of the [[Frederick Augustus, Duke of York|Duke of York]] in connexion with his abuse of military patronage furnished Croker with an opportunity for distinguishing himself. The speech which he delivered on 14 March 1809, in answer to the charges of [[Colonel Wardle]], was regarded as able; and Croker was appointed to the office of first [[secretary to the Admiralty]], which he held without interruption under various administrations for more than twenty years. Among the first acts of his official career was the exposure of [[George Villiers (1759–1827)|George Villiers]], a fellow official who had misappropriated public funds to the extent of £280,000; Villiers was well regarded at court, and action was taken against him only after Croker threatened resignation.<ref name="Knight2014" />{{rp|337}} It was soon noted by a First Lord that although Croker described himself as the servant of the Board, in reality, the reverse was true.<ref name="Knight2014">{{cite book|last1=Knight|first1=Roger|title=Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory 1793–1815|date=2014|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=978-0-141-03894-0}}</ref>{{rp|339}} The second secretary to the Admiralty [[John Barrow, 1st Baronet|John Barrow]] became a close personal friend, and Barrow's eldest son [[Sir George Barrow, 2nd Baronet]] married Croker's adopted daughter Nony.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Late Sir John Barrow|work=Illustrated London News|date=2 December 1848|page=16}}</ref><ref name="Knight2014" />{{rp|472}}
In 1816 he reduced the size of the Royal Navy, and over 1,000 ships were decommissioned and placed in the [[Reserve Fleet (United Kingdom)]] or "laid up in ordinary" at various British naval bases. In 1824 he helped found the [[Athenaeum Club, London|Athenaeum Club]], and when the members voted £2000 for an [[Ice house (building)|icehouse]], instead he commissioned from sculptor [[John Henning (1771–1851)|John Henning]] a full-scale replica in [[Bath stone]] of [[Parthenon Frieze|sculptures from the Parthenon]], occasioning the widely circulated squib "I'm John Wilson Croker, I do as I please. They ask for an Ice House, I give them—a Frieze".{{Citation needed|date=August 2017}}
In 1827 he became the Member of Parliament for [[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]], having previously sat successively for the boroughs of [[Athlone (UK Parliament constituency)|Athlone]], [[Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)|Yarmouth]], [[Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)|Bodmin]] and [[Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)|Aldeburgh]]. He was made a Privy Councillor in June 1828<ref>{{cite news|title=The Mirror of Fashion|work=Morning Chronicle|date=17 June 1828|location=London|page=3}}</ref> and, having secured a pension of £1500 a year, retired from his post at the admiralty in 1830. He was a determined opponent of the [[Reform Act 1832|Reform Bill]], and vowed that he would never sit in a reformed parliament; he left parliament when the Act was passed in 1832. Many of his political speeches were published in pamphlet form, and they show him to have been a vigorous and effective, though somewhat unscrupulous and often virulently personal, party debater. Yet he could on occasion be magnanimous to his opponents: when [[John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer|Lord Althorp]] during a debate in the Commons, said that while he had figures which refuted Croker's argument he had mislaid them, Croker replied that he would never doubt Althorp's word. Croker had been an ardent supporter of [[Robert Peel]], but finally broke with him when he began to advocate the repeal of the [[Corn Laws]].<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Literary career== Croker was for many years one of the leading contributors on literary and historical subjects to the ''[[Quarterly Review]]'', with which he had been associated from its foundation. The rancorous spirit in which many of his articles were written did much to embitter party feeling. It also reacted unfavourably on Croker's reputation as a worker in the department of pure literature by bringing political animosities into literary criticism.<ref name="EB1911"/>
He had no sympathy with the younger school of poets who were in revolt against the artificial methods of the 18th century.<ref name="EB1911"/> In April 1833 he savagely criticised ''Poems'', published the previous December by [[Alfred Tennyson]]—an attack which, coupled with the death of his friend [[Arthur Hallam]], discouraged the aspiring poet from seeking to publish anything more for nine years.<ref>Milgate, Michael, 1963, ''Tennyson'', Oxford University Press, page 9</ref> He was also responsible for the famous ''Quarterly'' article on [[John Keats]]'s ''[[Endymion (poem)|Endymion]]''. [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]] and [[Byron]] blamed this article for bringing about the death of the poet, 'snuffed out', in Byron's phrase, 'by an article' (they, however, attributed the article to [[William Gifford]]).
His ''magnum opus'', an edition of ''Boswell's Life of Johnson'' (1831) was the subject of an unfavourable review<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/macaulay.html |title=Macaulay's Review of Croker's Boswell<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=9 May 2008 |archive-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805223052/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/macaulay.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> by [[Thomas Macaulay|Macaulay]] in the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' (a [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] rival/opponent of the ''Quarterly Review'') The main grounds of criticism were echoed by [[Thomas Carlyle]] in a less famous review in ''[[Fraser's Magazine]]''<ref name="Carlyle">, issue 28; quote from version in Carlyle "English and Other Critical Essays" (Dent & Sons, London, 1915) ("no 704 of Everyman's Library")</ref> *that Croker had added extensive notes which were to little point, being superfluous or declaring Croker's inability to grasp Johnson's point on matters where the reviewers had no difficulty. Macaulay also complained (with numerous examples) of factual errors in the notes; Carlyle of their carping attitude to Johnson's motives (Carlyle, whose father was a stonemason, and who (like Johnson) had scraped a living as a schoolmaster, before writing encyclopedia articles for bread-and-butter wages, also took great exception to one note which took for granted that when Johnson spoke of having lived on 4½ [[£sd|d]] a day he was disclosing something of which he should have been ashamed to speak) *that Croker had not preserved the integrity of Boswell's text, but had interpolated text from four other accounts of Johnson (Hawkins, Mrs Thrale etc.), distinguished only from genuine Boswell by being inside brackets, so that "You begin a sentence under Boswell's guidance, thinking to be carried happily through it by the same: but no; in the middle, perhaps after your semi-colon, and some consequent 'for' – starts up one of these Bracket-ligatures, and stitches you in half a page to twenty or thirty pages of a Hawkins, Tyers, Murphy, Piozzi; so that often one must make the old sad reflection, Where we are, we know; whither we are going no man knoweth"<ref name="Carlyle" /> Croker made no immediate reply to Macaulay's attack, but when the first two volumes of Macaulay's ''[[The History of England from the Accession of James the Second|History]]'' appeared he took the opportunity of pointing out the inaccuracies in the work.<ref name="EB1911"/>
[[George Birkbeck Norman Hill|George Birkbeck Hill]] in his preface to his 1887 edition of Boswell endorses much of Macaulay's criticism of Croker, but adds, "I should be wanting in justice were I not to acknowledge that I owe much to the labours of Mr Croker". Hill observed that Croker was "not deeply versed in books", was "shallow in himself", did not understand Johnson's strong character, seemed inadequately acquainted with Johnson's writings, failed to grasp Boswell's flair as a biographer, and "is careless in small matters, and his blunders are numerous": :Yet he has added considerably to our knowledge of Johnson. He knew men who had intimately known both the hero and his biographer, and he gathered much that but for his care would have been lost for ever. He was diligent and successful in his search after Johnson's letters, of so many of which Boswell with all his persevering and pushing diligence had not been able to get a sight.<ref>Hill, George Birkbeck. [https://archive.org/details/lifeofjohnsoninc01boswuoft/page/xxii Preface to Boswell's ''The Life of Samuel Johnson, LLD''], New York, Harper, 1887, {{oclc|1114130502}}, pp. xxiii–xxiv</ref>
Croker was occupied for several years on an annotated edition of [[Alexander Pope]]'s works. It was left unfinished at the time of his death, but it was afterwards completed by [[Whitwell Elwin]] and [[William John Courthope]]. He died at St Albans Bank, Hampton.<ref name="EB1911"/>
Croker was generally supposed to be the original from which [[Benjamin Disraeli]] drew the character of "Rigby" in ''[[Coningsby (novel)|Coningsby]]'', because he had for many years had the sole management of the estates of [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford|the Marquess of Hertford]], the "Lord Monmouth" of the story.<ref name="EB1911"/> Hostile portrayals of Croker can also be found in the novels ''Florence Macarthy'' by [[Lady Morgan]] (a political opponent whom Croker subjected to notoriously savage reviews in the ''Quarterly'') and ''The Anglo-Irish of the Nineteenth Century'' (1828) by [[John Banim]].
The chief works of Croker not already mentioned were: *''Stories for Children from the History of England'' (1817), which provided the model for [[Walter Scott|Scott]]'s ''Tales of a Grandfather'' *''Letters on the Naval War with America'' *''A Reply to the Letters of Malachi [[Malagrowther]]'' (1826) *''Military Events of the French Revolution of 1830'' (1831) *a translation of [[François de Bassompierre|Bassompierre]]'s ''Embassy to England'' (1819) He also wrote several lyrical pieces of some merit, such as the ''Songs of Trafalgar'' (1806) and ''[[The Battles of Talavera]]'' (1809). He edited the ''Suffolk Papers'' (1823), Hervey's ''Memoirs of the Court of George II'' (1817), the ''Letters of Mary Lepel, [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|Lady Hervey]]'' (1821–1822), and [[Horace Walpole|Walpole]]'s ''Letters to Lord Hertford'' (1824). His memoirs, diaries and correspondence were edited by Louis J. Jennings in 1884 under the title of ''The Croker Papers'' (3 vols.).<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Legacy== [[Croker Bay]], named by Sir [[William Edward Parry]].<ref name="Gardner">{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Charles Kitchell |title=The Literary and Scientific Repository, and Critical Review |publisher=Wiley and Halsted|year=1822 |edition=Digitized 26 February 2007 |volume=4 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBgAAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>
Cape Croker on [[Ontario]]'s [[Bruce Peninsula]] is also named after him by [[Henry Wolsey Bayfield]].<ref name=Rayburn>{{cite book |last=Rayburn |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Rayburn |title=Place names of Ontario |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1997 |page=56 |isbn=0-8020-0602-7 }}</ref>
==Books and articles about Croker== * {{cite Maclise|Right Hon. John Wilson Croker|pages=72–74}} *{{cite journal | author= C. I. Hamilton | author-link= C. I. Hamilton | title=John Wilson Croker: Patronage and Clientage at the Admiralty, 1809–1857 | journal=Historical Journal | volume=43 | date=2000 |pages=49–77 | doi=10.1017/S0018246X99008936 | s2cid= 153657357 }} *{{cite book | first=Robert | last= Portsmouth | title=John Wilson Croker: Irish Ideas and the Invention of Modern Conservatism | publisher=Irish Academic Press | place= Dublin | date= 2010 }} *{{cite book | first= William | last=Thomas | title=The Quarrel of Macaulay and Croker: Politics and History in the Age of Reform | url= https://archive.org/details/quarrelofmacaula0000thom | url-access= registration | place=Oxford University Press, Oxford | date= 2000 | isbn=978-0-19-820864-8 }} *{{cite book | first= Nigel | last=Harris | title=Footnotes to History: The Personal Realm of John Wilson Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty (1809–1830), a "Group Family", ISBN 978-1-84519-746-9 | place=Sussex Academic Press, Brighton & Eastbourne | date= 2015 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|John Wilson Croker}} {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{UK National Archives ID}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Wilson Croker}} * [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/France/_Texts/CROROY/home.html Royal Memoirs on the French Revolution], (1823 English translation by Croker, 302pp., of several key eyewitness accounts) * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-croker | John Wilson Croker }}
{{S-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title = [[Secretary to the Admiralty]] | years = 1809–1830 | before = [[William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington|William Wellesley-Pole]] | after = [[George Elliot (Royal Navy officer, born 1784)|George Elliot]]}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Downpatrick (UK Parliament constituency)|Downpatrick]] | before=[[Edward Southwell Ruthven]] | after=[[Charles Stewart Hawthorne]] | years=[[1807 United Kingdom general election|1807]]–[[1812 United Kingdom general election|1812]]}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Athlone (UK Parliament constituency)|Athlone]] | before=[[John Frewen-Turner]] | after=[[John Gordon (Irish MP)|John Gordon]] | years=[[1812 United Kingdom general election|1812]]–[[1818 United Kingdom general election|1818]]}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)|Yarmouth]] | with = [[Sir Peter Pole, 2nd Baronet|Sir Peter Pole, Bt]] | before=[[John Taylor (Yarmouth)|John Taylor]] | before2=[[William Mount (Isle of Wight MP)|William Mount]] | after=[[Sir Peter Pole, 2nd Baronet|Sir Peter Pole, Bt]] | after2=[[Theodore Henry Broadhead]] | years=1819–[[1820 United Kingdom general election|1820]]}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)|Bodmin]] | with = [[Davies Gilbert]] | before=[[Davies Gilbert]] | before2=[[Thomas Bradyll]] | after=[[Davies Gilbert]] |after2=[[Horace Seymour]] | years=[[1820 United Kingdom general election|1820]]–[[1826 United Kingdom general election|1826]]}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)|Aldeburgh]] | with = [[Joshua Walker (MP)|Joshua Walker]] | before=[[Joshua Walker (MP)|Joshua Walker]] | before2=[[James Blair (MP)|James Blair]] | after=[[Joshua Walker (MP)|Joshua Walker]] |after2=[[Wyndham Lewis (MP)|Wyndham Lewis]] | years=[[1826 United Kingdom general election|1826]]–1827}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]] | before=[[William Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket|William Plunket]] | after=[[Thomas Lefroy]] | years=1827–[[1830 United Kingdom general election|1830]]}} {{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington|Marquess of Douro]] |before2=[[Spencer Kilderbee]]}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Aldeburgh (UK Parliament constituency)|Aldeburgh]] | with = [[Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington|Marquess of Douro]]|years=[[1830 United Kingdom general election|1830]]–[[1832 United Kingdom general election|1832]]}} {{s-non|reason=''(Constituency abolished)''}} {{S-end}}
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