Brackley, Northamptonshire, by whom he had five sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Alexander, died in 1818, aged 20. His father wrote a pathetic account of his life and death (The Croke Family, i. 730–51). Two sons, George (1802–1860) and John, survived him, and the latter succeeded to the property on the former's death. The second daughter, Jane, married Sir Charles Wetherell 28 Dec. 1826, and died 21 April 1831.
Croke's chief works were: 1. ‘The Genealogical History of the Croke Family,’ 2 vols. Oxford, 1823, a work of very great research. 2. ‘An Essay on the Origin, Progress, and Decline of Rhyming Latin verses,’ with specimens, Oxford, 1828. 3. ‘Regimen Sanitatis Salernitatum,’ with introduction and notes, Oxford, 1830. 4. ‘The Patriot Queen,’ London, 1838. 5. ‘The Progress of Idolatry, a poem with other poems,’ Oxford, 1841. Croke's decisions in the court at Halifax were published from his notes by James Stewart in 1814, together with an answer to Baron de Rehausen's ‘Swedish Memorials,’ addressed to Lord Castlereagh. Croke prepared for the press, but did not publish, ‘An Essay on the Consolato di Mare,’ an ancient code of maritime law, and the translation of the Psalms by his ancestor John Croke. Croke also wrote pamphlets on draining and enclosing Otmoor, 1787, and ‘The Case of Otmoor with the Moor Orders,’ Oxford, 1831; ‘Statutes of the University of King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia,’ Halifax, 1802; ‘An Examination of the Rev. Mr. Burke's Letter of Instruction to the Catholic Missionaries of Nova Scotia,’ under the pseudonym of Robert Stanser, Halifax, 1804; and ‘The Catechism of the Church of England,’ Halifax, 1813.
[Gent. Mag. 1843, pt. i. 315–17; Croke's Hist. of Croke Family, i. 706–30; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
CROKE, Sir GEORGE (1560–1642), judge and law reporter, younger son of Sir John Croke, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Alexander Unton, and brother of Sir John Croke (1553–1620) [q. v.], was educated at the parish school of Thame and at Christ Church, Oxford. He became a student of the Inner Temple in November 1575, was called to the bar in 1584, was autumn reader in 1599 and 1608, and was treasurer of his inn in 1609. In 1597 he was returned to parliament as member for Beeralston, Devonshire. Before 1615 he purchased the estate of Waterstock, Oxfordshire, and in 1621 he bought Studley of his nephew.
As early as 1581 he began reporting law cases, but does not seem to have acquired any practice before 1588. In 1623 he was made serjeant-at-law and king's serjeant. The dignity had been refused before, because Croke declined to purchase it on the usual terms (Whitelocke). He was knighted 29 June 1623. On 11 Feb. 1624–5 he became justice of the common pleas, and on 9 Oct. 1628 was removed to the king's bench to take the place of Sir John Doddridge [q. v.] . In the great constitutional cases which came before him in the following years Croke resisted royal interference with judicial procedure. He, with Hutton, did not sign the collective judgment of his companions on the bench justifying the extension of the ship-money edict to inland towns, but gave a guarded opinion, that ‘when the whole kingdom was in danger the defence thereof ought to be borne by all’ (1635). On 7 Feb. 1636–7, when the same question was again formally presented to the judges, Croke and Hutton signed the judgment in favour of the crown on the express understanding that the verdict of the majority necessarily bound all. When Hampden was tried for resisting the ship-money tax in 1638, Croke spoke out boldly, and declared that it was utterly contrary to law for any power except parliament to set any charge upon a subject, and that there was no precedent for the prosecution. His judgment, with his autograph notes, has been edited by Mr. S. R. Gardiner in the Camden Society's seventh ‘Miscellany’ (1875), from a manuscript belonging to the Earl of Verulam. It was first printed, together with Hutton's argument, in 1641. In 1641 Croke's age and declining health compelled him to apply for permission to retire from active service on the bench. The request was granted, and his title and salary were continued to him. He withdrew to his estate at Waterstock, Oxfordshire, where he died 16 Feb. 1641–2. An elaborate monument was erected above his grave in Waterstock Church. Croke's reports, extending over sixty years (1580–1640), were written in Norman-French, and were translated into English for publication by Sir Harbottle Grimston, his son-in-law. A selection of cases heard while Croke himself was judge was published in 1657. The earlier reports appeared in two volumes, published respectively in 1659 and 1661. Collected editions were issued in 1683 and 1790–2 (3 vols.) An abridgment appeared in 1658 and 1665. Grimston's prefaces give Croke a high character.
Croke was a wealthy man, and made good use of his wealth. He gave 100l. to Sion College in 1629, and erected and endowed almshouses at Studley (1639). By his will, dated 20 Nov. 1640 and proved 3 May 1642, he left many charitable legacies. Sir Har-
