Sir Sackville Crowe, 1st Baronet

Sir Sackville Crowe, 1st Baronet, (1611?-1683?) was an English nobleman and politician.

He was born in Brasted Kent, in around 1611, and later married one of the daughters of the Earl of Rutland; he had one son, also named Sackville, born around 1636 and who died in 1706. He acquired lands around Llanherne, in Carmarthen, and took up residence there.

He was a Member of Parliament for Hastings in the 1625 Parliament (the "Useless Parliament") and for Bramber in the 1628-9 Parliament. He was Treasurer of the Navy from 5 April 1627 to 21 January 1630; on 8 July 1627 he was created a baronet.

In 1636 he obtained a share of a lease on the Crown's ironworks in the Forest of Dean for twenty-one years, which he later tried to sell; this caused some great legal trouble, and had to be brought before Parliament.

He later served as the Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; it is not recorded when he was sent to Constantinople, but in April 1642 the records of the House of Commons already mention objections being made to his "meddling" by the Levant Company. By 1646 they had progressed to formally requesting a letter of withdrawal be sent, citing his "seizing the Estates, and imprisoning the Factors and Servants, of the said Company, at "Constantinople" and "Smyrna".

He was brought back in April 1648, as a prisoner in the ship "Margaret" and consigned to the Tower of London to await trial. In March 1652 he was bailed on a £2000 bond; by September 1658 the Levant Company had dropped all charges and he petitioned the Lords to annul his restraints.

References

* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]