Author: Cradock, Joseph
Biography:
CRADOCK, Joseph (1742-1826: ODNB)
Born at Leicester on 9 Jan. 1742 (baptised 10 Jan.), he was the only surviving son of Joseph Cradock (d 1759) and his wife Mary Annice (d 1749). He was educated at Leicester Grammar School and matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1761. He left Cambridge without taking a degree, preferring London and the theatre to his studies, but the university chancellor bestowed on him the degree of MA in 1765. In the same year on 24 Oct. at St. George the Martyr, Camden, he married Anna Francesca Stratford of Warwickshire; they had no children. They lived in London before moving to Gumley Hall, Leicestershire. There Cradock developed an interest in landscape gardening and amateur theatricals; he was a friend of David Garrick who collaborated with him in organising the Shakespeare jubilee of 1769. Cradock served as High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1767 and 1781, and in 1768 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. In 1767 Richard Farmer addressed to him his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare. Cradock’s other publications include Letters from Snowdon (1770); Village Memoirs (1774), fictitious correspondence which develops his ideas on landscape gardening; a satiric pamphlet, The Life of John Wilkes, Esq. (1773), written after the windows of his London home were broken by a mob; An Account of Some of the Most Romantic Parts of North Wales (1777); Four Dissertations, Moral and Religious (1815); and a short novel against gambling, Fidelia, or, the Prevalence of Fashion (1821 but apparently written some years earlier). The first two volumes of his Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs were published in 1826 and dedicated to the king. He suffered from intermittent ill health throughout his life and died at his home on the Strand in London where he lived after financial constraints compelled the sale of Gumley Hall in 1823. His wife had predeceased him in 1816. He was buried in the vault in St. Mary-le-Strand on 23 Dec. 1826. His will left the bulk of his estate to three friends including John Bowyer Nichol, the antiquary. The will also specified that of his letters and papers, none were to be printed “that may give offence to the king or his household.” (ODNB 21 Jan. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 21 Jan. 2021; Joseph Cradock, Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs [1828]) SR