Author: Croker, Margaret Sarah
Biography:
CROKER, Margaret Sarah (b 1765: ancestry.co.uk)
She was the daughter of Richard Croker, a captain in the 99th or Jamaica regiment of foot, and his wife Mary Blarney who had married in Ruan Lanihorne, Cornwall, on 16 Nov. 1763. There are two baptismal records for their daughter: one from 11 Apr. 1765 in Heavitree, near Exeter, and one from 4 Mar. 1773 (birth year given as 1765) in Holbeton, Devon. Her brother Frederick, born 1771, was also baptised on 4 Mar. 1773 in Holbeton. Frederick (d 1834) matriculated at Exeter college, Oxford, in 1790 and became a clergyman and schoolmaster. When the 99th regiment was disbanded (1780-83), Richard Croker was employed by the customs office in London. His Travels Through Several Provinces of Spain and Portugal was published in 1799; it is dedicated to the Marquis of Abercorn who subscribed to Margaret’s Nugae Canorae. On 29 Apr. 1815 from 20 Judd Street, Brunswick Square, London, Margaret wrote to Richard Yates, a treasurer of the RLF, on behalf of her father. Her letter states that her aged and now infirm father had resigned his position at the customs office and was in financial difficulty owing at least in part to the funds he had spent on Frederick’s education. Richard Croker was awarded £10 and Margaret received a further £10 on 16 July 1816 after her father’s death (he was buried at St. Giles-in-the-Fields on 26 Jan.). In June 1818 she published a three-volume novel, The Question, Who is Anna?, and in July of the same year she applied to the RLF on her own behalf and was awarded £5. Other letters follow, each dated from what were likely lodging houses in different areas of London. A letter dated 3 Nov. 1825 from Marlborough Square, Chelsea, states that she had written three more novels of which two had been published—“The Widdow [sic] of Wingfield” and “Henry de Courtenay”—but these have not been traced. She was awarded £10. Nothing more is known but possibly she was the Margaret Croker who died in Clerkenwell, London, in 1846. (ancestry.co.uk 1 Feb. 2024; ODNB 1 Feb. 2024; RLF files 326, 327; EN2; John S. Farmer, The Regimental Records of the British Army [2020])
Other Names:
- M. S. Croker
- Miss M. S. Croker