Richard Crocker

{{short description|14th-century English politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}

File:CrokerArms.png of Croker of Lyneham: Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three crows properPole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.478]]

Richard Crocker (fl. 1335) of Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for Tavistock in Devon in 1335.{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/crocker-john|title=CROCKER, John, of Tavistock and Hele, Devon. - History of Parliament Online|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}} His descendants were the prominent Crocker family of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, later seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740.

The earliest known Devonshire seat of the Crocker family was Crocker's Hele,Vivian, p.254 in the parish of Meeth.Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.434; Pole, p.379; Risdon, p.261 Richard's descendant William Crocker (fl. 14th c.), living during the reign of King Edward III (1327-1377), of Crocker's Hele was a Member of ParliamentConstituency not stated in biography of his son; own History of Parliament biography not on-line as of 2016 [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/crocker-john] and is the earliest member of the family recorded in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.254, pedigree of Croker of Lyneham William's descendants were the prominent Crocker family seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740. Crocker's Hele was abandoned in the 14th century by John II Crocker in favour of Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon, which he had inherited from his wife Alice Gambon, daughter and heiress of John Gambon of Lyneham.

The Crocker family is believed to be one of the most ancient in Devon, reputedly of Anglo-Saxon origin, very rare for English gentry who mostly descend from Norman invaders who took part in the Norman Conquest of 1066. According to "that old saw often used among us in discourse", the traditional rhyme related by Prince (d. 1723):Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, p.274

"Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,

When the Conqueror came were at home"

The last male of the Crocker family of Lyneham was Courtenay Crocker (d.1740),Lysons, Daniel & Samuel, Magna Britannia, Volume 6, Devonshire (1822), Families removed since 1620, pp.173-225 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50555] several times MP for Plympton.Prince, p.273 The Cruwys family in 2014 still resides in its ancient manor house at Cruwys Morchard where, despite the traditional rhyme which seeks to give it Anglo-Saxon origins, it is first recorded in the reign of King John (1199-1216), or possibly a little earlier.Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.380 The senior branch of the Copleston family died out in the male line in 1632,Vivian, p.225, on the death of John V Copleston (1609-1632) but the Coplestons of Bowden in the parish of Ashprington survived a further century until the death without progeny of Thomas Copleston (1688-1748), MP, whose heirs in 1753 sold Bowden to William Pollexfen Bastard of Kitley.Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.389