John  Crawley  died  at  a  good  old  age  on  the
26th  March  1598,  and  was  buried  in  Luton
Church,  having  in  his  generation  raised  his
family  from  the  status  of  "  yeomen  "  to  that  of
"esquires."  He  left  his  son  Thomas  his  heir,
and  a  daughter  who  married  William  Howe  of
Cowridge  End,  yeoman.  This  daughter  is
not  mentioned  in  the  Crawley  pedigree  in  the
Visitations  of  BedfordsJdre.  These  Visitations
were  the  work  of  officers  of  the  College  of  Arms,
who  went  from  county  to  county  collecting  in-
formation of  the  pedigrees  of  families  entitled
to  bear  arms.  The  visits  to  Bedfordshire  were
made  in  the  years  1566,  1582,  1634,  and  1669.
In  the  pedigrees  above  alluded  to,  John  Crawley
is  stated  to  have  had  three  children,  namely,
Thomas  Crawley,  a  daughter  Florence,  married
to  William  Smyth,  D.C.L.,  and  another  daughter,
Frances, married  to  John  Grover,of  Leicestershire.
It  is  clear  that  John  Crawley  had  a  daughter


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Marriage  of  Thomas  Crawley   133

married  to  William  Howe  of  Cowridge  End,  as
the  fact  is  mentioned  in  a  Chancery  plea  to
which  reference  will  be  made  in  the  next  chapter.
It  is  possible  that  she  was  not  living  at  the  time
of  the  visitation  of  1582.
Twenty-three  years  before  the  death  of  John
Crawley,  namely,  in  1575,  his  son  Thomas
Crawley  made  the  first  considerable  alliance
that  we  know  of  in  the  history  of  the  family.
