Herbert Croft (1603–1691) was an English churchman, bishop of Hereford from 1661.
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He was son of Sir Herbert Croft, who was the grandson of Sir James Croft. Croft was born 18th May 1603 at Great Milton, Oxfordshire, his mother being then on a journey to London. He married, before April 8, 1645, Anne Browne, the only daughter of the Very Rev. Dr. Jonathan Browne[1] and Anne Barne Lovelace. Her half-brothers were Richard Lovelace (1618 – 1657) an English poet in the seventeenth century and Francis Lovelace (1621-1675), who was the second governor of the New York colony appointed by the Duke of York, later King James II of England.[2]
After being for some time, like his father who had converted, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he returned to the Church of England about 1630, and in 1644 was appointed chaplain to Charles I, and obtained within a few years a prebendary's stall at Worcester, a canonry of Windsor, and the deanery of Hereford, all of which preferments he lost during the Civil War and Commonwealth.
By Charles II he was made bishop of Hereford in 1661 and also dean of the chapels royal 1668-1670 from which position he preached to the King. Becoming disillusioned with court life he returned to Hereford and his see.
Croft was the author of many books and pamphlets, several of them against the Roman Catholics; and one of his works, entitled The Naked Truth, or the True State of the Primitive Church (London, 1675), was celebrated in its day, and gave rise to prolonged controversy.
His son Herbert was created a baronet in 1671, and was the ancestor of Sir Herbert Croft, 5th Baronet, the 18th century writer.
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| Preceded by Nicholas Monck |
Bishop of Hereford 1661–1691 |
Succeeded by Gilbert Ironside |