170 



built about 1290—1291 by Lawrence de Ludlow. The hall is excellently pro- 

 portioned with a length of 53 feet, a breadth of 31 feet, and height to the roof-tree 

 of 34 feet. The arches of the massive open timber roof are .supported upon 

 brackets springing from stone corbels not more than seven feet from the flooring. 

 Lofty and well proportioned windows, muUioned and transomed, finished with 

 trefoils above are excellent specimens of Early English tracery. A brazier stood 

 upon an octagonal pavement near the southern end, the roof above appearing 

 blackened with smoke, for which there was no chimney. 



A description of the building and its historical associations so far as can be 

 ascertained are minutely detailed in the above mentioned guide book by the pen 

 of the Rev. J. D. La Touohe. 



After the inspection of the Castle, the members having assembled in the 

 hall, the following paper was read :— 



SIR WILLIAM CROFT, OF CROFT CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE, 

 KNIGHT; AND THE BATTLE OF STOKESAY. 



[By Sir Hekbert Ckoft, Bart.] 



Sir William Croft, of Croft Castle, was the eldest of the four sons of Sir 

 Herbert Croft, of Croft Castle, Knight— M.P. 1592-1617 for County of Hereford— 

 by Mary, daughter and heiress of Anthony Bourne, of Holt, county Worcester. 

 Sir William's great grandsire, Sir James Croft, of Croft Castle, Knight, was 

 Comptroller of the Household of Queen Elizabeth ; also Lord-Deputy of Ireland 

 in 1551-1552, and M.P. for county of Hereford in 1541. Members of the 

 Croft family have represented the county of Hereford for centuries— from the end 

 of thirteenth or beginning of fourteenth — when Hugo de Croft (1314) was in the 

 Parliament at York, down to the year 1874, when the present Baronet retired 

 from Parliamentary life, and declined to offer himself for re-election at that 

 General Election. Sir William Croft's grandsire, Edward Croft, of Croft 

 Castle, Esq., from 1571 to 1586, was M.P. for Leominster, which borough Sir 

 Archer Croft, of Croft Castle, 2nd Baronet, had the honour of serving in 

 Parliament in 1722, and Sir Archer in 1727 was elected for both Beeralston, in 

 Devonshire, and Winchelsea, having been defeated at Leominster. Sir William 

 Croft, however, was M.P. for a Wiltshire borough— Malmesbury— and the date of 

 the return is 27th January, 1625, and his colleague was Sir William Moodye, 

 Knight and Baronet, and Sir William Croft and his colleague were again elected 

 for Malmesbury in 1627. Why Sir William was not— like many of his ancestors 

 and successors- elected M.P. for county of Hereford or for Leominster borough is 

 not clear; but places like Malmesbury, in those days of payment to members, were 

 glad to get a gentleman to serve the borough in Parliament free of cost, which 

 payment in a county amounted to 4s. a day, and in a borough to 2s. a day, which 

 in those days was considered a large sum of money, and the daily stipend was 

 payable during the whole of the Parliamentary Session, and until the return 



