Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crofts, George
CROFTS or CRAFTE, GEORGE (d. 1539), divine, may probably be identified with the George Croft of Oriel College, Oxford, who was elected fellow from Herefordshire 10 Oct. 1513, proceeded B.A. 13 Dec. following, and resigned 4 Feb. 1519 (Registrum Univ. Oxon. i. 82), and with George Croftys of the same college, southern proctor in April 1520 (Fasti Oxon. i. 51). He was instituted to the rectory of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, in 1524, and probably about the same time to the rectory of Winford in the same county, paying a pension of 8l. to his predecessor, who had resigned the living. On 21 Feb. 1530–1 he was collated to the chancellorship of Chichester Cathedral. On 4 Dec. 1538 he was indicted for saying ‘that the king was not, but the pope was, supreme head of the church.’ He pleaded guilty, was condemned, and executed early in the following year. Archbishop Cranmer, writing to Cromwell on 13 Nov. 1538, says that ‘one Crofts, now in the Tower and like to be attainted of treason, hath a benefice … named Shipton Mallet,’ and begs it of the lord privy seal for his chaplain Champion, a native of the place, ‘in case it fall void at this time’ (Letters, p. 247).
[Registrum Universitatis Oxon., ed. Boase (Oxford Hist. Soc.), i. 82; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 51; Hutton's Registers of Dio. of Bath and Wells, Harl. MSS. 6966–7; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 271; Valor Ecclesiasticus, i. 151, 185; Burnet's Hist. of Reformation (Pocock), i. 563; Cranmer's Miscell. Writings (Parker Soc.), i. 385.]