Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Croxton, Thomas
CROXTON, THOMAS (1603?–1663?), parliamentarian, son of George Croxton of Ravenscroft, Northwich Hundred, Cheshire, by Judith, daughter of William Hassal of Burland in the same county, was born about 1603. He was colonel in the parliamentary army in 1650; militia commissioner for Chester the same year; member of a court-martial for trial of certain misdemeanants of quality on 10 Sept. 1651, and was continued in the militia commission in March 1654–5. In 1659 he was in command of Chester Castle when Sir George Booth's rising took place. The rebels entered the town and called upon him to surrender. He is said to have replied ‘that as perfidiousness in him was detestable, so the castle which he kept for the parliament of England was disputable, and if they would have it they must fight for it, for the best blood that ran in his veins in defence thereof should be as sluices to fill up the castle trenches.’ He held out for about three weeks, when he was relieved by Lambert shortly after the battle at Northwich. The garrison was then in some distress for want of food. On 17 Sept. the House of Commons voted Croxton a reward for his services. He continued irreconcilable to royalism after the Restoration, and in 1663 was arrested and secured in Chester Castle on a charge of ‘plotting a general rebellion.’ He probably soon died there. Croxton married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Holland of Denton, Lancashire. His son, George Croxton, succeeded him, and died in 1690.
Ormerod's Cheshire, ed. Helsby, iii. 206–8; Mercurius Politicus, 28 July–17 Sept. 1659.]