Posthumous Child

THE HONORABLE FREDERICA CROFTON (1816-81) was the youngest sister of Edward, Second Baron Crofton, ancestor of Edward Harry Piers Crofton (b. 1988), Eighth Baron Crofton of Mote, who succeeded to the title in 2007. Like me, The Right Honourable the Lord Crofton usually goes by his second name, Harry.

Frederica was born after the suicide of her father, Sir Edward, Third Baronet Crofton. The Barony of Crofton was created for Frederica's grandmother, Lady Anne Crofton. In 1797, just after Sir Edward Crofton, Second Baronet, of the Mote, had been offered a barony in the Peerage of Ireland, he died. So the honour was bestowed upon his widow instead. That enabled Frederica to obtain, two years after her marriage, a patent granting her the precedence of a baron's daughter.

Frederica’s ancestry stemed from John Crofton, who came to Ireland in 1565 with Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and was granted large tracts of land in Roscommon, Leitrim, and Sligo. From 1576 until 1597 he was Escheator General of Ireland, meaning that if property had no legal heir he seized it for Queen Elizabeth.

A Crofton Baronetcy was created in 1661 for services to Charles II during the Civil War, but it expired when the Fifth Baronet died without issue. The family estate devolved upon his sister Katherine. When Marcus Lowther MP married Katherine in 1758, a new Crofton Baronetcy was created for him.

Frederica kept a scrapbook crammed with newspaper cuttings, together with handwritten recipes for cooking, cleaning, and curing diseases as various as cholera, delirium tremens, and dislocation of the jaw from excessive yawning. The cuttings included reports of family events, advertisements for everything from boarding houses to cheap books, and letters to local newspapers written by her husband the Rural Dean, using the cunning pseudonym Ruri-Decanus, in support of various causes, including scientific investigation and educating the lower classes.

Frederica was brought up in her family's home, Mote Park House, on their estate of 7,000 acres at Ballymurray, Roscommon. Mote Park was built about 1775 by John Crofton (1740-1813) to replace a castle which the Croftons erected in 1620 but which had been ravaged by fire.

Sir Edward Crofton, Third Baronet Crofton, had the architect Sir Richard Morrisson design an extension which more than doubled the size of the house. Fire again destroyed Mote Park in 1865, but it was rebuilt with modifications. Because of the Land Acts, most of the estate was sold piecemeal early in the last century, and the house became so neglected that the Land Commission demolished it about 1960.

Frederica's brother, Edward, Second Baron Crofton (left), sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1840 to 1869. He served as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip) in the three Conservative administrations of the Earl of Derby and in Benjamin Disraeli's first government.

Edward married Lady Georgina Paget. Their daughter Augusta Caroline Crofton was the wife of Luke Dillon, Fourth Baron Clonbrock. Both were photographers, but Lady Augusta (right) was so notable that she was invested as an Officer in the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Frederica's portrait on the previous page was derived from the photograph at the top of this page. The lack of a name on the back of the print may indicate that it was not taken by a professional but by her niece Augusta.

© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
Reproduction or transmission, in whole or in part, for other than personal use is prohibited without advance permission from Dr. G. H. McLaughlin.