Francis Crane

Sir Francis Crane (ca. 1579 – ca. 1636) was the founder of Mortlake Tapestry Works ^[1] at Mortlake on the south bank of the river Thames in South West London.

Biography

In April 1606 he had a grant for life of the office of Clerk of the Parliaments, was secretary to Charles I when the latter was Prince of Wales. During his secretaryship he was knighted at Coventry on 4 September 1617.^[2]

The tapestry works at Mortlake almost ruined Crane, as it involved him in considerable outlay of capital for an inadequate return, and in 1623 he was forced to appeal to the King, James I for financial help. James I died in 1625 and Crane was given much more favourable terms by the new King, Charles I, whose secretary he had been since 1617.^[3] He sat in the Parliaments of 1614 and 1621 as MP for Penryn and that of 1624 for Launceston.^[4][5]

In 1629 the King gave him the Manor of Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire, where he built Stoke Park, a fine Palladian house, possibly with assistance from Inigo Jones. He was also appointed c.1632 the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.

He died in Paris in 1636 after an operation for bladder stones and was buried at Woodrising in Norfolk.^[2]

Family

Crane's brother, Richard Crane, was created a baronet in 1643.

See also

• Crane baronets

Notes

References

•  Courtney, William Prideaux (1888). "Crane, Francis". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 9–10. 
• Hefford, Wendy (January 2008) [2004]. "Crane, Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6601.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 177, 188. 

Tapestry
Tapestries	Adoration of the Magi Bayeux Tapestry Devonshire Hunting Tapestries Gunthertuch Cloth of St Gereon Hestia Tapestry Holy Grail tapestries Hunt of the Unicorn Jagiellonian tapestries Lady and the Unicorn New World Tapestry Överhogdal tapestries Pastoral Amusements Quaker Tapestry Raphael Cartoons Ros Tapestry Project Royal Tapestry Factory Sampul tapestry Scottish Royal tapestry collection Skog tapestry Story of Abraham Valois Tapestries The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald
Styles	Kalaga K'o-ssu Millefleur
Studios	Aubusson Brussels Beauvais Gobelins Moravská Gobelínová Manufaktura Mortlake Morris & Co. Portalegre Royal Tapestry Factory William Baumgarten & Co
Weavers and designers	Francis Crane Givi Kandareli Pieter van Aelst III John Henry Dearle Lefèvre family William Morris Margaretha Reichardt Gunta Stölzl Judocus de Vos
Tapestry-working artists	Pieter Coecke van Aelst François Boucher Marc Chagall Francis Cleyn John Coburn Michiel Coxie Éva Farkas Petronėlė Gerlikienė Francisco Goya Blind Man's Bluff The Parasol list of tapestry cartoons Muriel Nezhnie Helfman Else Marie Jakobsen Jacob Jordaens Hans Knieper Nancy Kozikowski Jean Lurçat Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer Bernard van Orley François Quesnel Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael)
Related topics	Byzantine silk Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts Embroidery International Gothic Kilim Navajo weaving Needlepoint Weaving

Chancellors of the Order of the Garter
Bishops of Salisbury (1477–1550)	Richard Beauchamp Lionel Woodville Thomas Langton John Blyth Henry Deane Edmund Audley
Lay Chancellors (1551–1671)	Sir William Cecil Sir William Petre Sir Thomas Smith Sir Francis Walsingham Sir Amias Paulet Sir John Wolley Sir Edward Dyer Sir John Herbert Sir George More Sir Francis Crane Sir Thomas Roe Sir James Palmer Sir Henry de Vic
Bishops of Salisbury (1671–1837)	Seth Ward Gilbert Burnet William Talbot Richard Willis Benjamin Hoadly Thomas Sherlock John Gilbert John Thomas The Hon Robert Hay Drummond John Thomas John Hume Shute Barrington John Douglas John Fisher Thomas Burgess
Knights Companion (from 1937)	William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham John Nevill, 5th Marquess of Abergavenny Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn