Life

Second son of Samuel Croft, he was born at Beamsley

Beamsley

Beamsley is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is just within the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and about six miles east of Skipton and two miles north of Addingham. The parish borders West Yorkshire to the south. According to the...

, a hamlet in the chapelry of Bolton Abbey, Skipton

Skipton

Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...

, West Riding of Yorkshire

West Riding of Yorkshire

The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...

, and baptised on 27 March 1747. Although his father was in humble circumstances, Croft was educated at the grammar school of Bolton Abbey, under the Rev. Thomas Carr. Carr taught Croft without fee, and solicited subscriptions from well-to-do friends and neighbours in order to send him to university. Admitted a servitor of University College, Oxford

University College, Oxford

.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...

, on 23 October 1762, he was chosen bible clerk on the following 6 December, and in 1768, the first year of its institution, he gained the chancellor's prize for an English essay upon the subject of Artes prosunt reipublicæ. He graduated B.A. on 16 February 1768, proceeding M.A. on 2 June 1769. Meanwhile he had been appointed master of Beverley Grammar School

Beverley Grammar School

Beverley Grammar School is a boys' secondary school in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. It was founded in about 700 AD/CE and is the oldest state school in England and the sixth oldest school overall in England. The school is a specialist Engineering College and shares a mixed Sixth form with...

 on 6 December 1768; and, having been ordained, was elected fellow of Univ on 16 July 1779.

On 11 December 1779 he was instituted by his college to the vicarage of Arncliffe

Arncliffe, North Yorkshire

Arncliffe is a small village and civil parish the largest of Littondale's four settlements. Littondale is a small valley beside Upper Wharfedale, 3 miles beyond Kilnsey and its famous crag...

 in the West Riding, and on 19 and 21 January 1780 took the two degrees (B.D. and D.D.) in divinity. About this time he became chaplain to the Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. Elgin was the second son of Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and his wife Martha Whyte...

. He left Beverley at Michaelmas 1780, on being named head-master of Brewood Grammar School

Brewood Grammar School

Brewood Grammar School was a boys' school in the village of Brewood in South Staffordshire, England.Founded in the mid 15th century by the Bishop of Lichfield as a chantry school it was closed by the 1547 Act of Dissolution of Chantries...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, a post he resigned in 1791 to accept the lectureship of St. Martin's, Birmingham

St Martin in the Bull Ring

The church of St Martin in the Bull Ring in Birmingham 5, England is a parish church in the Church of England.-Background:It is the original parish church of Birmingham. It stands between the Bull Ring shopping centre and the markets. The church is a Grade II* listed building. The current Rector...

, to which was later added the chaplaincy of St. Bartholomew in the same parish. He took a particularly strong polemical line in preaching against local Dissenters, who from 1780 included Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...

.

In 1786 Croft was invited to give the Bampton lectures. From his old college friend John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon PC KC FRS FSA was a British barrister and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806 and again between 1807 and 1827.- Background and education :...

, he received in 1802 the rectory of Thwing

Thwing

Thwing is a small village in the Yorkshire Wolds, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately from the east coast, just north of the B1253 road. The nearest neighbouring towns are Driffield to the south, Bridlington to the east, Filey to the north east and...

 in the East Riding

East Riding of Yorkshire

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

, which he was allowed to hold, by a dispensation, with the vicarage of Arncliffe. He died at Birmingham on 11 May 1809, aged 62, and was buried in the north aisle of St. Martin's Church, where there is a monument to his memory. On 12 October 1780 he had married Ann, daughter of William Grimston of Ripon

Ripon

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...

, by whom he left a son and six daughters.

Works

He published:

• ‘A Sermon [on Prov. xxiv. 21] preached before the University of Oxford, 25 October 1783,’ Stafford, 1784.
• ‘A Plan of Education, delineated and vindicated. To which are added a Letter to a Young Gentleman designed for the University and for Holy Orders; and a short Dissertation upon the stated provision and reasonable expectations of Public Teachers,’ Wolverhampton, 1784.
• ‘Eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford,’ being the Bampton Lectures, Oxford, 1786.
• ‘The Test Laws defended. A Sermon [on 2 Tim. ii. 21] … With a preface containing remarks on Dr. Price's Revolution Sermon and other publications,’ Birmingham, 1790.
• ‘Plans of Parliamentary Reform, proved to be visionary, in a letter to the Reverend C. Wyvill,’ Birmingham, 1793.
• ‘Thoughts concerning the Methodists and Established Clergy, &c.,’ London, 1795.
• ‘A Short Commentary, with strictures, on certain parts of the moral writings of Dr. Paley and Mr. Gisborne. To which are added … Observations on the duties of Trustees and Conductors of Grammar Schools, and two Sermons, on Purity of Principle, and the Penal Laws,’ Birmingham, 1797.
• ‘An Address to the Proprietors of the Birmingham Library, &c.,’ Birmingham [1803].

After his death appeared ‘Sermons, including a series of Discourses on the Minor Prophets, preached before the University of Oxford,’ 2 vols. Birmingham, 1811, to which is prefixed a brief sketch of the author's life by the Rev. Rann Kennedy of Birmingham grammar school.