Crewe Family

Juliana Crewe

In the north ambulatory of Westminster Abbey, at the entrance to the chapel of Our Lady of Pew, is a mural tablet to Juliana Crewe.

The Latin inscription can be translated:

Juliana Crewe a most pious young lady, the dearest and only daughter of Ralph [Ranulphe] de Crewe, Kt.[Knight], Chief Justice of the King's Bench, by Julian de Clippesby his wife, a co-heiress of the ancient family of Clippesby in the county of Norfolk, here expects her Redeemer's coming. She died in the flower of her age on the 22nd April 1621.

She was born on 17th February 1601 and died unmarried. Her brother Clipsby is mentioned below. Her father Ranulph had an appointment as keeper of Henry VII's chapel at the Abbey from 1613. He leased property from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

The lozenge of arms includes the coat of arms of Crewe "azure a lion rampant argent" (a blue shield with a silver lion), Ramsey, Clippesby and Knightley.

Jane Crewe

On the other side of the entrance to this chapel is a marble mural monument, attributed to the sculptor Epiphanius Evesham, to Lady Jane Crewe, wife of Sir Clipsby Crewe. The Latin inscription can be translated:

Lady Jane Crewe, eminently distinguished for her piety, her beauty, and her modesty, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Pultney of Misterton Pultney, Leicestershire, Kt., granddaughter of Sir Fortescue of Salden, Buckinghamshire, Kt. by his daughter Margery; mother of John, Anne and Ranulph Crewe who survive her, and of Frances Crewe who died in earliest infancy and is buried with her. Her sorrowing husband Sir Clipsby Crewe placed this monument to the best of wives, in affection and in admiration for her virtues. She died in the thirtieth year of her age, on the second day of December 1639.

On the monument is an alto-relief of Jane lying on her deathbed while her husband and three children are seated, standing or kneeling in front. They surround a sarcophagus on which lies a naked child (presumably the young daughter Frances). The coats of arms of Crewe and Pulteney are shown.

Sir Clipsby Crewe

Sir Clipsby was the son and heir of Sir Ranulph [Randolph or Ralph] Crewe (1559-1646) judge, by his first wife Julian (baptised 12th December 1574 and died 1603), who was an attendant to the Countess of Shrewsbury, and daughter of John Clipsby of Clipsby in Norfolk. They married at the church of All Hallows on the Wall in London on 20th July 1598. She was buried in Richmond church.

Sir Ranulph married secondly Juliana Fusey (her first husband was Sir Thomas Hesketh) on 12th April 1607 and died in Westminster but is buried at Barthomley in Cheshire. This Juliana was buried in the Abbey on 12th August 1629.

Clipsby was born on 4th September 1599 and knighted in 1620. At St Margaret's Westminster on 7th July 1625 he married Jane Pulteney [Pultney] daughter of Sir John Pulteney and his wife Margery (Fortescue). His sister Juliana is noted above. He was buried in the aisle near these monuments on 3rd February 1649 but has no monument or marker. His daughter Frances was born on 27th July 1631 and died on 4th February 1638.

His son John was born 20th December 1626 and baptised at St Margaret's. He attended Westminster School and died on 13th February 1684, being buried near his father. John's first wife was Carew, daughter of Sir Arthur Gorges. Their daughters were Sarah, and Anne who married John Offley who then took the surname of Crewe. His second wife was Lucy.

Sir Clipsby's son Ranulph [or Randolph] was born in 1631 and also attended Westminster School. He became a cartographer and was buried in the Huguenot plot in the Faubourg St Germain in Paris in 1657 after being attacked by footpads [robbers] and murdered.

Prudence Crewe, sister of Sir Ranulph, of Crewe Hall, Cheshire, was born on 28th February 1562 and died in Westminster on 14th July 1640. She was buried in the Abbey on 19th July 1640 but has no marker or monument.