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). 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 (died 1603), daughter of John Clipsby of Clipsby in Norfolk. He 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 stepmother Juliana daughter of Edward Fusey (or Fasey) married Sir Ranulph on 12th April 1607 (her first husband was Sir Thomas Hesketh). She was buried in the Abbey on 12th August 1629.

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 daughter Anne by his first wife Carew, daughter of Sir Arthur Gorges, married John Offley who took the surname of Crewe. His second wife was Lucy daughter of Edmund Turnor. Sir Clipsby's son Ranulph [or Randolph] was born in 1631 and also attended Westminster School. He became a cartographer and was buried in Paris in 1657 after being attacked by footpads.

A Prudence Crewe was buried in the Abbey on 19th July 1640 but her relationship to the above family is not clear.