Croft, Herbert (2), Dd

Croft, Herbert (2), D.D.

an English prelate, son of the foregoing, was born October 18, 1603, at Great Milton, near Thame, Oxfordshire. He was educated in the English college of the Jesuits at St. Omer's, and at Oxford; entered into orders, and became minister in Gloucestershire, and rector of Harding, in Oxfordshire. In August, 1639, he was made a prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, in 1640 of Worcester, and the year after canon of Windsor. In 1644 he was nominated dean of Hereford, to which see he was promoted December 2, 1661. About 1667 he became dean of the royal chapel, which position he held until 1669. In 1675, when the quarrel with the Nonconformists was at its height, he published a niece entitled The Naked Truth, or the True State of the Primitive Church (4to), which created some Controversy and excited an uncommon degree of attention. He resigned his bishopric some years before his death, which occurred May 18, 1691. He published some single Sermons, and The Theory of the Earth (1688). See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.