Zachary Crofton
English minister
Zachary Crofton (1626–1672) was an Anglo-Irish nonconforming minister and controversialist, in England from the 1640s.
Life
He was born in Ireland and principally educated at Dublin. He came to England about 1646. His first living was at Wrenbury in Cheshire, from which he was expelled in 1648 for refusing to take the engagement. He then came to London, and was for some time minister of St. James's, Garlick Hythe, and then obtained the rectory of St. Botolph, Aldgate. He held that position until the Restoration, when he was ejected for nonconformity. He was prosecuted (in some fashion) in 1657 for whipping his servant girl, Mary Cadman. The case became notorious, and the theme of a 1661 play The Presbyterian Lash, by Francis Kirkman.
“Zachary Crofton” enters the record as english minister. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zachary, Crofton and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8063948. VIAF identifies the subject as 44653135. The Library of Congress control number is n84177470. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1626, 1672, 1646 and 1648.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zachary Crofton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.