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Draft:Elizabeth Crane

Elizabeth Crane (died c. 1606) was a religious activist in 16th-century England. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Hussey of Linwood, Lincolnshire, and his second wife, Dame Jane.

Personal life

Elizabeth married Anthony Crane, a clerk controller in the royal household and resident of the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury, London, soon after Elizabeth I's accession to the throne.

Career and activism

Elizabeth and Anthony Crane were granted the manor of Ockham, Surrey, on 8 April 1560. Anthony obtained permission to alienate the manor six years later. By 1571, the couple had acquired a reversionary lease of the manor of East Molesey, also in Surrey, where Anthony served as a justice of the peace and member of the quorum since 1564. Anthony died in 1583, leaving his estate to Elizabeth and their daughter, Mary.

Anthony was involved with the Puritans as early as 1572, allegedly associating with those who erected a presbytery at Wandsworth. After Anthony's death in 1583, Elizabeth continued her connection with other Protestant reformers.

In May 1588, Anthony Crane's printing press was destroyed for printing John Udall's Puritan treatise The State of the Church of England Laid Open. Robert Waldegrave and his wife salvaged the type used and brought it to Elizabeth Crane's house in Aldermanbury. Robert Penry later relocated the press to her country house in East Molesey, where several influential tracts, including Udall's A Demonstration of Discipline and An Epistle to the Terrible Priests, were printed. However, fearing retaliation, Waldegrave's protector dared not house the press any longer, and Penry removed it to Northamptonshire by the end of .

Personal life

In late 1588 or early 1589, Elizabeth married George Carleton, stepfather of Anthony Cope and a close associate of Sir Richard Knightley. Carleton was suspected of involvement in the distribution of the Martin Marprelate tracts, leading to his summons before the privy council in April 1589. Subsequently, Elizabeth Crane was imprisoned in the Fleet alongside other individuals associated with the press, including Sir Richard Knightley and Roger Wigston and his wife. Following Carleton's death in January 1590, Elizabeth faced charges in the Star Chamber in May of the same year. Despite affirming her loyalty to Queen Elizabeth I and denying affiliation with various religious sects, she was fined for refusing the ex officio oath and for sheltering the press.

Elizabeth Crane was left widowed with a daughter named Mary, who married Gerard Gore, a merchant from Aldermanbury, around 1588.

Elizabeth Crane's exact date of death is uncertain, but it is believed to have occurred before her daughter's passing in 1606, as Mary was buried in the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury on March 1 of that year.

References