Joseph Creswicke ⁴⁰⁷

  General Notes:

Director of the East India Company, Justice of the Peace.

From Memories of Moreton:
Around 1760 John Creswick died, and the Moreton property passed to his
younger brother, Joseph. Joseph Creswick, who had married Elizabeth
Laujol at St. Mary Abchurch, London, on 19 November 1726 and lived in
some comfort in Streatham, was also in the Customs service. He had
agreed to become one of the executors of a colleague, Howard Hastings,
of the Daylesford family, and when the latter died in 1749 Joseph
Creswick found himself the sole surviving executor and guardian of his
friend's nephew. There was less money than had been expected, and
Joseph Creswick, who had to go to Chancery to secure for Warren
Hastings the Plough Inn at Cheltenham, which was part of his
inheritance, took Warren Hastings away from Westminster School, to the
indignation of the headmaster, and placed him with the writing master
of Christ's Hospital, the Blue Coat School, to learn accounts and
calligraphy. Joseph Creswick also got Warren Hastings a nomination as
a writer in the East India Company and stood as his security, and
Warren Hastings spent Christmas with the Creswicks in Streatham before
sailing to India and a glittering, if controversial, career. After his
brother John's death, Joseph Creswick, who had just become a director
of the East India Company, retired to his Moreton home, becoming, like
his father, a Gloucestershire Justice of the Peace. It may well have
been Joseph who built the eighteenth century portion of Lemington
House which is now its most prominent feature. However, he mainly
lived quietly in Moreton, although he died in Boswell Court off
Southampton Row, London, on 11 July 1772, being buried at Moreton on
18 July. Joseph and Elizabeth Creswick had four children: Henry; Anne,
who married Thomas Hewitt and then Captain Jenkin Reading; Mary, who
married Samuel Cotes of St. Pancras, London, in 1768, and died in
1770; and Eleanor, who married Thomas Grimstead of Leatherhead,
Surrey. ... The Manor House Hotel is probably the most haunted house
in the town. Formerly named Creswyke House, this fine old building did
not become a hotel until just before the Second World War. For well
over a hundred years the property was owned by the 'Creswyke family.
until in 1752 it was bought by a Benjamin Busby, who founded a
linen-weaving business in the town. It is said that he purchased the
house at a small price because it was haunted by the ghost of Dame
Creswyke, reputedly murdered in the house towards the end of the
seventeenth century. for many years there have been reports of ghostly
activity in the hotel, with what is thought to be the figure of Dame
Creswyke making an appearance from time to time. In Room 8, in
particular, there have been a number of apparently inexplicable
occurrences, and even as recently as 1987 a report of an appparition
sighted close to the hotel front was received. For the moment at
least, it seems unlikely that Dame Creswyke intends leaving her
residence.

  Birth Notes:

Birth

  Death Notes:

  Burial Notes:

Burial

Joseph married Elizabeth Laujol on 19 November 1726 in St. Mary Abchurch, London. (Elizabeth Laujol was born on 5 July 1703 in St. Martin Orgars French Huguen, London and died on 27 March 1771.)