Sir Ralph Creffeild (often incorrectly Creffield;

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, Essex, England, 1653 - Colchester, 22 June 1732) was an alderman and three times

Mayor of Colchester The mayor of Colchester sits as non-political chairman of Colchester Borough Council and serves as the civic representative of the borough. The mayoralty is customarily awarded to the most senior councillor of one of the political groups Curren ...

. A significant landowner, he controlled extensive estates in and around the town. He came from a family of wealthy

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

merchants, originally from

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

, but at

Chappel Chappel is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. The River Colne flows through the village. It is significant for its Victorian viaduct, which crosses the Colne valley. Name and history The present ...

by 1348. His father, also Ralph, was himself mayor on four occasions. Born in 1653, he ran the family business in the High Street of Colchester, but moved to Ardleigh, where he remained for fifty years. Creffeild was knighted by Queen Anne in 1713, having presented her with an address of thanks from the town's

Corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

on the conclusion of the

peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

earlier that year. In 1684 he married Rachel, daughter of George Tayspill; Rachel is now best remembered in Colchester for making a bequest to the poor of Trinity Parish. Though they had five children, only one survived to bear children: his second son, another Ralph Creffeild, born in 1687. Ralph predeceased his father, dying in 1723; consequently the estate jumped him and proceeded to his son Peter Creffield. Creffeild himself died on 22 June 1732, aged 79. He was buried in St. Nicholas Church. His estate was described in the '' Ipswich Gazette'' for 5 July 1735, as "a very good house with coach-houses, stables, granaries, yards, gardens, rishponds and about 40

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s of

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

." In addition to his houses in Colchester and Ardleigh, he held East Mersea Hall, eleven

messuage In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contracts ...

s, three gardens, three cottages and over of land, incorporating Ardleigh,

East Mersea East Mersea is a village and civil parish on Mersea Island in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It was historically referred to as ''Mersea'' in the Domesday book. St Edmund's Church The Grade I listed parish Church of St E ...

, Elmstead,

Frating Frating is a village and small civil parish of the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is about east of Colchester and northwest of Clacton-on-Sea. The parish includes the settlements of Frating Green and Hockley. The parish church (d ...

, Great and Little Birch,

Layer de la Haye Layer de la Haye (often spelled Layer-de-la-Haye; locally known just as ''Layer'') is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. In the 2011 census it had a recorded population of 1,767. History The vill ...

Layer Breton Layer Breton is a village and a civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. According to the 2011 census there were 144 males and 143 females. Layer Breton is part of the Layer parishes with Layer de la Haye being the nei ...

and

Feering Feering is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. The parish is between Colchester and Witham. The village, which lies at the south-west edge of the parish, is conjoined to the neighbouring village of Kelvedon. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creffeild, Ralph 1653 births 1732 deaths Mayors of Colchester