Sir John Francis CRADOCK

1762 - 1839  (76 years)

• Name	John Francis CRADOCK
  Title	Sir
  Born	12 Aug 1762	Dublin, Ireland
  Gender	Male
  Died	6 Jul 1839	Grimston, Yorkshire   [1]
  Person ID	I621	Irish in South Africa
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2019

  
  

  Father	Archbiishop John CRADOCK
  Family ID	F196	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S2] SESA, (Nationale Boekhandel). He joined the army and made rapid progress. He occupied posts in the military administration of Ireland with distinction and when a major-general helped to quell the 1798 rebellion. After taking part in the Egyptian campaign he was placed in command of the British troops in Madras and in 1808 of those in Portugal. Shortly afterwards, with the rank of lieutenantgeneral, he was appointed governor of Gibraltar, followed by the governorship in 1811 of the Cape Colony, where he had to pay immediate attention to the eastern border. The Xhosas had to be ousted from the Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage districts, and in October he ordered Lt.-Col. John Graham to take the field. Military operations were successfully concluded in Feb. 1812. His reorganisation of the system of land tenure paved the way for British emigration to the Cape Colony. He gave serious attention to the improvement of education. His, too, was the task of investigating the charges levelled by James Read and J. T. van der Kemp, of the London Missionary Society, against the Colonists, to the effect that they had ill-treated the Natives, which led to the Black Circuit of 1811. On 6 April 1814 Cradock retired as governor and he left the Colony on 2 May. In 1819 he was created Lord Howden, and in 1831 Lord Howden of Howden and Grimston in the county of York.