Thomas Crofton Croker

File:FrancisNicholsonBrompton01.jpg

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Thomas Crofton Croker (15 January 1798 – 8 August 1854) was an Irish antiquary.

Life

Born at Cork, for some years Croker held a position in the Admiralty, where his distant relative, John Wilson Croker, was his superior.

Croker devoted himself largely to the collection of ancient Irish poetry and Irish folklore. He assisted in founding the Percy Society and the Camden Society. He and his wife's testimonies about funereal customs, particularly the tradition of keening the deceased are among the earliest and most significant contributions to the understanding of the Irish language lament and the accompanying traditions. His work Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland went to six editions, and was translated into German by the Brothers Grimm (Irische Elfenmärchen).

Croker died in 1854 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Works

• Researches in the South of Ireland (1824)
• Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, 3 vols., (1825–28)
• Popular Songs of Ireland (1837)
• Daniel O'Rourke (1829)
• Barney Mahoney (1832)

Family

Croker married in 1830 Marianne Nicholson (1792–1854), daughter of Francis Nicholson. T. F. Dillon Croker FSA, FRGS, was their son and only child.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 

External links

• Archival material relating to Thomas Crofton Croker listed at the UK National Archives
• Works by T. Crofton Crocker at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Thomas Crofton Croker at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Thomas Crofton Croker at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by Thomas Crofton Croker at Open Library