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CRAWDEN, or CROWDEN, commonly called CROYDON, lies in the hundred of Armingford, and deanery of Shengay. It now forms one parish with Clopton, by the name of CROYDON cum CLOPTON. Clopton was originally a distinct parish, and had, in ancient times, a market on Wednesdays, granted in 1291 to Robert de Hoo: the parish church was dedicated in 1351 : it was afterwards united to one of the Hatleys, by the name of Clopton cum Hatley. In the reign of King James I. the Bishop of Ely consolidated the benefice with that of Croydon ; the church was about that time pulled down ; and they have ever since been esteemed as one parish, having the same church-wardens, and other officers, and being assessed together to the King's taxes ; there are now only six houses at Clopton.
The manor of Talboys, in Croydon, belonged to a family of that name so early as the year 1316, and for more than two centuries afterwards : the manor of Francis, so called from its possessors of that name in the fifteenth century, became the property of the Walters, who continued to possess it in the reign of Henry VIII.
The manor of Clopton was so early as the year 1273 in the family of Bereford ; in 1371 it was held under Sir Baldwin de Bereford by the Cloptons, who afterwards were possessed of the fee, and held also the manor of Rouses in Clopton, which, in 1316, had belonged top the family of Rouse. In or about the reign of Edward IV. the heiress of the Cloptons married a Chicheley, who sold the manor of Clopton to the Fishers : Agnes, daughter and sole heir of John Fisher, married the first Lord St. John of Bletsoe, whose grand-daughter brought Clopton in marriage to Lord Howard of Effingham ; Lord Howard sold it to Francis Lord Russell. In the reign of James I. the manerial property, as well as the benefice of this parish, appears to have been united ; the manor of Croydon cum Clopton being then in the family of Cage : it is now the property of the Reverend J. C. Gape of St. Albans, whose ancestor, John Gape, Esq. purchased it, in 1698, of Adelard Cage, Esq.
The family of Heron held a manor in Crawden, of the Honour of Peverell, in the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
Mr. Gape is patron of the united benefice of Croydon cum Clopton. Clopton is a rectory ; Croydon a vicarage. The church of Crawden was given to the prior and convent of Barnwell, in the reign of King John, by Hugh de Crawden, who had been a monk at that house.
It appears, by the returns made under the act of parliament for ascertaining the population of this kingdom in 1801, that there were 31 houses in Croydon cum Clopton, all of which were inhabited ; the total number of inhabitants, is stated to be 208, living as 34 families.
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