CRACHERODE, CLAYTON MORDAUNT
Arms.—Or, a saltire erm., between 4 lions' heads erased sa. Cracherode.
Crest.—A demi boar saliant reguardant or, wounded in the shoulder with an arrow ppr., which he holds in his mouth.
Note.—Probably designed and the stamp cut by Roger Payne.
[Suetonius. Opera. Leovardiae, 1715.]
Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (born 23rd June 1730, died 5th April 1799) was a son of an officer of Marines, Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode.
Clayton Cracherode was educated at Westminster and Christchurch, Oxford, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He was ordained shortly after leaving Oxford. On the death of his father, Mr. Cracherode became a rich man, and spent his fortune freely in collecting choice books, bindings, drawings, prints, coins, and gems, always getting the finest examples procurable.
Mr. Cracherode was an eccentric and shy recluse; he hardly ever left London, and his life is said to have been embittered by the fact that he was liable to act as King's Cup-bearer at a coronation, his manor at Great Wymondley being held on that Tenure. The collections made by Mr. Cracherode were all bequeathed to the British Museum except two books, a Bible left to the Bishop of Durham, and a Homer to Cyril Jackson, Dean of Christchurch, but both of these eventually were given to the Museum Library. Several of Mr. Cracherode's books were bound for him by Roger Payne, one of the greatest English bookbinders.