Francis Crane
Stoke Park pavilion
Occupation	Businessman

Sir Francis Crane (c. 1579 – c. 1636) was the founder of Mortlake Tapestry Works ^[1] at Mortlake on the south bank of the river Thames in South West London.

His parentage is obscure, but his family had close links to Cornwall, and both his sisters married Cornishmen.

In April 1606 he had a grant for life of the office of Clerk of the Parliaments. He was appointed clerk to the council of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales on 6 July 1611,^[2] and was later secretary to Charles I when the latter was Prince of Wales. During his secretaryship, he was knighted at Coventry on 4 September 1617.^[3]

Crane obtained royal patronage for a project to make tapestry and arras in 1619.^[4] The tapestry works at Mortlake almost ruined Crane, as it involved him in the considerable outlay of capital for an inadequate return, and in 1623 he was forced to appeal to the King, James I for financial help. In that year Crane was making a suite of tapestries for Prince Charles.^[5] James I died in 1625 and Crane was given much more favourable terms by the new King, Charles I, whose secretary he had been since 1617.^[6] He sat in the Parliaments of 1614 and 1621 as MP for Penryn and that of 1624 for Launceston.^[7][8]

In 1629 the King gave him the Manor of Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire, where he built Stoke Park, a fine Palladian house, possibly with assistance from Inigo Jones. Building materials for Stoke Bruerne were brought from Grafton Regis where Crane demolished a house built by Henry VIII. He was also appointed c. 1632 the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.

He died in Paris in 1636 after an operation for bladder stones and was buried at Woodrising in Norfolk, an estate he had purchased from Thomas Southwell.^[3]

In 1618 Crane married Mary le Maire, daughter of David le Maire of Tournai, and widow of Henry Swinnerton, but had no issue.^[9] He inherited a considerable sum from Mary's brother Sir Peter le Maire, who died in 1631. A rumour that he had been pre-contracted to the Countess of Exeter, which circulated in 1618, was simply one of an extraordinary web of lies spread to damage the Countess by her enemy Lady Lake, wife of Sir Thomas Lake.

His brother and heir, Richard Crane, was created a baronet in 1643. He also left property to his niece Frances Bond. Most of the Crane estates eventually passed to the heirs of his sister Edith, who married Gregory Arundell of Sheviock.

• Crane baronets

• Courtney, William Prideaux (1888). "Crane, Francis" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 9–10.
• Hefford, Wendy (January 2008) [2004]. "Crane, Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6601. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 177, 188.

v t e Tapestry
Tapestries	Adoration of the Magi Apocalypse Tapestry Amnesty-Sís-Pinton Tapestries Armada tapestries Bayeux Tapestry Bayeux Tapestry tituli Hunts of Maximilian Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph Cloth of St Gereon The Death of Polydorus Devonshire Hunting Tapestries Game of Thrones Tapestry Great Tapestry of Scotland Great Tapestry of Scotland: People's Panel Grödinge tapestry Gunthertuch Hestia Tapestry The History of Constantine Holy Grail tapestries Hunt of the Unicorn Hunting of Birds with a Hawk and a Bow Jagiellonian tapestries The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald Lady and the Unicorn New World Tapestry Oseberg tapestry fragments Överhogdal tapestries Pastoral Amusements Pastrana Tapestries Raphael Cartoons Ros Tapestry Project Ryijy Sampul tapestry Scottish Diaspora Tapestry Scottish royal tapestry collection Sheldon tapestries Skog tapestry Story of Abraham The Triumph of Fame Valois Tapestries Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries The World Trade Center Tapestry
Styles	Kalaga Kesi Millefleur
Studios	Aubusson Beauvais Brussels Gobelins Moravská Gobelínová Manufaktura Morris & Co. Mortlake Pannemaeker family Royal Tapestry Factory William Baumgarten & Co
Weavers and designers	Pieter van Aelst III Anni Albers Francis Crane John Henry Dearle Givi Kandareli Ida Kerkovius Lefèvre family William Morris Margaretha Reichardt Gunta Stölzl Judocus de Vos
Tapestry artists	Pieter Coecke van Aelst François Boucher Marc Chagall Francis Cleyn John Coburn Michiel Coxie Éva Farkas Petronėlė Gerlikienė Francisco Goya Blind Man's Bluff The Parasol list of tapestry cartoons Muriel Nezhnie Helfman Else Marie Jakobsen Jacob Jordaens Hans Knieper Nancy Kozikowski Jean Lurçat Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer Bernard van Orley François Quesnel Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael)
Related	Byzantine silk Embroidery Franses Tapestry Archive International Gothic Kilim Navajo weaving Needlepoint Weaving

v t e Chancellors of the Order of the Garter
Bishops of Salisbury (1477–1550)	Richard Beauchamp Lionel Woodville Thomas Langton John Blyth Henry Deane Edmund Audley
Lay chancellors (1551–1671)	Sir William Cecil Sir William Petre Sir Thomas Smith Sir Francis Walsingham Sir Amias Paulet Sir John Wolley Sir Edward Dyer Sir John Herbert Sir George More Sir Francis Crane Sir Thomas Roe Sir James Palmer Sir Henry de Vic
Bishops of Salisbury (1671–1837)	Seth Ward Gilbert Burnet William Talbot Richard Willis Benjamin Hoadly Thomas Sherlock John Gilbert John Thomas Robert Hay Drummond John Thomas John Hume Shute Barrington John Douglas John Fisher Thomas Burgess
Bishops of Oxford (1837–1937)	Richard Bagot Samuel Wilberforce John Mackarness William Stubbs Francis Paget Charles Gore Hubert Burge Thomas Strong
Knights and Ladies Companion (since 1937)	The Duke of Portland The Earl of Halifax The Marquess of Salisbury The Viscount Cobham The Marquess of Abergavenny The Lord Carrington The Duke of Abercorn The Baroness Manningham-Buller

Authority control databases
International	FAST ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	United States
Artists	ULAN