Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Builder, of Roscommon, active in the 1730s and 1740s. Jack Crofton, who came from a Co. Roscommon landed family, was apprenticed to the Dublin ironmonger John Molyneux,(1) in the 1720s, before setting up in business as an outfitter of houses and later as a builder. He had aspirations towards becoming an architect, but these were not realized. In 1746 he was tried - and nearly executed - for forgery, but he is still listed as a builder in Roscommon in the census of 1749, where he is described as a protestant builder with three 'papist' children under the age of fourteen and one maidservant.(2)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Toby Barnard, Making the Grand Figure: Lives and Possessions in Ireland 1641-1770 ( 2004), 46-7,385 nn.138-141.


(1) NLI, PC 436 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(2) Marie-Louise Legg, ed., The Census of Elphin 1749 (Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2004).