Alexander Croke

Sir Alexander Croke (July 22, 1758 – December 27, 1842) was a British judge, colonial administrator and author influential in Nova Scotia of the early nineteenth century.

[2] Practicing maritime law, he earned a strong enough reputation for his work that in 1801 he was offered his choice of appointments to the newly established vice-admiralty courts in Nova Scotia or the West Indies.

[2] Croke's bench in Nova Scotia had considerable jurisdiction: it covered all maritime cases in a colony based largely on fishing and where smuggling was commonplace.

During the War of 1812, the ever-conservative Croke even found guilty merchants who had been granted licences by colonial authorities to engage in the slave trade with New England, on the grounds that he could not support an illegal policy.

He was on the first board of King's College and was primarily responsible for drafting its statutes, which required students to subscribe to the Anglican faith (as only a quarter of Nova Scotians did).