He attended St. Martin's Lane Academy and in 1744 he married a well-known heiress and opened his own studio in Bloomsbury Square.

Several art historians have recognised that he may have been more prolific had ill health not forced him to return home.

James Cranke taught the well-known artist George Romney (1734–1802) how to paint when he was a small boy.

The success of James Cranke and his son as portrait painters helped their family to become important local landowners.

Steelworks In 1854 the Furness Railway persuaded their descendants to sell their rural estate at Hindpool, and this enabled the development of Barrow as a town to begin in earnest.