[1] He became rector of St Paul's, Covent Garden, London, and chaplain to John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, on whose estate he was born and whose patronage helped him to the rectorship.
[2] Accompanying the Duke of Bedford to Ireland on his appointment to the office of lord-lieutenant, he was soon after promoted, on 11 November 1757, to the bishopric of Kilmore; and having held that see for fourteen years, he was translated to the archbishopric of Dublin, by patent dated 5 March 1772.
In 1777 he was attacked by Patrick Duigenan in his Lachrymae Academicae, who censured Cradock as Visitor of Trinity College, Dublin, for having spoken favourably of Provost John Hely-Hutchinson.
The major was born in Ballymagovern, County Cavan on 16 April 1746, the grandson of Colonel Bryan Magauran, the Chief of the Clan McGovern who fought in the Battle of the Boyne for King James II against William III of Orange.
Exasperated by his duplicity, which was injurious to my purpose and his tenets, I set off, and travelling all night, arrived the next morning at Kilmore, the seat of Dr. Craddock, the Protestant Bishop, who signed my certificate, which was followed by the dignified clergy, and the nobility of the neighbourhood, which I thought an ample indemnification for my recent disappointment".