Sir James Croft PC (c.1518 – 4 September 1590) was an English politician, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland, and MP for Herefordshire in the Parliament of England.
[3] He was made governor of Berwick upon Tweed, where he was visited by John Knox and James MacGill in 1559, and where he busied himself actively on behalf of the Scottish Protestants.
[6] As a commander of English forces at the Siege of Leith in May 1560, he was suspected, probably with good reason, of treasonable correspondence with Mary of Guise, the Catholic regent of Scotland.
"[7] For ten years he was out of public employment but in 1570 Elizabeth, who showed the greatest forbearance and favour to Sir James Croft, made him a privy councillor and controller of her household.
[3] He was one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, and in 1588 was sent on a diplomatic mission to arrange peace with the duke of Parma in a complex scheme.