William Craven (Lord Mayor of London)

Sir William Craven (1548 – 18 July 1618) was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1610.

At the age of thirteen or fourteen, he was sent down to London by the common carrier and bound apprentice to Robert Hulson, a merchant tailor, who lived in Watling Street.

Having been admitted to the freedom of the Merchant Taylors' Company on 4 November 1569, Craven appears to have entered into business with Hulson, but subsequently quarrelled with him, with an arbitrated settlement in 1583.

In 1588 Craven took a lease from the Mercers' Company of a mansion house in Watling Street, where he carried on business with Robert and John Parker until his death.

On 14 January 1612 Craven became alderman of Lime Street ward; he had moved his residence from St. Antholin's to a house built by Stephen Kirton, in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, Cornhill.

On 2 July 1613, he conveyed to St John's College the advowson of Creeke in Northamptonshire ‘upon trust that one of the ten senior fellows elected from (Merchant Taylors') School should be presented thereto’.

Thanks to the money he left behind, his widow Dame Elizabeth Craven was able to purchase the 13th century Stokesay Castle, which she renovated it powerful tower to defend nearby profitable estates.

By John Craven's will, dated 18 May 1647, he left large charitable bequests to Burnsall, Skipton, Ripon, Ripley, Knaresborough, and Boroughbridge, and money for redeeming captives in Algiers.