John Marten Cripps

John Marten Cripps (1780–1853) was an English traveller and antiquarian, a significant collector on a Grand Tour he made during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Life The son of John Cripps of Sussex, he entered Jesus College, Cambridge as a fellow-commoner, on 27 April 1798, and came under the tuition of Edward Daniel Clarke. After a period at Cambridge, he set out on a tour with his tutor. Clarke's lengthy work Travels relates this journey. Cripps had become a landowner of independent wealth under the 1797 will of his uncle John Marten.

Landowner and horticulturist By will dated 1 Octocter 1797, Cripps inherited the property of his maternal uncle, John Marten, which included possessions in the parish of Chiltington, with the manor of Stantons, Sussex. Having built Novington Lodge on the Stantons estate, Cripps resided there, and devoted time to horticulture, particularly varieties of apples and other fruits. From Russia he introduced the kohlrabi.

The bramble species Rubus crippsii, named by Edward Daniel Clarke in his honour and illustrated in his Travels, is now known as Rubus sanctus.

The Codex Crippsianus, from the 14th century, is now in the British Library. Cripps had acquired it from Vatopedi on Mount Athos. It has been described by Nigel Guy Wilson as "the most important source for the text of several Attic orators".

Family Cripps married on 1 January 1806 Charlotte Rush, third daughter of Sir William Beaumaris Rush of Wimbledon, and left children. The following year Clarke married the fifth daughter, Angelica.