Robert Hawgood Crew

Robert Hawgood Crew (23 August 1762 – 16 September 1839) was an English civil servant who served as Secretary to the Board of Ordnance during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. His department was a major contributor to the naval and military successes of the United Kingdom and its allies.

Early life Baptised on 12 September 1762 in the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West in the City of London, he was the son of Robert Crew and his wife Elizabeth Oare. By 1777 he had a position with the Ordnance Department. This was the government department responsible for the military establishment of the United Kingdom and its overseas possessions, excluding India. The Ordnance provided buildings, fortifications, weapons and supplies for the two fighting arms, the British Army and the Royal Navy, as well as controlling the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers. It was the second largest department after HM Treasury and its head, the Master-General of the Ordnance, had a seat in the Cabinet.

Secretary to the Board of Ordnance In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, it was decided to create the separate post of Secretary to the Board of Ordnance, with an office in Westminster close to the Houses of Parliament and a house so that he was always on site for urgent business. His duties were : To provide a secretarial service to the Board by submitting all relevant correspondence, attending their meetings and compiling their minutes. His widow went to live with her daughter Mary and died at the age of 73.

Family In 1793 at the church of St Margaret, Westminster, he married Mary Sophia (1775–1848), daughter of John Foreman and his wife Jane Gordon. They had two daughters : Mary Crew (1795–1872) in 1815 married James Eversfield, a Sussex landowner, and had three children, one being Sophia, Marchioness of Anglesey, the wife of Henry Paget, 3rd Marquess of Anglesey. After her first husband's death, in 1827 she married Henry Tredcroft, a Sussex landowner, and had two children, one being the cricketer Edward Tredcroft. After her second husband's death, in 1847 she married a Nottinghamshire clergyman, the Reverend John James Vaughan.

Jane Crew (1800–1864) in 1821 married a Devon clergyman the Reverend George Hole, who was a grandson of Bishop George Horne, and they had six children. Julia Hole, the eldest, was mother of the cricketer George Maximilian Bethune while Maria Hole, the youngest, was mother of the Indian administrator, Sir Ludovic Charles Porter.