John Crewe was an English soldier and peer.

He was the son of John Crewe, 1st Baron Crewe

John Crewe, 1st Baron Crewe

John Crewe, 1st Baron Crewe , of Crewe Hall in Cheshire, was a British politician. He is chiefly remembered for his sponsorship of Crewe's Act of 1782, which barred customs officers and post office officials from voting....

, a politician who was created the first Baron Crewe

Baron Crewe

Baron Crewe, of Crewe in the County of Chester, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 25 February 1806 for the politician and landowner John Crewe, of Crewe Hall, Cheshire. This branch of the Crewe family descended from Sir Ranulph Crewe , Speaker of the House of...

 in 1806, and Frances Anne Crewe, the daughter of Fulke Greville, who was a political hostess known for her great beauty. He was described by Frances Burney in the early 1790s as "a silent and reserved, but, I think, sensible young man". His younger sister, Elizabeth Emma (1780–1850), married Foster Cunliffe-Offley; two other siblings, Richard and Frances, did not survive infancy.

As a child in around 1775, he was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

 in a pose and costume which mimic the well-known portrait of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 by Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...

. The portrait is considered among the artist's finest portrayals of children, and has been described as "one of Reynolds' freshest attempts at comedy painting". Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford

Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors,...

 commented: "Is not there humour and satire in Sir Joshua's reducing Holbein's swaggering and colossal haughtiness of Henry VIII to the boyish jollity of Master Crewe?"

Crewe entered the army, and rose to the rank of Major-General in 1808, Lieutenant-General in 1813 and full General in 1830, before retiring in 1831. He lost the sight in one eye during active service. In 1793, then a lieutenant, he was a member of the Macartney Embassy

Macartney Embassy

The Macartney Embassy, also called the Macartney Mission, was a British embassy to China in 1793. The Mission ran from 1792–94 . It is named for the first envoy of Great Britain to China, George Macartney, who led the endeavour...

 to China, led by Lord Macartney

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, KB was an Irish-born British statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's success in the Seven Years War and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris that Britain now controlled...

.

In 1807, he married Henrietta Maria Anna Walker-Hungerford, daughter of George Walker of Studleighhouse, near Calne

Calne

Calne is a town in Wiltshire, southwestern England. It is situated at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs hill range, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....

 in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. They had four children, three daughters, Henrietta Mary, Maria Hungerford (who died in infancy) and Annabella Hungerford, and a son, Hungerford. His wife died in 1820. According to one source, he contracted a second bigamous marriage in 1820. His daughter Annabella Hungerford married Richard Monckton Milnes in 1851.

Crewe lived abroad for many years, latterly at the chateau Bois-l'-eveque, near Liège in Belgium. In 1817, he was imprisoned in France after being falsely accused of owing 23,945 francs to a hotel-keeper. The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

quotes the French newspaper The Moniteur:
On his father's death in 1829, he became the second Baron Crewe. According to one source, his father cut him out of his will, so that most of the Crewe family's large estate in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, including the Jacobean

Jacobean architecture

The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...

 mansion of Crewe Hall

Crewe Hall

Crewe Hall is a Jacobean mansion located near Crewe Green, east of Crewe, in Cheshire, England. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire, it is listed at grade I...

, were inherited by his sister, Elizabeth Cunliffe-Offley. He never subsequently lived at the hall.

Lord Crewe died at Bois-l'-eveque, Liège, in 1835, and is buried at Barthomley

Barthomley

Barthomley is a village and ancient parish, and is now a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 202. The village is situated near junction 16 of the M6 motorway and by the...

. He was succeeded by his son, Hungerford Crewe

Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe

Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe FSA, FRS was an English landowner and peer.The son of John Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe, an army general, and Henrietta Maria Anna Walker-Hungerford, he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford...

.