John Crab (politician)
John Crab (also Crabb ) († around 1385) was a Scottish merchant and politician.
John Crab is occasionally confused with the pirate of the same name, John Crab , to whom he may have been related. He was a son of his father of the same name, who owned land near Aberdeen in the 1320s . Before 1342, Crab had become a citizen of Aberdeen himself and worked as a merchant. After 1357 he was a member of several Scottish embassies negotiating with England over the payment of the ransom for King David II . This didn't stop him from trading with English merchants in the 1360s. In addition, he continued to work for the Scottish Crown. He lent money to the king and bought powder in Flanders for the guns of Edinburgh Castle . In 1365 he took part in a general council meeting and in 1367 in a Scottish parliament .
Crab invested the profits from its ventures in real estate in and around Aberdeen. He bought properties in Murtle , Denburn , Kincorth and Findon . He was one of the first investors who bought houses in the city and then rented them out. The Crabstane in Aberdeen, which probably served as a landmark, was probably named after him or his family. Crab was a devout man who donated the rent payments from a number of houses to the Carmelite settlement in Aberdeen from the 1350s . To this end, he made a mass scholarship in Arbroath Abbey in 1384 for his wife Elizabeth, who died before 1382, and for himself. A little later he died.
literature
- EWM Balfour-Melville: Two John Crabbs . In: The Scottish Historical Review, 39 (1960), pp. 31-34
Web links
- Elizabeth Ewan: John Crab (fl. 1342 – c. 1385). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
Individual evidence
- ^ Ranald Nicholson: Scotland. The later Middle Ages . Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1974, p. 166.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crab, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Crabb, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish merchant and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 14th Century |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 1385 |