Thomas Croft

Thomas Croft was an English merchant and official who financed an early voyage of discovery. He was close to Edward IV (r. 1461 – 1470 and 1471 – 1483), and on Edward’s accession he was given various grants and offices by the king.

Thomas was a well learned man as he was a lawyer of Lincoln’s Inn. Among number of offices he served were those of joint collector of customs at Bristol, water-bailiff of Bristol (1478), and joint deputy butler of Bristol and other ports (1483). He was also Member of Parliament for Leominster in 1478.

Although as a collector of customs at Bristol he was not supposed to engage in trade, he received, on 18 June 1480, with three Bristol merchants royal license to trade for three years in any goods except staple goods (wool and cloth), with two or three ships of 60 tons each or less. On 15 July 1480 the first recorded English expedition to seek lands in the Atlantic left Bristol under the command of a certain Lloyd in search of the Isle of Brasil, the mythical island in Atlantic supposed to be west of Ireland. It is not clear that this expedition was one with which Croft and his associates were concerned, since it would appear that their grant was to cover voyages of exploration. The 1480 venture was unsuccessful, however, about 6 July 1481, two vessels left Bristol on a further attempt to find the Isle of Brasil. Thomas Croft and his partner were joint owners of these ships. The substantial amount of salt aboard ships suggests that one purpose of the voyage was to find and exploit fishing grounds. The result of the voyage is unknown, but in view of the statement by John Day in 1498 that “in times past” the English had discovered the Isle of Brasil before Cabot’s voyages, it may reasonably be suggested that the expedition of 1481 could have discovered land across the Atlantic adjacent to a fishing ground, such as the Newfoundland Banks.