Anne James; David Robinson
ODNB; SI
Born in Coventry ca. 1602/3 to James Cranford, master of the free school there. Matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1618; BA, 1621; incorporated at Cambridge 1623; MA, 1624. Rector of Brockhall, Northamptonshire, 1627-1643. Married Abigaell, ca. 1628 with whom he had ten children, all of whom apparently survived to adulthood. Appointed parish lecturer by the parishioners of St Christopher-le-Stocks, London in 1641 to fill in for the pluralist rector, John Hansley. Hansley resigned in 1643 leaving the rectory to Cranford who held it until his death 22 April, 1657. He was an advocate of presbyterianism and warns of the dangers of heterodox opinions. He was involved in disputations with Baptists in London and published a sermon against heresy in 1646 entitled Haereso-machia, or, The Mischiefe which Heresies Doe.