Life
Herald-painter, undertaker, and compiler of first gazette of the Irsh nobility as The Peerage of Ireland […] an exact Catalogue of the present Nobility both Lords Spiritual and Temporal [… &c.] (1725); obstructed by William Hawkins, the Ulster King-at-Arms, following a dispute when Hawkins insisted on an alteration in the coat of arms painted by Crossly on the coach of William Palliser, Archbishop of Cashelin in 1720, Crossly, assured his friend Robert Dale, of the London College of Arms, that he did not value Hawkins ‘any more than the ground he trod on’ [De Burca; No ODNB].
Works
The Peerage of Ireland: Or, an exact Catalogue of the present Nobility both Lords Spiritual and Temporal, with an Historical and Genealogical account of them, containing the Descents, Creations and most remarkable Actions of them, their Ancestors, and some of their Monuments; also the Titles of Honour they now enioy, both here and in England, their Preferments, and the time of their Promotions, with their Marriages and Issues, continued to this Time- with their Paternal Coats of Arms, and of the Archepiscopal and Episcopal Sees, and the time of their Consecrations and Translations of each Family in Balzon- With their respective Arms Crests, Supporters and Mottos; the whole collected from the most authentic Historles, Pedigrees, choice Manuscripts, Certificates, and other Records of this Kingdom (Dublin: Thomas Hume for the author 1724-1725), x, 260pp.
References
Walter Strickland, Dictonary of Irish Artists (1913) - Ward of Guild of St Lukes, 1685 and 1688; Master in 1689-90; author of Peerage of Ireland, 1725, ded. to Lord Carteret, with a treatise called ‘Significance of things that are borne in Heraldry’, with preface (quoted and deemed ‘amusing’ in Strickland); engaged in perpetual disputes with William Hawkins, Ulster King-of-Arms who obstructed his Peerage; Crossley wrote in a letter to Robert Dale of London College of Arts that he did not value Hawkins ‘any more than the ground he trod on’ (See Library of Ireland - online; accessed 03.12.2023.
De Burca (Cat. 44; 1977) lists The Peerage of Ireland [as supra], armorial bookplate of Henry J. B. Clements [Earls titular of Leitrim]. [£350.
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