CRACHERODE, CLAYTON MORDAUNT, son of Col. Mordaunt Cracherode, Governor of Minorca, of Taplow, Bucks., and Mary, sister of Charles Morice (qv); b. 23 Jun 1730; adm. Jun 1737; KS 1742; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1746, matr. 6 Jun 1746, Westminster Student from 24 Dec 1746; BA 1750; MA 1753; ordained priest (Oxford) 25 May 1755; Curate, Binsey, Oxfordshire 1762; did not seek or obtain further religious preferment; spent his life in collecting books, engravings, gems and coins, bequeathed by him to the British Museum; Trustee, British Museum, from 1784; FRS 15 Dec 1785; FSA 8 Mar 1787; member Society of Dilettanti from 1787; left legacies of £1000 each to Christ Church, Oxford, and to the School; d. unm. 5 Apr 1799. Buried in East Cloister, Westminster Abbey. DNB.
By his will dated 9 Apr 1792 (proved 17 Apr 1799), he bequeathed to Westminster School “the sum of £500, the interest to be divided as is done in the case of a benefaction left by my excellent friend Fane Sharpe, Esq. about the year 1771 for the advantage of the King’s Scholars elected to the two Universitities, the management to be under the same trustees”. The fund was subsequently consolidated with the School Exhibition Fund, and the benefaction commemorated by an exhibition known as the Cracherode exhibition.