Crockford, William

▪ English businessman

born 1775, London

died May 24, 1844, London

      founder and proprietor of a famous English gambling establishment.

      Crocker was the son of a fishmonger, and he himself practiced the trade in his youth. After winning a large sum of money (£100,000, according to one story) either at cards or by running a gambling establishment, he built in 1827 a luxuriously decorated gambling house at 50 St. James's Street in London. To ensure its social exclusiveness, he organized the place as a club with a regular membership. Crockford's Club, as it was called, quickly became the rage; almost every English celebrity from the Duke of Wellington on down hastened to become a member, as did many ambassadors and other distinguished foreigners. Hazard was the favourite game played at the club, and very large sums changed hands. Crockford retired in 1840 when, as one contemporary put it, he had “won the whole of the ready money of the then-existing generation.” Crockford retired with about £1,200,000, but he subsequently lost most of this in unlucky speculations. The building housing his establishment eventually became the Devonshire Club.

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