In the dedicatory epistle prefixed to the ‘English Frier,’ 1690, and again in the dedicatory epistle before ‘Caligula,’ 1698, the dramatist complains that he had been robbed of his patrimony.
Shortly after the Restoration the French took possession of William Crowne's lands, and his title was not upheld by the authorities at home. 1656 received from Oliver Cromwell a large tract of territory. William Crowne emigrated with his family to Nova Scotia, and on 10 Aug. 1703?), dramatist, is stated by Oldys to have been the son of William Crowne, gentleman, who in 1637 accompanied the Earl of Arundel on an embassy to Vienna, and published in that year ‘A true Relation of all the Remarkable Places and Passages’ observed on the journey.
