CRICHTON, THOMAS [SSNE 3844]

Surname

CRICHTON, CREYTON, CREIGHTON

First name

THOMAS

Title/rank

CAPTAIN

Nationality

SCOT

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Captain Thomas Crichton was in Russia in 1609 as part of an army of over 1500 Swedish, French, Scottish and English mercenaries sent by King Karl IX of Sweden at the request of Tsar Vasily Shuisky. He served with five other British captains including Thomas Chamberlain [SSNE 1948], Hugh Kendrick [SSNE 2802], John Craul [SSNE 3075] and Captains Benson [SSNE 3125] and York [SSNE 3902] in the army of General Horn. In 1610 Crichton was killed at Klushino where he commanded a cavalry company. Fischer confused him with one Patrick Crichton [SSNE 841]

Henry Brereton, Newes of the present miseries of Rushia occasioned by the late warre in that countrey. Commenced betweene Sigimond now King of Poland. Charles late King of Swethland. Demetrius, the last of the name, Emperour of Rushia. Together with the memorable occurrences of our owne nationall forces, English, and Scottes, vnder the pay of the now King of Swethland. (London, 1614), p.46.

H. Almquist, Sverige och Ryssland 1595-1611 (Uppsala, 1907), p.271; T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden (Edinburgh, 1907), p.223; G. P. Herd, 'General Patrick Gordon of Auchluchries - A Scot in Seventeenth Century Russian Service', Ph.D. thesis, Aberdeen, 1994; D. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection (Aberdeen, 1996); R. Frost, "Scottish soldiers,Poland-Lithuania and the Thirty Years' War" in S. Murdoch ed. Scotland and the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001), p.199.

Service record

SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, GENERAL HORN, RUSSIAN ARMY

Arrived 1609-01-01, as CAPTAIN

Departed 1609-12-31, as CAPTAIN

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN AND RUSSIA, KLUSHINO

Arrived 1610-01-01, as COMMANDER

Departed 1610-12-31, as COMMANDER

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY