English merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1610. It has been suggested that the story of Dick Whittington is based on his career, and he is sometime referred to as "Aptrick's Dick Whittington". He was the second son of William Craven and Beatrix, daughter of John Hunter, and grandson of John Craven, was born at Appletreewick, near Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about 1548. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he was sent up to London by the common carrier and bound apprentice to Robert Hulson, merchant taylor, who lived in Watling Street. Having been admitted to the freedom of the Merchant Taylors' Company on 4 November 1569, he appears entered into business with Hulson. He was elected warden of his company on 4 July 1593, and on 19 July 1594 he was made one of the court of assistants. On 2 April 1600 he was elected alderman for Bishopsgate ward, and on 14 February 1601 he was chosen sheriff of London. He was knighted at Whitehall by James I on 26 July 1603. Craven was lord mayor of London for 1610–11, and the show, which had been suspended for some years, was revived with splendour. On 14 January 1612 Craven became alderman of Lime Street ward; he had moved his residence from St. Antholin's to a house built by Stephen Kirton, in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, Cornhill. In 1616 Lady Elizabeth Coke, wife of Sir Edward Coke, on occasion of her quarrel with her husband, was at his request handed over to the hospitality of Craven, who must have entertained her at his house in Leadenhall Street. The last public act recorded of Craven is the laying of the foundation-stone of the new Aldgate on 26 May 1618. On 1 July 1618 he attended the court of the Merchant Taylors' Company for the last time.