He was the son of Samuel Crawley, of Keysoe, and his wife, the heiress Eliza Rankin. His paternal grandparents were married Susannah ( Sambrooke) Crawley (a daughter of
Sir Samuel Sambrooke, 3rd Baronet, of
Bush Hill) and
John Crawley, MP for
Marlborough. His mother was the daughter of Elizabeth Condon, sister of Charles Condon (died 1781), heir to the
Ragnall estate in
Nottinghamshire, who changed his name to Mellish. She was involved in litigation of the 1780s with her cousin Mary Mellish, for the possession of Ragnall Hall ("the defendant was niece to the deceased, and one of the principal parties in his will"). In an initial case at Nottingham Assizes in 1785, Mary Mellish was successful in her plea of trespass against Eliza Rankin. Two subsequent cases went the other way. Crawley was educated at
Eton College from 1805 to 1808 and then at
Christ Church, Oxford where he matriculated in 1808. In 1815, he inherited the estate of
Stockwood in
Bedfordshire from his uncle John. ==Career==