From recent research the Crandall Family Association has found that John Crandall did not
marry Elizabeth Drake. It is believed that John Crandall has been found christened in
Westerleigh, Gloucestershire,  England, in 1617.  The Crandall Family Association had a
website that explained all of this. However this site is no longer available, since Earl passed
away. Earl P. Crandall was the CFA genealogist.

This is from the Crandall Family Association online.
Hey, Elder John ...
                  just where did you come from, anyway??
                       by Earl P. Crandall, Web Site Editor.

     The stories of the English or Welsh origins of Elder John CRANDALL of Newport and
Westerly, Rhode Island are varied. Unfortunately, none of those stories in print is true!!
     There is no documented information about Elder John before his appearance in Newport,
 Rhode Island in the early 1640's. There are secondary sources that suggest that he had spent
some time in Salem, MA. Since he went back there on occasions, it seems that he may have
 had some ties there.
     In the 1949 genealogy of the CRANDALL family by John Cortland Crandall, Elder John
Crandall of Rhode Island And His Descendants, it is stated (with no documentation!) that
Elder John was the son of a Sir John Crandall and Elizabeth Drake. From that point, John
Cortland Crandall takes the reader on a "trip" through history, linking the descendants of
Elder John back into an ancestry filled with royal connections, right back to Adam and Eve!
     Sadly, many Crandall descendants have accepted this fairy tale for years. Some even get
very angry when someone tries to "undo" this myth with some facts. The biggest fact, and
 therefore a very major researching stumbling block, is that no "Sir John Crandall" has ever
 been found. No "Crandall marriage" by Elizabeth Drake has ever been found, either.
And, since most "true royal lines" and pedigrees can be traced, where does that leave us, the
"American Crandalls?
     Several years ago the son of some LDS (Mormon) Missionaries serving in Gloucestershire,
England, contacted me. His parents were in a parish called Westerleigh doing some
microfilming of the parish records. This microfilm is now available at the Family History
 Library in Salt Lake City, and can be ordered for loan at any local Family History Center.
     I go to Salt Lake City frequently, and so the next time I went to the FHL I went to the
actual microfilm. It is there, there is no doubt about it!
     In the parish records of Westerleigh (also spelled "Westerley" in some places), can be
found a baptism for John, sonne of James Crandell baptized 15 February 1617!
     There is also another child of James Crandell baptized in that parish, a daughter, Anne,
baptized in 1621, obviously a daughter of this James and sister of John.
This is of particular note because:
1)no other Crandalls of that time frame in England appear frequently;
2) the parish name, Westerleigh is most tantalizing, as Elder John was one of the original
settlers of Westerly, Rhode Island in 1661; and
3) the parish of Westerleigh is in Gloucestershire, not too far from Monmouthshire,
thence not too far from the Welsh border, which fits some of the "traditions" about Elder
John coming from Wales.
Although still only very circumstantial, it appears that this is indeed OUR ELDER JOHN!

more in Wikipedia

Crandall was born in 1618 (baptized February 15, 1617/8) in Westerleigh, Gloucestershire,
England to James Crandall, a yeoman of Kendleshire in that parish, and his first wife Eleanor.
The origin of the name is undoubtedly a place-name, Crundelend, in Abberley, Worcestershire,
where people bearing the name were concentrated in the 16th century. Crandall's
great-grandfather, Nicholas Crundall (died 1589), of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, came to
south Gloucestershire in 1572 as the vicar of the parish of Winterbourne. Puritanism ran in the
family. In a case brought in the Star Chamber against Nicholas Crundall, Jr., who succeeded
his father as vicar, his accuser reported that Crundall resisted a constable, mockingly crying out
"The Queen's name! The Queen's name! I do not care a turd for thee nor her either."
John Crandall's (his relatives started spelling the name "Crandall" around 1610) life in England
prior to his emigration to America is unknown.^[1]

The Boston Sunday Globe July 21, 1991
A GIFT BORN IN FRUSTRATION
R.I. couple at odds with town, gives farm to Indian Tribe,
by Ken Franckling, special to the Globe. Westerly R.I.
. . . Tired of battles with the town over rights of way through the property and unable to pay
$7,629 in overdue taxes, Arlene and Irving Crandall on July 9 gave all their land to its original
owner: the Narragansett Indians. "I just ran out of money and was tired of being harrased all
the time," Arlene Crandall said. . .
      Family records show elder John Crandall, a merchant from Newport, built his farm on land
received in 1659 from the Indians' sagamore or area commander, Sacco. . .
      Arlene and Irving Crandall still live in the house Elder John Crandall built in 1665. Under 
the terms of the July 9 land transfer, the Narragansetts agreed to pay all back taxes and give 
the Crandalls and their heirs lifelong rights to occupy the family homestead. . .
. . . Family records show Elder John Crandall died of infection from a wound suffered in the
Great Swamp Fight of Dec. 19, 1675, when, it is believed, he fought with the Indians against
a force of 1,100 soldiers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth colonies who
slaughtered many Narragansetts and some Wampanoag refugees in the Indians' winter quarters
in Charlestown.
      "The Crandalls were among several families who fought alongside the Narragansetts and
protected my ancestors during this war. That was not uncommon," (tribal council member
John Brown says.)

This was copied from Wikipedia but is no longer there
The St Lawrence Plaindealer reported Thomas Jefferson declared that he, Crandall, with
three other men, Holmes, Clark[e] and Williams, did more than anyone else to establish
political and religious liberty in America".