Nicholas de Crioll
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Nicholas de Crioll (Cryoyll, Kerrial or Kyriel) (died c. February 1272), of a family seated in Kent, was Constable of Dover Castle and Keeper of the Coast during the early 1260s. His kinsman Bertram de Criol (died 1256) had distinguished himself in these offices during the preceding 20 years and both were near predecessors of the eminent Warden of the Cinque Ports, Stephen de Pencester (of Penshurst).
Kinship
Although Nicholas de Crioll is often taken to be (and may well have been) a son of Bertram de Criol, the fact is not overtly stated. In 1242 King Henry granted the manor of Croxton, Leicestershire, to Bertram.<ref>Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, p. 274.</ref> The place was of special significance to the king as his father King John's heart was buried in Croxton Abbey, and he made many acts of patronage towards it.<ref>Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-57, p. 463.</ref><ref>'House of Premonstratensian canons: The abbey of Croxton Kerrial', in W.G. Hoskins and R.A. McKinley (eds), A History of the County of Leicestershire Vol. 2 (VCH/HMSO, London 1954), pp. 28-31 (British History Online, accessed 7 October 2017).</ref> By 1246 the manor had passed (no doubt in token of a near kinship) to Nicholas de Crioll, who was granted a market and fair there,<ref>Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, p. 311.</ref> and the village took its name Croxton Kerrial from the Crioll or Kyriel family's connection with it. Bertram de Criol's son Sir John de Criol (died 1264) is, however, referred to as his "son and heir",<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1247-1258, p. 520, concerning a suit over a property in London.</ref> and John had a younger brother Sir Simon de Criol (died 1267), his fellow-juror in the inquisition upon Thomas de Normanville in 1245-46:<ref>'Inquisitiones post mortem (contd.)', Archaeologia Cantiana II (1859), p. 281-326, 'III: Thomas de Normanville (1245-46)', p. 293 and notes.</ref> Nicholas de Crioll is sometimes in their company as a fellow witness,<ref>Cal. Charter Rolls, 1226-1257, pp. 334, 403.</ref> and is clearly associated with them,<ref>C. Roberts (ed.), Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi Asservatis, Henrico Tertio Rege, A.D. 1216-1272, II: A.D. 1246-1272 (Commissioners, 1836), II, pp. 412-13.</ref> but the relationship is not explained.
Marriage
Croxton Abbey was a Premonstratensian house, and the tenure of the neighbouring manor by Nicholas de Crioll may be connected with the tradition of patronage towards the Premonstratensians in the family of his wife, Joan de Auberville. She was heir to the senior line of the de Auberville inheritance, only daughter of William de Auberville (the younger), son of Hugh, and grandson of William de Auberville (the elder) and his wife Matilda, daughter of Ranulf de Glanville and Bertha de Valoines.<ref>'Auberville', and 'Crioll', in J.R. Planché, A Corner of Kent: Or, Some Account of the Parish of Ash-next-Sandwich (R. Hardwicke, London 1864), p. 290-96.</ref><ref>See S.J. Bailey, 'Ranulf de Glanvill and His Children', The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 (Nov., 1957), pp. 163-182; and R. Mortimer, 'The Family of Rannulf de Glanville', Historical Research 129, 1981, pp. 1–16.</ref> William the elder had assisted Ranulf in the foundation of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk in 1182,<ref>Foundation charters in W. Dugdale & R. Dodsworth, Monasticon Anglicanum, sive Pandectae Coenobiorum, 3 Vols (London (Savoy) 1673), III, pp. 74-76. (in Latin).</ref> and himself founded Langdon Abbey in Kent, near the de Auberville seat of Westenhanger, in 1191, a grant which was confirmed by his fee-lord Simon de Averenches, Lord of Folkestone.<ref>W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum new edition (James Bohn, London 1846), VI Part 2, p. 898, Langdon, Charters Nos. I and II.</ref> Both were Premonstratensian houses. The de Criol family, which in Bertram gave long and distinguished service in the Constabulary of Dover Castle, were patrons also of St Radegund's Abbey at Bradsole.<ref>T. Tanner, Notitia Monastica (J. Tanner/W. Bowyer, London 1744), p. 218.</ref><ref>Charter of Robert de Polton, in W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, sive Pandectae Coenobiorum, 3 Vols (London (Savoy) 1673), III, p. 70. The charter of B de Crioll on p. 71 is probably for Bertram the son of John de Crioll.</ref>
Robert de Auberville (brother of Joan's grandfather Hugh), after being among the rebel barons captured by King John at Rochester Castle late in 1215,<ref>'The Gesta Regum with its continuation' (sub anno), in W. Stubbs (ed.), The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury II, p. 110. (Internet Archive)</ref> served King Henry loyally as Constable of Hastings Castle during the 1220s.<ref>(Payments): Calendar of Liberate Rolls, Henry III: 1226-1240 (HMSO 1916), pp. 10, 25, 58, 78, 79, 118, 130, 164.</ref><ref>T.D. Hardy (ed.), Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi Asservati II: Ab anno MCCXIV ad annum MCCXXVII (Commissioners, 1833), pp. 48b, 49, 55b, 64b, 90, 115b, 140. (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)</ref> He was given authority jointly with Bertram de Criol for the defence of the ports between Sandwich and Portsmouth in 1229,<ref>Cal. Liberate Rolls, 1226-1240, p. 139. Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, pp. 258-59.</ref> and was replaced in that role by Henry de Sandwich (de Sandwico), Warden of Sandwich, in 1230:<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, p. 333.</ref> John de Gatesden, succeeding Robert as Constable of Hastings,<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, p. 330.</ref> then took on a larger command.<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1225-1232, pp. 362-64, at p. 364.</ref> Joan de Auberville was first married to Henry de Sandwich, and was his widow when she married Nicholas de Crioll. In this way the de Auberville possessions, including Westenhanger, came into the de Crioll family.
Royal service
Nicholas is described as "vadlettus", a royal servant, in orders requiring him to hunt for deer in the park at Clere (Highclere, Hampshire<ref>E. Roberts, 'The Bishop of Winchester's Deer Parks in Hampshire, 1200-1400', Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club Archaeological Society XLIV (1988), pp. 67-86 (Society's pdf), at p. 67.</ref>) in 1243, at Guildford in 1244, and at Havering in 1245.<ref>Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1242-1247 (HMSO 1916), pp. 149, 226, 314.</ref> The Croxton market grant followed, and in 1248 he received a gift of two does from the park at Elham near Folkestone, from the king.<ref>Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1247-1251 (HMSO 1922), p. 80.</ref> In that year he received a summons for himself and two knights to be in London on 21 August<ref>Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1247-1251, p. 119.</ref> to go into Gascony on the King's service.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1247-1257 (HMSO 1908), p. 31.</ref> He was in Gascony with Bertram de Criol from Easter 1249 for four months, upon a mission to deliver funds to the viceroy Simon de Montfort.<ref>Cal. Liberate Rolls, 1245-1251, pp. 227, 284; Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1254-1256 (HMSO 1931), pp. 294-95; Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1256-1259, (HMSO 1932), pp. 128-29.</ref>
He was among those who crossed with the king to Gascony in 1253, and again in 1254 in company with his serjeant William de Waleton.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry III, 1247-1258 (HMSO 1908), pp. 31, 235, 367.</ref> His name heads the list of men summoned to Chester on 9 August 1257 for the service of the king and Edward his son in Wales.<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1247-1258, p. 597.</ref> This assembly was to support King Henry's response (which proved ineffectual) to the English defeat at the Battle of Cadfan by the Welsh under Llywelyn ap Gruffudd earlier in the same year. In May 1260 de Crioll appears as Constable of Dover Castle. He was entrusted with the safekeeping of great sums of the King's money delivered to him from France by Aubrey de Fiscamp and William de Axemuth, the King's clerks. Arrangements were to be made for the delivery of some part of it to the king, for the payment of £1000, and for the safe retention of the remainder at Dover.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1258-66 (HMSO 1910), pp. 68-69 (Hathi Trust). Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, 1259-1261 (HMSO 1934), p. 257.</ref>
A year later an important ecclesiastical inquisition was held at Otford Palace to determine the true heirs to the estate (sometime considered a barony) of Eynsford, Kent, following the death, in the archbishop's wardship, of William de Eynsford the 7th lord. It was claimed in two moieties by Nicholas de Crioll and William Herengod. With the extinction of the descent from William the 5th lord (great-grandfather of the deceased) their claim lay in the descent from his sisters Joan, who married Hugh de Auberville (grandfather of Joan, wife of Nicholas) and Beatrice, who by marriage to Stephen Herengod was mother to the co-claimant. This defeated a counter-claim from an elder branch of the family which had never held seisin, and was decided in favour of de Crioll and Herengod.<ref>F.R.H. du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury: An Essay on Medieval Society (Nelson 1966), pp. 108-10.</ref>
The Second Barons' War
In June 1263 the king committed to Nicholas de Crioll the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, with instructions to Robert de Glastonia, Constable of Dover Castle, to provide him with quarters at the Castle when he should return there. The barons and bailiffs of Dover, Hastings, Romney, Hythe and Sandwich were required "to provide by his counsel two or three of the most approved men for the security and defence of the port[s] by sea and land against any adversaries or rebels."<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1258-66, pp. 262-63 (Hathi Trust). Partly recited in K.M.E. Murray, The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports, Cinque Ports Association (Manchester University Press 1935), p. 80. (Google)</ref> In September 1263 de Crioll received a mandate to take charge of the county of Kent and the Hundred of Middleton in the absence of a Sheriff, and to deliver the issues for munitions to the Constable of Dover.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1258-66, p. 280 (Hathi Trust)</ref>
At the death of Hamo de Crevecoeur, Lord of the barony of Chatham and of Leeds Castle, early in 1263, Nicholas is shown to have held five knights' fees from the barony of Folkestone, for which he did service as of the fee of Morteyne. His tenure owed three watches to ward of Dover Castle, and it is recorded that he held from the king in capite by barony elsewhere.<ref>'Inquisitions post mortem: XXXV. Hamo de Crevecuer, 3 April & 3 June, 47 Henry III (1263): Extent of the manor of Folkestane, 3 June 1263', Archaeologia Cantiana III (1860), pp. 253-264, 257-64, at p. 260. (Society's pdf pp. 13-24). See also C. Roberts (ed.), 'Inquisitiones post mortem, 47 Henry III, in Calendarium Genealogicum: Henry III. and Edward I., 2 vols (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1865), No. 33, p. 107 (Latin text).</ref> Hamo held the Folkestone barony in husband-right of his second wife Matilda de Averenches, Lady of Folkestone, who had died c.1250.<ref>Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III: 1251-1253 (HMSO 1927), p. 198.</ref> John de Criol's son Bertram (the younger) was married to Eleanor de Crevecoeur (third daughter of Hamo and Matilda), who with her sisters inherited the Folkestone barony.<ref>C. Flight, 'The fall of the house of Crevequer', Colin Flight Research Archive, Kent Archaeology digiarchive, p. 3, note 5.</ref>
The de Crioll family was variously involved in the revolt of 1264. Richard de Clare had died in 1262, reputedly in the house of John de Crioll at Bletchingley,<ref>U. Lambert, Blechingley: A Parish History, with some account of the family of De Clare, 2 vols (Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, London 1921), II, p. 85.</ref> and Sir John himself, having been summoned to fight the Welsh in 1263,<ref>Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, 1261-1264 (HMSO 1936), pp. 303-04.</ref> died not long afterwards.<ref>See 'Inquisitiones post mortem (contd.)', Archaeologia Cantiana V (1863), pp. 292-304, 'XLII: Matilda de Estwelles (1267)', pp. 296-97, XLIII: Simon de Cryel and Matilda his wife (1267), pp. 297-98, and notes 184-86, pp. 303-04.</ref> His son Sir Bertram (to whom in February 1264 Roger de Leybourne confirmed the lease of the manor of Dartford<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1258-1266 (HMSO 1910), p. 383 (Hathi Trust).</ref>) was with Gilbert de Clare in the siege of Rochester Castle, which was held for the king by de Leybourne. An inquisition upon the rebels described Bertram as an enemy of King Henry's and King Edward's, being of the household of Sir Henry de Montfort, and that certain lands of his were seized by the Earl of Gloucester and afterwards by Roger de Leybourne, but were later redeemed. His kinsman Robert de Crevecoeur, grandson and heir of Hamo, was with Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Lewes. The same inquest records that Laurence de Fonte of Canterbury was with Sir Nicholas de Crioll before, during and after the war, and stayed with him until his death, but it was not believed that he was present at any siege or spoil.<ref>Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), I (HMSO 1916), No. 1024, pp. 310-314, at pp. 310-11 (Hathi Trust).</ref> In September 1265 Nicholas de Crioll, Knight, was, with John de Chausy (Templar) and Richard de Maneton (Hospitaller) charged with ensuring the safe conduct of the envoys of the King of France into the king's presence.<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1258-1266, p. 413.</ref>
The second marriage
After the death of Joan de Auberville Nicholas took a second wife Margery, thought to have been the daughter of Simon de Cray.<ref>'Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 3: Criol', 'Criol or Kiriel', at Medieval Genealogy website, last update 13 June 2009.</ref> She must have been a much younger woman, for she had a son and a daughter by Nicholas and four more daughters by a later (Clifford) marriage, and lived down to 1319, when she left a will.<ref>Lincolnshire Archives, ref. REG/4, fols 69, 69d, 70. See H. Jenkinson & G.H. Fowler, 'Some Bedfordshire Wills at Lambeth and Lincoln', Bedfordshire Historical Records Society XIV (1931), at pp. 83-84 (with a pedigree of Crioll). A. Gibbons, Early Lincoln Wills (Subscription, Lincoln 1988), Abstract, pp. 4-5 (Internet Archive).</ref> The clarification that he was not the husband of Maud, daughter of William de Essetesford (Ashford), as suggested in some sources,<ref>'Parishes: Great Staughton', in W. Page, G. Proby and S. Inskip Ladds (eds), A History of the County of Huntingdon, Vol. 2 (VCH/HMSO, London 1932), pp. 354-69 (British History Online, accessed 8 November 2017); followed by A.R. de Windt, Royal Justice and the Medieval English Countryside Part 2 (1981), pp. 601, 613.</ref> is owing to the recognition that the manor of "Stokton" (Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire) was in the possession of Nicholas (and of William Herengod) as a parcel of his inheritance through Joan de Auberville, and not by a previous marriage. Maud's first husband was Simon de Crioll (died 1267<ref>C. Roberts (ed.), Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi Asservatis, Henrico Tertio Rege, A.D. 1216-1272, II: A.D. 1246-1272 (Commissioners, 1836), p. 480.</ref>), the younger brother of John de Crioll:<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III: 1232-1247 (HMSO 1906), p. 398. See 'Inquisitiones post mortem (contd.)', Archaeologia Cantiana V (1863), pp. 292-304, 'XLII: Matilda de Estwelles (1267)', pp. 296-97, XLIII: Simon de Cryel and Matilda his wife (1267), pp. 297-98, and notes 184-86, pp. 303-04.</ref> the manor was given by Nicholas and William to Roger de Leybourn,<ref>Calendar of Charter Rolls, Henry III: 1226-1257 (HMSO 1903),
p. 175; Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, 1268-1272 (HMSO 1938), p. 576.</ref> and by him to Maud and her second husband Roger de Rolling.<ref>'Deeds: A.11701 - A.11800', in H.C. Maxwell Lyte (ed.), A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, Vol. 5 (London 1906), pp. 186-99, No. 11766 (British History Online, accessed 8 November 2017).</ref>
Nicholas died by 10 February 1272.<ref>His Inquisition post mortem for Huntingdonshire is in The National Archives (UK), Discovery Catalogue ref. C 133/7/10, dated 2 Edward I.</ref> Wardship of all the lands of the elder Nicholas which were held in chief, and the marriage of his heirs, was granted to Edward the King's son on 16 February 1272 and in the March following.<ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1266-1272 (1913), p. 624, and p. 635.</ref> Certain lands in Kent were granted in wardship on his son's behalf to Sir Gregory de Rokesley, Lord Mayor of London, until Michaelmas 8 Edward I (1280).<ref>The National Archives (UK), ref. E 210/2151. See also ref. SC 1/60/60.</ref>
Family
Nicholas de Crioll married first Joan de Auberville, the widow of Henry de Sandwich. Their son was:
- Nicholas Crioll, who married Margery, daughter of Gilbert Pecche, upon whom (with the assent of his father) he settled the manor of Benhall, Suffolk, in dower for term of her life.<ref>R. Taylor, Index Monasticus (Lackington & Co., London 1821), pp. 93-94.</ref><ref>T. Philipott (with J. Philipott), Villare Cantianum, or, Kent Surveyed and Illustrated (Printed by William Godbid, London 1659), 'Stamford, Folkestone Hundred', p. 302. (Umich/EEBO)</ref><ref>Cal. Patent Rolls, 1266-1272 (1913), p. 623 (Hathi Trust).</ref> This Nicholas died c. 1303,<ref>Calendar of Fine Rolls, Edward I: A.D. 1272-1307 (HMSO 1911), p. 483 (Internet Archive).</ref><ref>Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, Vol. IV: Edward I, 1300-1307 (HMSO, London 1913), No. 162, pp. 102-03 (Internet Archive).</ref> whereupon Margery obtained licence to remarry, and asserted her right in dower.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward I: A.D. 1301-1307 (HMSO, London 1898), p. 236 (Internet Archive). C.P.R. mis-transcribed "John" for "Nicholas": see D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, 'Pecche', in Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval families, 2nd Edition (Salt Lake City, 2011), II, at p. 317 (Google).</ref> Soon afterwards Ralph le Sauvage and his wife Margery (who alone quitclaimed for herself and her heirs) by fine completed the transfer of the manor of Benhall to Guy Ferre the younger,<ref>W. Rye, A Calendar of Feet of Fines for Suffolk (Suffolk Institute, 1900), p. 108, no. 27 (Internet Archive). View original at AALT.</ref> which had been commenced in 1290 by Nicholas Crioll the younger.<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward I: A.D. 1292-1301 (HMSO, London 1895), p. 78 (Internet archive), as June of 18 Edward I. Rye, Feet of Fines for Suffolk, p. 95, gives 20 Edward I. View original at AALT.</ref> Nicholas the younger and Margery had an heir
- Nicholas de Criel, aged nearly 21 in November 1303.
Nicholas de Crioll the elder married secondly Margery, supposed daughter of Simon de Cray.<ref>Various contributors, 'Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 3: Criol', 'Criol or Kiriel', at Medieval Genealogy website, last update 13 June 2009. References supplied, explaining conclusions surrounding her identity and those of her children by both marriages.</ref> Margery lived to 1319 and left a will.<ref>Lincolnshire Archives REG/4 fols 69, 69 dorse, and 70.</ref><ref>H. Jenkinson and G.H. Fowler, 'Some Bedfordshire wills from Lambeth and Lincoln' (with pedigree of Crioll), Bedfordshire Historical Record Society XIV (1931), at pp. 83-84.</ref> Her children supposed born of her marriage to Nicholas were:
- Bertram de Crioll, with his mother a benefactor of Croxton Abbey.<ref>The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Rutland, Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission no. 24, 4 vols (1888-1905), IV, p. 180 (Internet Archive).</ref>
- Margery de Crioll, who married John, son of Geoffrey de Say by January 1286/87.<ref>'Some corrections and additions'.</ref>
Sir Nicholas de Criel drew up an agreement concerning a marriage at Canterbury in connection with Sir Roger de Leyburne in c. 1261.<ref>The National Archives (UK), Discovery Catalogue, refs Mi 5/168/2 and Mi 5/168/3 (Nottingham University Archives and Special Collections).</ref>
Erasure
The arms of de Crioll appear in several of the earliest armorial rolls. The shield for Nicholas de Crioll is the one which was erased (presumably on the initiative of Sir Edward Dering) from the heraldic roll of c. 1280 known as the Dering Roll, to make way for Sir Edward's suppositious ancestor Richard fitz Dering.<ref>J. Greenstreet and C. Russell, 'The "Dering" Roll of Arms (continued)', The Reliquary, Quarterly Archaeological Journal and Review (ed. Llewellynn Jewitt), XVI (1875-76), pp. 235-40, at p. 239 & note.</ref>