CREWE 537 Family Estates.— Tt%c, in 1 8 83, consisted of 10,148 acres in co. Chester; 5,479 in CO. Stafford; 4,093 in Durham; 2,467 in Northumberland, and 907 in Wilts. Total, 23,094 acres, worth ;C35,888 a year. Principal Residence. — Crewe Hall, near Nantwich, Cheshire. For an account of the Milnes property inherited from his father by the (19 13) Marquess of Crewe see sub Houghton. CRICHEL See "Alington of Crichel, Dorset," Barony {Stun), cr. 1876. CRICHTON BARONY [S.] I. William Crichton, s. and h. of Sir John C.,(=') of I p Crichton, co. Edinburgh, by Christian his wife, was '^'^^' knighted, May 1424, at the Coronation of James I; Gent, of the Bedchamber; on an embassy to Norway, May 1426, and on his return was appointed Keeper of Edinburgh Castle; Master of the Household before Apr. 1435; Sheriff of Edinburgh in or before 1435. ^^ Keeper, he had the young King James II in his power; accordingly he was made Chancellor [S.] in May or June 1439. In 1443, or possibly later, but certainly before 1447, he wasC") cr. LORD CRICHTON [S.]; he was one (') This Sir John was kinsman, though probably not (as is often stated) elder br. of Stephen Crichton, of Cairns, the father of George, Earl of Caithness [S.], 1452. {*■) "In the Exchequer Rolls [S.] he begins to be persistently called Lord Crichton {dominus de Crechtoun) in 1 444. The evidence as to whether he was made a Lord of Parliament before or after his disgrace is in favour of the earlier date, as it was not till 1445, that, being besieged in Edinburgh Castle by the faction that then had the possession of the King, he, on capitulating, had a promise of remission for the past, and favour for the future." "The habitual use oi Dominus de, for what would now be called the Laird of, renders it very difficult to distinguish that class of Lords, or Lairds, from the actual Lords of Parliament. Making, however, every allowance for the careless- ness and laxity prevailing in the 14th and 15th centuries, the following conclusion seems in all probability to be correct. — When such designations are met with as ' Hugo Giffard, Dominus de Tester,' 'Alexander Setoun, Dominus de Gordoun,' or even, simply, '■Dominus de Calenter,' they may be considered as equally applicable to the Laird of the territory, as to the Lord of Parliament; but when the christian name is found, without surname, followed by Dominus de, as ' TVillelmus, Dominus de Crechtoun ' Patricius, Dominus de Glammis,' and still more in a designation like 'Andreas, Dominus Le Gray' (or, similarly 'David, Comes Craufurdics et Dominus Le Lyndessay), with the title taken from the surname, not from the lands, it is an almost certain assumption that the person referred to was a Lord of Parliament." " James I [S.] created very few Lords of Parliament, though his successor, James II [S.], created a good many; such creations appearing to be one of the novelties brought out of England by the former in 1424. Before that date, none such existed, save, perhaps, Sir William Graham of Kincardine {'IFillelmus, Dominus Le Graham'), on whom the dignity was, apparently, conferred by the Regent Albany (under the 68
