538 CRICHTON of the conservators of a nine years' peace with England from i May 1438; in temporary conjunction with his great rival Sir Alexander Livingstone, he was one of the chief contrivers of the murder of the Earl of Douglas 24 Nov. 1440; dismissed from the Chancellorship and attainted'm 1443, being,in 1445, blockaded in Edinburgh Castle, but surrendering on such advantageous terms that he was pardoned in full; he was again received into favour and re-appointed Chancellor [S.] in 1448, which office he held till his death; he had a safe conduct through England as Willelmus Dominus Creghton Miles, Cancellarius, 23 Apr. 1448, to conclude the marriage of the King with Mary of Gueldres. He founded the Collegiate Church at Crichton, 26 Aug. 1449. H^ "'^ Agnes. He d. 1454, before July.() II. 1454. 2. James (Crichton), Lord Crichton [S.], s. and h., .May was knighted Oct. 1430, by James I, at the baptism of his twin sons. Under the designation of " Sir James Crichton of Frendraught," he is said to have been made in 1440, Great Chamber- lain [S.], retaining that office till 1453. C") In the Pari, of June 1452 he was "belted EARL OF MORAY " [S.], in spite of the fact that the Earl- dom was then held by Archibald Douglas, br. of the Earl of Douglas abovementioned; he is so called in the Exchequer Rolls, both in his life- time, July 1454, and after his death in 1456, but he appears never to have been in the actual possession of that Earldom, or, if so, not improbably resigned it to the Crown. His wife, however (the heir of line thereof), in 1454, appears to have assumed her father's Earldom, being styled Janeta, Comitissa Moravia, {^^ Domina Frendraught et Crichton. He m., between 1442 exceptional powers exercised by that Regent), and subsequently confirmed or renewed by James I [S.]." {ex inform. G. Burnett, sometime Lyon, who adds, as to this Barony of Crichton, " There are undoubtedly instances in the records where, apparently, per incurtam, the ist Lord Crichton is designated 'Dominus JVillelmus de Crechtoun^ all of them about the year of his death, 1454: his son is designated as a Lord of Parliament, after his death in 1454 or 1455.") (^) According to Sir Walter Scott, as quoted in 5cots Peerage, vol. iii, p. 61, he was "a consummate statesman according to the manner of his age ... as destitute of faith, mercy, and conscience, as of fear and folly." V.G. C') The Editor can give no real authority for this statement, which appears in Haydn's Book of Dignities and has been copied in Diet. Nat. Biog., and elsewhere. " No trace of his having ever exercised that office appears in the Exchequer Rolls." {Scots Peerage). V.G. (■=) Archibald Douglas, who m. Mary, her younger sister, was (through the influence of the Douglas family) cr. Earl of Moray about June 1445. He was slain at Arkinholm i May 1455. In 1452 Sir James Crichton is said to have been "belted Earl of Moray," as in the text. "If the standing investiture of that Earldom was still that of 137 1/2, his wife was, de Jure, Countess of Moray, though supplanted by her younger sister, but there may have been an intervening resignation and regrant, not now on record, in favour of heirs male. Crichton is supposed to have made a compulsory resignation of the Earldom into the King's hands." {ex inform. G. Burnett, sometime Lyon).
