3RD

BARON NATHANIEL

See also:

• CREW (sometimes explained as a sea term of Scandinavian origin, cf. O. Icel. kris, a swarm or crowd, but now regarded as a shortened form of accrue, accrewe, used in the 16th century in the sense of a reinforcement, O. Fr. acreue, from accrofire, to grow,
• 3RD BARON NATHANIEL CREW CREW (1633–1721)

CREW CREW (1633–1721)  , bishop of Durham, was a son of John Crew (1598–1679), who was created Baron Crew of Stene in 1661, and a grandson of Sir Thomas Crew (1565-1634), speaker of the House of Commons . Born on the 31st of January 1633, Nathaniel was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, and was appointed rector of the college in 1668 . He became dean and precentor of Chichester in 1669, clerk of the closet to Charles II. shortly afterwards, bishop of Oxford in 1671, and bishop of Durham in 1674 . He owed his rapid preferment to James, then duke of York, whose favour he had gained by conniving at the duke's leanings to the Roman Church . After the accession of James II . Crew received the deanery of the Chapel Royal . He served in 1686 on the revived ecclesiastical commission which suspended Compton, bishop of London, and then shared the administration of the see of London with Sprat, bishop of Rochester . In 1687 he was a member of another ecclesiastical commission, which suspended the vice-chancellor of the university of Cambridge for refusing the degree of M.A. to a monk who would not take the customary oath . On the de-cline of James's power Crew dissociated himself from the court, and made a bid for the favour of the new government by voting for the motion that James had abdicated . He was exceptedfrom the general pardon of 169o, but afterwards was allowed to retain his see . He left large estates to be devoted to charitable ends, and his benefaction to Lincoln College and to Oxford University is commemorated in the annual Crewian oration . In 1697 Crew succeeded his brother Thomas as 3rd Baron Crew, He died on the 18th of September 1721, when the barony became extinct .