View source for Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew

{{Short description|British bishop; (1633–1721)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles|size=100%|RRevd|&RHPC}}
| name = The Lord Crew
| title = [[Bishop of Durham]]
| image = Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew from NPG.jpg
| image_size = 
| alt = A middle-aged white man seated and dressed in clerical robes.
| caption = Oil painting of Crew as Bishop of Durham.
| diocese = [[Diocese of Durham]]
| term = 1674–1721 (death)
| enthroned = 
| predecessor = [[John Cosin]]
| successor = [[William Talbot (bishop)|William Talbot]]
| other_post = [[Dean of Chichester]] (1669–1671)<br />[[Clerk of the Closet]] (1669–1688)<br />[[Bishop of Oxford]] (1671–1674)<br />[[Dean of the Chapel Royal]] (1685–1688)
<!---------- Orders ---------->| ordination = Lent 1665 (deacon & priest)
| consecration = 2 July 1671
<!---------- Personal details ---------->| birth_date = {{birth date|1633|1|31|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Steane, Northamptonshire]], [[England]]<ref name="ODNB" />
| death_date = {{death date and age|1721|09|18|1633|1|31|df=y}}
| death_place = Steane, Northamptonshire, [[Great Britain]]<ref name="ODNB" />
| buried = [[Steane Park]], Northamptonshire
| nationality = [[English people|English]] (later [[British people|British]])
| religion = [[Anglicanism|Anglican]]
| residence = Steane Park, Northamptonshire (inherited)<br />[[Newbold Verdon]], [[Leicestershire]] (inherited)<ref name="ODNB" />
| parents = [[John Crew, 1st Baron Crew]] &amp; Jemima (née Waldegrave)
| spouse = 1. Penelope (m. 1691–1699)<br />2. Dorothy (m. 1700–1715)
| occupation = 
| profession = 
| education = 
| alma_mater = [[Lincoln College, Oxford]]
| consecrated_by = [[Gilbert Sheldon]]
}}
'''Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew''' (31 January 1633{{snd}}18 September 1721)<ref>{{CCEd |type=person |id=61334 |name=Crewe, Nathaniel |year1=1668 |year2=1721 |accessed=9 September 2014 }}</ref><ref>Dictionary of National Biography, London, England: Oxford University Press 1921–22; Volume: 05; Page: 79</ref> was [[Bishop of Oxford]] from 1671 to 1674, then [[Bishop of Durham]] from 1674 to 1721. As such he was one of the longest-serving bishops of the [[Church of England]].

Crew was the son of [[John Crew, 1st Baron Crew]] and a grandson of [[Thomas Crewe]], [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]]. He was educated at [[Lincoln College, Oxford]]; ordained deacon and priest on the same day in Lent 1665; and appointed [[Rector (academia)#England|Rector]] of the college in 1668. He became [[Dean of Chichester|dean]] and [[precentor]] of [[Chichester Cathedral|Chichester]] on 29 April 1669, [[Clerk of the Closet]] to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] shortly afterwards (holding that post until the [[Glorious Revolution]] in December 1688).<ref name="ODNB" />

He was elected Bishop of Oxford in April 1671<ref name="ODNB" /> and Bishop of Durham on 18 August 1674.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=6683|title=Crew [Crewe], Nathaniel}}</ref> He owed his rapid promotions to the Duke of York (later [[James II of England|James VII & II]]), whose favour he had gained by secretly encouraging the duke's interest in the [[Roman Catholic Church]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Crew, Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron |volume=7 |page=432 }}</ref> Crew baptised the Duke's daughter Princess Catherine in 1675 and was made a [[Privy Council of England|Privy Counsellor]] on 26 April 1676<ref name="ODNB" /> He was present at the crucial Privy Council meeting in October 1678 where [[Titus Oates]] first revealed his great fabrication, the [[Popish Plot]].

After the accession of James II, Crew was also appointed [[Dean of the Chapel Royal]] on 28 December 1685,<ref>Bucholz, R.O. Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (revised): Court Officers, 1660-1837 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43822 Accessed 8 September 2014] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110064430/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43822 |date=10 November 2012 }}</ref> staying in post until 1688. He was part of the ecclesiastical commission of 1686, which suspended [[Henry Compton (bishop)|Henry Compton]], [[Bishop of London]] (for refusing to suspend [[John Sharp (bishop)|John Sharp]], then rector of St Giles's-in-the-Fields, whose anti-papal writings had rendered him obnoxious to the king) and Crew shared the administration of the [[Diocese of London|see of London]] with [[Thomas Sprat]], [[Bishop of Rochester]]. On the decline of King James's power, Crew dissociated himself from the court, and made a bid for the favour of [[William III of England|William III's]] new government by voting for the motion that James had abdicated. He was excepted from the general pardon of 1690, but afterwards was allowed to retain his see.<ref name="EB1911"/>

His tenure as Bishop of Durham saw the first two new parishes to be erected in England since the [[English Reformation|Reformation]]. These were at [[Stockton-on-Tees]] in 1712 and [[Sunderland, Tyne and Wear|Sunderland]]. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Sunderland, now redundant, was the base for responsible local government in the growing port town for the first time since the Borough of Sunderland, created by the Bishops of Durham, was crushed by [[Oliver Cromwell]] in the [[English Civil War]].

From 1681 to 1688 Crew lived at [[List of private residents of Covent Garden|43 King Street, Covent Garden]]. He died in 1721. Crew had married twice: firstly to Penelope Frowde on 21 December 1691; then, after Penelope's death in 1699, secondly to Dorothy Forster on 23 July 1700. Dorothy died in 1715. In 1697, Crew succeeded his brother Thomas as the 3rd [[Baron Crew]], but had no children and thus the barony became extinct upon his death.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Legacy==
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 '''Creweian Oration'''.<ref>[http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/introducing_oxford/oxford_glossary/index.html Oxford Glossary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229145522/http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/introducing_oxford/oxford_glossary/index.html |date=29 December 2010 }}. [[University of Oxford]], UK.</ref>

His memory is also perpetuated in [[The Lord Crewe Arms Hotel]] at Blanchland, whose community Crew rebuilt. Crew bought the village in 1708 and on his death in 1721 it passed to his trust, which remains the landlord.<ref>Blanchland History [http://www.blanchlandhistory.org.uk/index.php Accessed 15 July 2014] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717224016/http://www.blanchlandhistory.org.uk/index.php |date=17 July 2014 }}.</ref>

Crew also furnished the chapel of [[Steane Park]], [[Northamptonshire]], of which he was the owner (having inherited the Steane estate with the Crew barony).
[[File:Arms of Bishop of Durham impaling Crewe.jpg|thumb|261px|Crew's arms as Bishop of Durham<br/>Both his coronet as a Baron and the Bishop of Durham's Earl's coronet are shown]]

Much vilified by the Whig school of historians, Crewe's contributions are now more fully appreciated. [[Samuel Pepys]] thought well of him, praising, in particular, his grave and decent manner of preaching:

{{Quote
|text= Dr. Crew did make a very pretty, neat, sober, honest sermon; and delivered it very readily, decently, and gravely, beyond his years: so as I was exceedingly taken with it, and I believe the whole chappell, he being but young; but his manner of his delivery I do like exceedingly.
|source= The diary of Samuel Pepys, 3 April 1667
}}

==Styles and titles==
*1633–1661: Nathaniel Crew Esq.
*1661–1665: ''[[The Honourable]]'' Nathaniel Crew
*1665–1669: ''[[The Reverend]] and Honourable'' Nathaniel Crew
*1669–1671: ''[[The Very Reverend]] and Honourable'' Nathaniel Crew
*1671–1676: ''[[The Right Reverend]] and Honourable'' Nathaniel Crew
*1676–1697: ''The Right Reverend and [[Privy Council of England|Right Honourable]]'' Nathaniel Crew
*1697–1721: ''The Right Reverend and [[Right Honourable]]'' Lord Crew [[Privy Council of England|PC]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-rel|en}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Paul Hood]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Rector of [[Lincoln College, Oxford]]|years=1668–1672}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Marshall (Dean of Gloucester)|Thomas Marshall]]}}

{{S-bef|before=[[Joseph Gulston (chaplain)|Joseph Gulston]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Dean of Chichester]]|years=1669 &ndash;1671 }}
{{S-aft|after=[[Lambrocus Thomas]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Walter Blandford]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Oxford]]|years=1671–1674}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Henry Compton (bishop)|Henry Compton]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John Cosin]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Durham]]|years=1674–1721}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William Talbot (bishop)|William Talbot]]}}


{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before=''in commission''}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Lord Lieutenant of Durham]]|years=1674–1689}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough|Richard Lumley,<br />2nd Viscount Lumley]]<br />''(became Earl of Scarbrough)''}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=Richard Lumley,<br />1st Earl of Scarbrough}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Vice-Admirals of Durham|Vice-Admiral of Durham]]|years=1702–1710}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=Richard Lumley,<br />1st Earl of Scarbrough<br />''(again)''}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=Lord Lieutenant of Durham|years=1712–1714}}
{{s-reg|en}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Crew, 2nd Baron Crew|Thomas Crew]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Baron Crew]]|years=1697–1721}}
{{s-non|reason=Extinct}}
{{s-end}}

{{Deans of Chichester}}
{{Bishops of Oxford}}
{{Bishops of Durham}}
{{Deans of the Chapel Royal}}
{{Clerks of the Closet}}
{{Rectors of Lincoln College, Oxford|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crew, Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron}}
[[Category:1633 births]]
[[Category:1721 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Barons Crew|3]]
[[Category:Deans of the Chapel Royal]]
[[Category:Bishops of Oxford]]
[[Category:Bishops of Durham]]
[[Category:Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Lord-lieutenants of Durham]]
[[Category:Ordained peers]]
[[Category:Rectors of Lincoln College, Oxford]]
[[Category:17th-century Church of England bishops]]
[[Category:18th-century Church of England bishops]]
[[Category:Deans of Chichester]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of England]]
[[Category:Clerks of the Closet]]
[[Category:Burials in Northamptonshire]]