Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew (31 January 163318 September 1721) 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 Sir Thomas Crewe (or Crew) (1565 – 31 January 1634), of Stene, between Farthinghoe and Brackley in Northamptonshire, was an English Member of Parliament and lawyer, and served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1623 to 1625. He was a son ...

, Speaker of the House of Commons. He was educated at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

; ordained deacon and priest on the same day in Lent 1665; and appointed

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the college in 1668. He became dean and precentor of Chichester on 29 April 1669, Clerk of the Closet to Charles II shortly afterwards (holding that post until the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

in December 1688). He was elected Bishop of Oxford in April 1671 and Bishop of Durham on 18 August 1674. He owed his rapid promotions to the Duke of York (later James VII & II), whose favour he had gained by secretly encouraging the duke's interest in the Roman Catholic Church. Crew baptised the Duke's daughter Princess Catherine in 1675 and was made a Privy Counsellor on 26 April 1676 He was present at the crucial Privy Council meeting in October 1678 where Titus Oates first revealed his great fabrication, the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

. After the accession of James II, Crew was also appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal on 28 December 1685, staying in post until 1688. He was part of the ecclesiastical commission of 1686, which suspended Henry Compton, Bishop of London (for refusing to suspend 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

see of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames. For centuries the diocese covered a vast tract and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north ...

with Thomas Sprat,

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

. On the decline of King James's power, Crew dissociated himself from the court, and made a bid for the favour of 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. His tenure as Bishop of Durham saw the first two new parishes to be erected in England since the Reformation. These were at

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

in 1712 and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. 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 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.

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. 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.Blanchland Histor
Accessed 15 July 2014
. Crew also furnished the chapel of

Steane Park Steane is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Andrew Steane, Professor of physics at the University of Oxford *Dick Steane (1939–2007), British athlete *J. B. Steane (1928–2011), English music critic ...

, Northamptonshire, of which he was the owner (having inherited the Steane estate with the Crew barony). Arms of Lord Crewe impaling Bishop of Durham

Much vilified by the Whig school of historians, Crewe's contributions are now more fully appreciated.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

thought well of him, praising, in particular, his grave and decent manner of preaching:

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 Right Honourable'' Nathaniel Crew *1697–1721: ''The Right Reverend and Right Honourable'' Lord Crew PC

References

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