Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/85

 he sat for Brackley. In May 1640 he was committed to the Tower for refusing to surrender papers in his possession as chairman of the committee on religion, but, making submission in the following month, was released. He voted against the attainder of Strafford in 1641, and spoke against the motion to commit Palmer for protesting against the publication of the Grand Remonstrance. On the outbreak of the civil war he subscribed 200l. in plate and engaged to maintain four horses for the parliament. He was one of the commissioners appointed by parliament for the treaty of Uxbridge in 1644–5. He subsequently supported the ‘self-denying ordinance’ by which it was proposed to disable members of parliament from holding places under government. He was one of the commissioners who conducted the negotiations with the king at Newcastle-on-Tyne and Holdenby in 1646, and in the Isle of Wight in 1648. As he disapproved of bringing Charles to justice, he was arrested among ‘the secluded members’ on 6 Dec. 1648. He was, however, released on the 29th. He was returned to parliament for Northamptonshire in 1654, and was a member of the committee for raising funds in aid of the Piedmontese protestants, and helped to draw up the new statutes for Durham College in 1656. In 1657 he received a peer's writ of summons to parliament, but does not appear to have taken his seat. On the secluded members usurping power he was nominated one of the council of state (23 Feb. 1659–60), and subsequently moved a resolution condemnatory of the execution of the king. At the general election which followed he was again returned for Northamptonshire. He was one of the deputation that met Charles II at the Hague. On 20 April 1661 he was created Baron Crew of Stene at Whitehall. He is frequently referred to by Pepys, who seems to have entertained a very high respect for him. Clarendon describes him as a man of the ‘greatest moderation.’ He died on 12 Dec. 1679. By his wife Jemimah, daughter of Edward Waldegrave of Lawford, Essex, he had issue six sons and two daughters. He was succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, Thomas. His eldest daughter, Jemimah, married Sir Edward Montague, afterwards Lord Sandwich and lord high admiral. His fifth son was Nathaniel [q. v.]

[Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament; Willis's Not. Parl. iii. 264; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. iii. 1167, vii. 1355, 1369; Cal. State Papers (Dom. 1649), pp. 142, 145, 308; Verney's Notes of Long Parl. (Camd. Soc.), pp. 24, 78, 127; Whitelocke's Mem. 124–5, 233, 238, 334, 665; Clarendon's Rebellion, v. 76, 90; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii. 138; Commons' Journ. vii. 849; Ludlow's Mem. 359, 364; Pepys's Diary (Braybrooke), 26 April 1660, 2 Dec. 1667, 1 Jan. 1668; Hinchliffe's Barthomley.] 

CREW, NATHANIEL, third of Stene (1633–1721), bishop of Durham, was the fifth son of John Crew of Stene [q. v.], Northamptonshire, by Jemima, daughter of Edward Walgrave of Lawford, Essex. His father was a gentleman of considerable fortune, who adopted a moderate line of action on the parliamentary side during the great rebellion. Nathaniel entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1652; he took the degree of B.A. in 1656, and soon after was elected fellow of his college. His father's local influence was useful in promoting the Restoration, and his services were recognised by his elevation to the peerage in 1661, under the title of Baron Crew of Stene. This dignity conferred upon his father seems to have imbued Nathaniel's mind with a desire for the sweets of royal patronage. His own capacity for business was considerable, as in 1663 he was proctor of the university, and in 1668 was elected rector of Lincoln College. He had taken holy orders in 1664, and contrived to win the favour of the Duke of York, by whose influence he was made dean and precentor of Chichester in 1669, and clerk of the closet to Charles II. In 1671 he was further appointed bishop of Oxford, and resigned the rectorship of Lincoln in the following year.

Crew now began a discreditable career as the favourite ecclesiastic of the Duke of York, who needed a pliant adherent in the church to connive at his Romish practices. In 1673 Crew solemnised the marriage of the Duke of York with Maria d'Este, and in 1674 was further rewarded by being translated to the wealthy see of Durham. Next year he again acted as domestic chaplain to the Duke of York, by baptising his daughter, Catharine Laura. In 1676 he stepped into politics, and was sworn of the privy council to Charles II.

When James II ascended the throne he was not disappointed in his hope that Crew would prove subservient. The upright Bishop of London, Compton, was disgraced and deprived of the office of dean of the Chapel Royal, which Crew readily accepted. The king revived the ecclesiastical commission in the beginning of 1686, and Crew's vanity was delighted by being made a member of a body on which Archbishop Sancroft refused to serve. He said that now his name would be recorded in history, and when his friends warned him of the danger he was running, he answered that he ‘could not live if he should lose the king's gracious smiles’ (-