Nicholas de Crioll

Nicholas de Crioll (Cryoyll, Kerrial or Kyriel) (died c. February 1272), of a family seated in Kent, was Constable of Dover Castle and Keeper of the Coast during the early 1260s. His kinsman Bertram de Criol (died 1256) had distinguished himself in these offices during the preceding 20 years and both were near predecessors of the eminent Warden of the Cinque Ports, Stephen de Pencester (of Penshurst). Kinship Although Nicholas de Crioll is often taken to be (and may well have been) a son of Bertram de Criol, the fact is not overtly stated. In 1242 King Henry granted the manor of Croxton, Leicestershire, to Bertram. The place was of special significance to the king as his father King John's heart was buried in Croxton Abbey, and he made many acts of patronage towards it. By 1246 the manor had passed (no doubt in token of a near kinship) to Nicholas de Crioll, who was granted a market and fair there, and the village took its name Croxton Kerrial from the Crioll or Kyriel family's connection with it. Bertram de Criol's son Sir John de Criol (died 1264) is, however, referred to as his "son and heir", and John had a younger brother Sir Simon de Criol (died 1267), his fellow-juror in the inquisition upon Thomas de Normanville in 1245-46: Nicholas de Crioll is sometimes in their company as a fellow witness, and is clearly associated with them, but the relationship is not explained. Marriage Croxton Abbey was a Premonstratensian house, and the tenure of the neighbouring manor by Nicholas de Crioll may be connected with the tradition of patronage towards the Premonstratensians in the family of his wife, Joan de Auberville. She was heir to the senior line of the de Auberville inheritance, only daughter of William de Auberville (the younger), son of Hugh, and grandson of William de Auberville (the elder) and his wife Matilda, daughter of Ranulf de Glanville and Bertha de Valoines. William the elder had assisted Ranulf in the foundation of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk in 1182, and himself founded Langdon Abbey in Kent, near the de Auberville seat of Westenhanger, in 1191, a grant which was confirmed by his fee-lord Simon de Averenches, Lord of Folkestone. Both were Premonstratensian houses.