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.

The de Criol family, which in Bertram gave long and distinguished service in the Constabulary of Dover Castle, were patrons also of St Radegund's Abbey at Bradsole.

Nicholas is described as "vadlettus", a royal servant, in orders requiring him to hunt for deer in the park at Clere (Highclere, Hampshire[22]) in 1243, at Guildford in 1244, and at Havering in 1245.

[29] This assembly was to support King Henry's response (which proved ineffectual) to the English defeat at the Battle of Cadfan by the Welsh under Llywelyn ap Gruffudd earlier in the same year.

This defeated a counter-claim from an elder branch of the family which had never held seisin, and was decided in favour of de Crioll and Herengod.

The barons and bailiffs of Dover, Hastings, Romney, Hythe and Sandwich were required "to provide by his counsel two or three of the most approved men for the security and defence of the port[s] by sea and land against any adversaries or rebels.

"[32] In September 1263 de Crioll received a mandate to take charge of the county of Kent and the Hundred of Middleton in the absence of a Sheriff, and to deliver the issues for munitions to the Constable of Dover.

His tenure owed three watches to ward of Dover Castle, and it is recorded that he held from the king in capite by barony elsewhere.

[44] The clarification that he was not the husband of Maud, daughter of William de Essetesford (Ashford), as suggested in some sources,[45] is owing to the recognition that the manor of "Stokton" (Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire) was in the possession of Nicholas (and of William Herengod) as a parcel of his inheritance through Joan de Auberville, and not by a previous marriage.

[50] Wardship of all the lands of the elder Nicholas which were held in chief, and the marriage of his heirs, was granted to Edward the King's son on 16 February 1272 and in the March following.

[51] Certain lands in Kent were granted in wardship on his son's behalf to Sir Gregory de Rokesley, Lord Mayor of London, until Michaelmas 8 Edward I (1280).