These two extracts are from "The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland" Volume II 1359-1379, publ. HM General Register House, Edinburgh, 1878.

[AD 1365]

p 196

Compotum Johannis de Crey, clerici et Alexandri filii Willelmi, deputatorum, cum mandato speciali, magistri Evstacij et Johannis Scot, custumariorum burgi de Inuernyss, redditum apud Perth, per dictos Johannem et Alexandrum, decimoquarto die Januarij, anno, et coram auditoribus, supradictus, de omnibus receptis suis et expensis ab vltimo die mensis Octobris anni etc. LXmi quarti, usque ad vicessimum quintum diem mensis Octobis, exclusiue, anno, etc LX quinto.

[AD 1365]

p 210

Compotum Johannis de Crey, clerici et Alexandri filii Willelmi, ballinorum burgi de Inuernyss, redditum ibidem quarto decimo die Januarij, anno supradicto, etc. etc.

[Index entry]

Crey, John of, clerk attorney of custumars of Inverness, 196; bailie of Inverness, 210.

Commentary

John de Crey, a clerk (priest?) and "Alexander the son of William" are appointed attorneys of custumars [customs officers] of Inverness and as bailies of Inverness in January 1365.

Here we are right back to main period of surname formation in English-speaking Scotland, as demonstrated by the description of John de Crey's fellow attorney of custumars as Alexander the son of William. This points strongly to the name de Crey being derived from a place-name such as Creich.

It must be less certain here than in our other extracts that John de Crey is related to the later Cree merchants of Perth because there is little evidence of a connection to the Perth area. De Crey could be derived from the Sutherland parish of Creich, about 40 miles north-west of Inverness, in just the same way that we have suggested that the Perth surname of John of Cree (1459) is derived from the parish of Creich in Fife. However Inverness was in many ways a frontier post of Anglo-Saxon-Norman Scotland and may have had more in common, and closer relations, with Perth than with the remote village of Creich in Gaelic-speaking Sutherland. We simply record the evidence and leave as an open question whether John de Crey in Inverness was related to John of Cre in Perth.