545 
C R E 
CRE'DITABLE, adj. Reputable; above contempt. 
—He fettled him in a good creditable way of living, hav¬ 
ing procured him by his intereft one of the bed places of 
the country. Arbuthnot. —Honourable; eltimable.—The 
contemplation of tilings, that do not ferve to promote 
our happinefs, is but a more fpecious fort of id level's, a 
more pardonable and creditable kind of ignorance. Tillotf. 
CRE'DITABLENESS,yi Reputation; eftimation.— 
Among all thefe fnares, there is none more entangling 
than the creditablencfs and repute of cuftomary vices. De¬ 
cay of Piety. 
CRE'DITABLY, adv. Reputably; withoutdifgrace. 
-—Many will choofe rather to neglect their duty lately 
and creditably , than to get a broken pate in the church’s 
lervice, only to be rewarded with that which will break 
their hearts too. South. 
CRE'DITON, or Kirton, [fromCpuefcon, Sax. q. d. 
the Cart Town ; or from Cjte&e, Sax. the Apoftle’s Creed; 
becaufe, perhaps, in this town the firft bifhop’s fee was 
founded among the Saxons ; and from thence the Chrif- 
tian faith, propagated through the kingdom of the South 
Saxons; others from the river Crcdian, that runs by it.] 
A confiderable town in Devonfhire, fituated on a rich 
foil, between two hills, riling with a gradual eleva¬ 
tion .towards the north, while that on the fouth fide is 
very deep ; it confrds of two parts, named the Ead 
and Welt Town ; the latter of which was almod de- 
liroyed by a dreadful conflagration in 1743. It began 
at an inn on a Sunday, in time of divine lervice, and," be¬ 
ing a very dry feafon, foon became ii relidible : the da¬ 
mage fudained was computed at fifty thoufand pounds, 
befides the lofs of fourteen lives. A fecond fire, in 1769, 
dedroyed a great part of the new buildings, together with 
the market-houfe and lhambles ; but the whole has been 
fince rebuilt in a beautiful manner. The parochial church 
dands near the higher end of the Ead Town, and is a no¬ 
ble druilure, one hundred and fifty feet in length by 
forty-four in breadth, bui t in the form of a cathedral, 
in the Gothic dile of architecture, confiding of three no¬ 
ble aifles. The tower is one hundred feet high, and 
dands nearly in the center of the church, on a femicir- 
cular arch, fiupported by four pillars of uncommon mag¬ 
nitude. The town is governed by a portreve, and is cer¬ 
tainly a place of great antiquity, and was for many years 
a bilhopric, till the fee was removed to Exeter, in the 
feign of Edward the Confelfor. In this town was born 
Boniface archbilhop of Mentz, commonly called the 
German apodle, becaufe he converted the Medians, &c. 
in Germany, to Chriltianity. In the reign of Edward I. 
it fent members to a parliament at Carlille. It has a free 
grammar-fehool and a free Englifh fchool, both well en¬ 
dowed. A confiderable manufactory in fevges is carried 
on in this tov/n. Here is a plentiful market on Saturdays 
for all kinds of provifions, and for wool and yarn. Alio 
three annual fairs, held May ir, Augud 21, and Sep. 
tember 21, for cattle and pedlary ware. 
CRE'DITOR,/. [ creditor , Lat.] He to whom a debt 
is Owed ; he that gives credit : correlative to debtor .-—. 
No man of honour, as that word is ufually underftood, 
did ever pretend that his honour obliged him to be eftafte 
er temperate, to pay his creditors, to be ufeful to his coun¬ 
try, to do good to mankind, to endeavour to be wife or 
learned, to regard his word, his promife, or his oath. 
Swift. —One who credits, one who believes. Not ufed; 
Many fought to feed 
The eafy creditors of novelties, 
By voicing him alive. Shakefpcare. 
By the common law, creditors fhall recover their debts 
of executors or adminiltvators, who in their own, wrong, 
wafte, or convert to their ufe, the eftate of the deceaieii. 
30 Car. II. c. 7. Wills and devifes of lands, &c. as to 
creditors on bonds or other fpecialties', are declared void ; 
and the creditors rnay have aflions of debt againfl the heir 
at law and devifees. 3 & 4 Will. & Mary , c. 14. And 
Vol. V. No. 277. 
CUE 
in favour of creditors, whenever it appears to be the-tef- 
tator’s intent, in a will, that his lands fiiowld be liable 
for paying his debts, in fuch cafe equity will make them 
fubjeCl, though there are not exprefs words • but there 
mull be more than a bare-declaration, or it lit all be in¬ 
tended out of the perfonal eftate. 2 Pern. Rep. 708. Where 
one devifes that all his debts, Sec. fhall be firfl paid, if 
his perfonal eflate is not lufficient to pay the creditors, 
it fhall amount to a charge on his real eftate for that pur- 
pofe. Pre'ced. Cane. 430. 
CREDII' LIT Y. \_credulite, Fr. credulitas, Lat.] Eafi- 
nefs of belief; readinefs of credit.—The prejudice of 
credulity may, in feme meafure, be-cured, by learning to 
fet a high value on truth. Walts. 
CRE'DULOHS, adj. [ credulus , Lat.] Apt to believe ; 
unfufpeCting ; eafily deceived : 
A credulous father, and a brother noble, 
Whole nature is fo far from doing harm, 
That he fufpeCts none. Shakefpeare. 
CRE'DULOUSNESS, f. Aptnefs to believe; ere. 
dulity. 
CREE, a river of Scotland, which rifes in the foutli- 
eafl part of Airfhire, and runs into Wigton bay. 
CREE INDIANS, a nation inhabiting the weflern 
banks of Little Lake Winnipeg, and near fort Dauphin, 
in Upper Canada. 
CREECH (Thomas), a perfon of fome eminence for 
his poetical tranflations, was born in 1659, at Blandford 
in Dorfetfhire. He was educated in grammar-learning at 
the free-fehool in Sherburn, whence he was removed to 
Wadham college, Oxford. After taking the degree of 
mailer of arts, in 16S3, he was elefted probationer-fellow 
of All-Souls college. He had the year before printed 
his tranflation of Lucretius,, which eftabliflied his repu¬ 
tation as a fcholar; though it appears that there were 
not wanting perfons who warmly cenfured the publica¬ 
tion of fuch a performance by a member of an univerfity, 
and one engaged in its lyflem of education. He alfo 
tranflated feveral other pieces from the ancient writers ; 
as parts of Ovid and Virgil; almofl the whole of Ho¬ 
race ; the thirteenth Satire of Juvenal;- the Idylls of 
Theocritus; the Aflronomicon of Manilius; and feveral 
of Plutarch’s Lives, with other pieces of that author. 
He likewife gave an edition of Lucretius in the original, 
with an interpretation and annotations. He was made 
bachelor of divinity in 1696, and three years afterwards 
was prefented to the reftory of Welwyn, in Hertford- 
fhire. But he never took polfeflion of it, unhappily put- 
ting an end to his life at Oxford in 1700. Various caufes 
have been afligned for this action ; but, from a letter ex¬ 
tant, it appears to have proceeded from the cold recep¬ 
tion he met with from a fellow-collegian on applying to 
him for a loan of fome money, in addition to feveral he 
had before been indulged with. He is faid to have been 
of a morofe temper, which had engaged him in feveral 
quarrels. He was attached to a lady in Oxford, whom 
he made his executrix, and wilhed to have married ; but 
the union was oppofed by her friends, and this circum- 
ftance probably difpofed him to the melancholy c;u 
taftrophe. 
Creech owes his principal fame to his tranflation of 
Lucretius, which was probably admired at the time as 
an extraordinary exertion of fcholarlhip ; for the many 
incorredl and flovenly tranflations of that period afford 
but an unfavourable view of the literary talents of its 
writers. The poetical merit of the tranflation is, in¬ 
deed, very fmall. It fails miferably in almofl all the 
fplendid paffages of the original, but exhibits fome (kill 
in verfifying the argumentative and mechanical parts. 
His other tranflations never feem to .have been much 
efleemed ; yet Dr. Jofeph Warton, in his Effay on Pope,, 
has fpoken handfomely of parts of his Theocritus and 
Horace, and particularly of his Satire of Juvenal. As 
an editor of Lucretius, he is chiefly valuable for his ex- 
4 T planations 
