On 2 November 1258, John of Crakehall's appointment as treasurer of England was formally announced in a letter patent. Chosen by the barons who had seized control of England's government from King Henry III during the previous summer, he was to serve for almost two years before dying in office in September 1260. Exercising control over the exchequer, Crakehall was entrusted with the reformation of the king's finances. Yet despite of the importance of his position within the reformist project, John has been largely overlooked by historians of the period. John Maddicott, in his biography of Simon de Montfort, mentions him only three times. In R.F. Treharne's influential study The Baronial Plan of Reform, the treasurer merits eighteen references, although several of these merely relate to his actual appointment. Such is his general anonymity that, in his Studies in the Period of Baronial Reform and Rebellion, E.F. Jacob refers to him on just three occasions. The aim in this paper is to place Crakehall firmly within the historiography of the baronial movement. After offering some thoughts on Crakehall's early career, the paper will propound a new analysis of the factors that lay behind his selection as treasurer before moving on to a discussion of the baronial exchequer and his personal contribution to the implementation of the reformist programme.

John's antecedents are somewhat shadowy but his use of the toponym Crakehall indicates that he hailed from either Great or Little Crakehall near Northallerton in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Exactly when he was born is unknown, although it must have occurred before 1210 at the latest. Uncertainty also surrounds John's parentage but he was probably the younger son of Ellis of Crakehall. Peter, his older brother, had succeeded by 1240 while at least one unnamed sister had reached adulthood. The family held land in Hornby, Patrick Brompton and Great Smeaton in Yorkshire as well as a share in the Lincolnshire manor of Holbeach. These lands had formerly constituted part of the fee held from the honour of Richmond by Conan son of Ellis. Conan, who could trace his lineage back to the Domesday tenant Landric, had been married four times but died without legitimate issue in 1218. The fee was therefore partitioned between his three aunts, namely, Beatrice, Parnell and Ellis of Crakehall's mother Constance.