William de Crachin was a prelate

Prelate

A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...

 active in the Kingdom of Scotland

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...

 in the 13th century. The earliest known Dean of Brechin Cathedral

Brechin Cathedral

The cathedral church of the Holy Trinity in Brechin, Angus, Scotland, belongs to the 13th century. It is in the Pointed style, but suffered maltreatment in 1806 at the hands of restorers, whose work was subsequently removed during the restoration completed in 1902...

, his first appearance in a surviving source comes 22 September 1248, from a document of Arbroath Abbey

Arbroath Abbey

Arbroath Abbey, in the Scottish town of Arbroath, was founded in 1178 by King William the Lion for a group of Tironensian Benedictine monks from Kelso Abbey. It was consecrated in 1197 with a dedication to the deceased Saint Thomas Becket, whom the king had met at the English court...

.

He appears again in a Brechin document dating either 1256x1261 or 1267. His surname de Crachin, unknown to historians such as John Dowden

John Dowden

John Dowden was an Irish cleric and ecclesiastical historian.He was born in Cork in 1840 as the fifth of five children by John Wheeler Dowden and Alicia Bennett. His famous brother was the poet, professor and literary critic Edward Dowden...

, occurs in National Library of Scotland

National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...

 MS 34.6.24 fo. 377, the underlying text of which dates 1246 x 1266.

Between 1269 and 1275 he was elected bishop of Brechin

Bishop of Brechin

The Bishop of Brechin is the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Brechin or Angus, based at Brechin Cathedral, Brechin. The diocese had a long-established Gaelic monastic community which survived into the 13th century. The clerical establishment may very well have traced their earlier origins...

. He had died by 24 May 1275 (date of mandate for his successor's provision

Provision

Provision may refer to:* Provision , an industrial dance / synthpop band from Houston, Texas, USA* Provision , a term for liability in accounting* Provision , a term for a procurement condition...

). The Chronica Extracta says that he died, still merely "elect" (i.e. not having received consecration

Consecration

Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

) at the Second Council of Lyons, though there is uncertainty among modern writers about the reliability of this extract.

The Chronica described him as "a man in all things praiseworthy, but of harsh voice".