CREDITON, a market town of England, county of Devon, on the Greedy, near its junction with the Exe, eight miles north-west of Exeter. Population (1871), 4222. It is situated in a narrow vale, between two steep hills, and is divided into two parts, the east or old town, and the west or new town. The church, formerly collegiate, is a noble edifice, in the later Pointed style, with a fine tower 100 feet in height springing from the centre. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Methodists, and ^Unitarians, a free grammar school with exhibitions to both universities, blue-coat, national, and infant schools, a mechanics’ institution, a public library, and a newsroom. There were formerly extensive woollen and serge manufactories there, but the inhabitants are now chiefly engaged in shoemaking and agriculture. Crediton was the birthplace, about 680, of the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, better known as St Boniface, “the Apostle of Germany.” It returned two members to the Parliament at Carlisle in the reign of Edward I., and from 909 to 1049 was the seat of a bishopric, which was afterwards removed to Exeter. Fairfax with Cromwell took possession of Crediton in 1645. The present modern appearance of the town is mainly due to the removal of the old houses by fires which occurred in 1743 and 1769.