Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roger of Croyland
ROGER of Croyland (d. 1214?), biographer of Becket, was one of the many monks employed at the close of the twelfth century and early in the thirteenth in compiling lives of St. Thomas of Canterbury (cf. Herbert of Bosham). In 1213 he revised the compilation made by an Evesham monk in 1199. The work was undertaken at the request of Henry, abbot of Croyland, to whom it was dedicated by Roger (letter printed by Giles, Vita et Epistolæ S. Thom. Cant. ii. 40–5). The abbot presented it to Stephen Langton on the translation of the martyr, 27 June 1220 (ib.) The work is of no original value, though the author had known Becket during his life. Roger after 1213 became prior of Preston, and is supposed to have died in the following year (ib.) Manuscripts of Roger's life of Becket are in the Bodleian Library (E. Mus. 133, 3512), in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (5372, 1), and at University College, Oxford.
[Hardy's Cat. ii. 344–5, iii. 34; Leland's De Script. Brit. i. 219; Magnusson's Preface to Thomas Saga (Rolls Ser.), ii. xcv.]