Crediton /ˈkrɛdɪtən/ ^ⓘ is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, 7 miles (11 km) north west of Exeter and 14 miles (23 km) from the M5 motorway. It has a population of 21,990.

The town is in the narrow vale of the River Creedy, between two steep hills and is divided into two parts, the north or old town and the south and east or new town.

The first indication of settlement at Crediton is the claim that Winfrith or Saint Boniface was born here in c. 672. He propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century and is the patron saint of both Germany and the Netherlands. In 909 a see was established here with Edwulf as the first bishop. Nine more bishops ruled here until 1050, when Leofric obtained papal permission from Pope Leo IX to transfer the seat to Exeter, a more culturally aware, larger and walled town. Since 1897 Crediton has been the seat of a suffragan bishopric in the Diocese of Exeter; from 2004 until 2012 this was Robert Evens, between 2012 and 2015 it was Nick McKinnel (who was translated to the Anglican See of Plymouth). The current bishop of Crediton is Jackie Searle, who has been the bishop since 2018.

At the Domesday survey (1086) much of the land was still uncultivated, but its prosperity increased, and in 1269 each of the twelve prebends of the collegiate church had a house and farmland within the parish. The bishops to whom the manor belonged until the Reformation had difficulty in enforcing their warren and other rights; in 1351 Bishop Grandisson obtained an exemplification of judgments of 1282, declaring that he had pleas of withername, a view of frankpledge, the gallows and assize of bread and ale. Two years later there was a serious riot against the increase of copyhold.

The jury of the borough are mentioned in 1275, and Crediton returned two members to parliament during the reign of Edward I, in 1306–07, though it was never afterwards represented again. A borough seal dated 1469 is extant, but the corporation is not mentioned in the grant made by Edward VI of the church to twelve principal inhabitants. The borough and manor were granted by Elizabeth I to William Killigrew in 1595, but there is no indication of town organization then or in 1630, and in the 18th century Crediton was governed by commissioners.

The wool trade was established by 1249, and the manufacture and trading of woollen cloth, especially serge, peaked in the 16th century when the town reached the height of its prosperity. In 1630 the market for kerseys was mentioned in conjunction with a saying as fine as Kirton spinning. The woollen textile trade declined after the mid 18th century.

… a big lousy town … the houses be mostly of clay, without any timber in the walls except the roof, doors and windows.

— Richard Symons, a Captain in the Royalist Army, writing about Crediton in 1644.