John Cruwys and Sarah Chown of Tiverton, Devon

Richard Chilcott has very kindly sent me this wonderful photograph of John Cruwys (1860-1919), Sarah Chown/Quant (1851-1921) and their daughter Winifred May Cruwys (1897-1983). The photograph is from the collection of Leslie Cruwys and is published with his permission.

John's wife Sarah Chown had previously been married to John Henry Quant (1850-1881) by whom she had three children. She married John Cruwys in 1882 a year after the death of her first husband. John and Sarah had eight children together, and Winifred was the youngest of their children.

John Cruwys is from the Witheridge Cruwys tree which can be traced back to William Cruwys and Sarah Taylor who married on 2nd February 1820 in Witheridge, Devon. William is probably the William Purchase Cruys, who was baptised on 2nd November 1794 in Cheriton Fitzpaine and was the illegitimate son of Sarah Cruys.

John Cruwys worked as a stonemason. His family remember that he lost a leg following an accident. Indeed the accident might possibly have occurred in 1901 because in the 1901 census George was a patient at St George's Hospital in Hanover Square in London. I was told a story by a local resident that John had skills as a carpenter and that if he ever broke his artificial leg he would go home and make himself another one! It was thought that he made his legs from chair legs strapped on from the knee down. You can clearly see from the crease in John's trousers that he has an artificial left leg just below the knee.

We don't know the exact date when the photograph was taken but Winifred looks as though she's in her early teens which would date the photo to about 1910. In the 1911 census John and Sarah were living at Jurishayes Cottage in Tiverton and the photograph is almost certainly taken outside their house.

The Cruwys clan in Tiverton

Kelly Searle has sent me this lovely photograph of her great-grandparents Thomas Edwin James Cruwys (1888-1961) and Edith Baker (1887-1965) with their six sons. Thomas was born in Witheridge, Devon, and is the son of John Cruwys (1860-1919) and Sarah Chown (1851-1921). Thomas and Edith settled in Tiverton after their marriage. The photograph is probably taken in the garden of their house at 56 Council Gardens. Thomas and Edith's youngest son, Sidney, was born in 1926, which would suggest that the photograph dates from the early 1930s. Pictured on the back row (from left to right) are: Victor, Jack (John), Thomas Henry, and Ernie. In the front row (from left to right) are: Sidney, Edith, Thomas Edwin James, and Charlie. The boys are all looking distinctly grumpy, and were no doubt not amused at the prospect of putting on their ties and Sunday best to have the photograph taken!

Thomas Edwin Cruwys of Tiverton

My friend Chris Gibbins in Devon has been searching through some of the old newspaper cuttings at the Devon and Exeter Institution and she has sent me a most interesting story about the golden wedding anniversary of Thomas Edwin Cruwys and Edith Baker. The article was originally published in the Tiverton Gazette on 4th October 1960 with the heading "Worked on a farm for shilling a week – memories of life in the early 1900s".

While farm workers discussed their 9s. a week pay rise, Mr. Thomas Edwin Cruwys, of 56, Council Gardens, Tiverton, was looking back over 50 years of married life, and recalling the days when he worked on a farm for 1s a week.

Mr. Cruwys, who was 72 this month, was talking to a "Gazette" reporter on Wednesday, his golden wedding anniversary. He and his wife, who was 73 on Friday, were married at St. Peter’s Church, Tiverton, by the late Rev. G. G. Hall.

Born at Witheridge, Mr. Cruwys started his working days at the age of 11, and for nearly a year he worked just for his food and lodging at Higher Withleigh Farm. Later, at Nethercleaye Farm, Withleigh, he earned 1s a week and recalls the time the farmer was taken ill and he was paid an extra sixpence a week for the additional work he had to do. When he gave up farm work his weekly wage was 5s. 6d.

For 46 years Mr. Cruwys was employed at Tiverton Cemetery, retiring as caretaker seven years ago.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Cruwys come from large families. Mrs. Cruwys, whose father was the late Mr. John Baker, sexton at Creacombe Church for about 50 years, was one of two girls and 11 boys. Three of her brothers went to Canada, where they took up market gardening, and are now living at Catarqui, Ontario. Two other brothers live at Tiverton and Bradninch.

Mr. Cruwys came from a family of six boys and five girls. His father, the late Mr. John Cruwys, was a mason.

During the First World War, Mr. Cruwys spent over four years in the Army, after volunteering in November, 1914. He served in Africa, where he contracted malaria, France, and Germany, and spent 13 months in hospital with two broken legs after he had been knocked down by a motorcycle combination.

Mr. and Mrs. Cruwys have had six children, five of whom survive, and nine grandchildren. During the Second Wold War all six sons were in the Forces at the same time, three in the Devons, and the others in the R.A.F., A.C.C., and R.A.M.C. Two were prisoners-of-war – the eldest, Mr. Tom Cruwys of Exeter, for two years, and the youngest, Mr. Sidney Cruwys, of London, for two weeks.

Their other sons are Messrs. Vic. Cruwys (Manchester), Charles Cruwys (Tiverton), and E. Cruwys, who lives with his parents.

Mr. Cruwys is a Roll of Honour member of Ye Twyford Lodge, R.A.O.B. [Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes], and the couple received a telegram of good wishes from the lodge on their anniversary. They also received flowers from Tiverton Aged People's Association.

A party given by their family at Exeter on the previous Saturday was a well-kept secret until Mr. and Mrs. Cruwys entered the room, where about 20 of their relatives were waiting for them.

One of Mr. and Mrs. Cruwys's most treasured possessions is a 42-piece tea-set which was one of their wedding presents 50 years ago, and which is still complete.

Since receiving the article I have done some further research on this family. Thomas Edwin Cruwys was born in 1888 in Witheridge, Devon. He belongs to the Witheridge Cruwys family which can be traced back to William Cruwys and Sarah Taylor who married on 2nd February 1820 in Witheridge. Thomas was the son of John Cruwys, a mason, and Sarah Quant née Chown. His mother was previously married to John Henry Quant, by whom she had three children, two boys and a girl. She was widowed in 1881 and married Thomas's father the following year. I have so far found a record of six children born to John and Sarah Cruwys, three boys and three girls. Further children were probably born after the 1901 census.

Tragedy struck the family on 29th March 1891 when Thomas’s older brother, George Herbert Cruwys, died in a house fire. A transcription of the newspaper reports about the incident can be read here. Thomas was only two years old at the time and probably had no memory of the accident.

Thomas's recollections of his early working life are confirmed by the 1901 census. Thomas, then aged 12, was a farmer's servant at Nethercliffe Farm in Withleigh, where he was working for Fred Phillips, 41, a farmer.

Thomas did not live to celebrate another birthday after his golden wedding anniversary. He died in 1961 aged 72 years and Edith died three years later in 1965 aged 78. All six of their sons have now passed away, though there are many living descendants. I wonder if the prized tea-set is still in the family.

Acknowledgements
The transcription of the article from the Tiverton Gazette is reproduced by kind permission of the Editor.

George Cruwys sergemaker of Tiverton

I've been searching through the back issues of the London Gazette which are now available online. The collection includes all the issues from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and most of the issues from 1752 to 1799. I found the following gem which was published in two consecutive issues of the London Gazette, dated 23rd to 27th July and 3rd to 6th August 1765:

Whitehall, July 27, 1765
Whereas it has been humbly represented to the King,
That, on Saturday the 20th Instant, about Noon, was found in the Garden belonging to George Cruwys, of Tiverton in the County of Devon, sergemaker, a Piece of Paper, on which were wrote the Words and Figures following:

"George Cruwys if you Don’t put 12 Gunnis out under your Backe Door Betwix 12 and 2 to help the Prisnors weill Vire your House or By God wee will Morder you Take this for Warning."

Which said Paper Writing was tied with Packtbread to a Piece of dry Mortar, by which Means it was thrown over the Wall belonging to the said Garden: His Majesty, for the better discovering and bringing to Justice the Persons concerned in writing the said Paper, is hereby pleased to promise His most gracious Pardon to any one of them, (except the Person who wrote the said Paper) who shall discover his or her Accomplice or Accomplices therein, so that he, she, or they, may be apprehended and convicted thereof.

GRAFTON.
And, for the better Encouragement, the Ministers, Church-wardens, Overseers of the Poor, Gentlemen, and Principal Inhabitants of the Parish of Tiverton, do hereby promise a Reward of Fifty Pounds to any Person or Persons making Discovery of the Party or Parties guilty thereof, (except as before excepted) to be paid by the Church-wardens of the said Parish, on the Conviction of any one or more of them.

And, as a further Encouragement, the said George Cruwys doth hereby promise a Reward of Twenty Guineas to any person or Persons making such Discovery as aforesaid, (except as before excepted) to be paid by him, on the Conviction of any one or more of them.

Geo. Cruwys.

There were at least three George Cruwyses baptised in Tiverton in the early part of the eighteenth century and I currently have insufficient information to distinguish between them and to establish which one is the sergemaker. One George Cruwys was the Corporation Treasurer. He met a very sorry end dying suddenly at the Mayor's on 15th January 1769 after suffocating on his own vomit. Another George Cruwys was the mayor of Tiverton in 1797.