Cruse's Stores, Rottingdean

Valerie Hedgecock has sent me an interesting article, dating from June 2001, which was published in one of the local Brighton newspapers. The article relates the history of two village stores in Rottingdean High Street which are remembered with great affection by their old customers and were renowned for their tradition of great service. Richardson's Stores was established in 1823 though under a different name, and continued to trade until 1962. Cruse's Stores opened in 1918 at 14 High Street on the opposite side of the road to Richardson's, and the two businesses enjoyed a friendly rivalry.

Cruse's Stores was founded by Jimmy Cruse, who had previously worked as an assistant at Richardson's Stores. By the time the Rottingdean store had opened Jimmy already had a shop at 14 Upper St James's Street, Brighton. His ambition had been to open ten branches but he apparently died by 1931 from overwork. The Brighton store was managed by Jimmy's brother-in-law Jack Foster, who was joined in 1928 by Jimmy's son Ron. It traded as a grocer's until the end of 1962, when it was converted into a greengrocer's by Ron's son Alan. The greengrocer's store continued in business for a further 16 years before closing in 1995.

I've not yet been able to work out which tree these Rottingdean Cruses belong to. From the GRO indexes I've been able to establish that there was a Ronald Thomas Cruse born on 19th August 1909 in the Brighton Registration District. He died in October 2004 at the age of 95. The only James Cruse I can find in Sussex in the 1901 census was born c. 1857 in Chailey. His wife Alice was already 40 in 1901 and would possibly have been too old to be the mother of the Ronald Cruse born in 1909. I cannot find a record of the death of Jimmy Cruse in the GRO indexes up to 1931, and I have not yet extracted the deaths after this date. I suspect I will need to wait for the release of the 1911 census before solving this problem. In the meantime I would be very pleased to hear from anyone with further information about this line. I have now scanned the article and can send out copies on request. The article has some lovely old photographs of the store and pictures of Ron Cruse and his father Jimmy.

A Cruwys calendar girl

Judith Bowen has kindly alerted me to a story in the North Shore Times in Australia about Joan Cruwys, a sprightly 94-year-old who is one of the calendar girls featured in the 2009 Senior Road Safety Calendar. You can read the full story here. The calendar is available free of charge from a number of local councils in North Sydney and through local senior groups and centres, retirement villages and council facilities across the northern Sydney region. Joan is the widow of Harold Herbert Cruwys (1908-1986), who is descended from the Brushford tree from Somerset. Joan and Harold emigrated to Australia in 1959.

Margaret Cruse of Essex and Virginia

I came across the following interesting posting on the Rootsweb mailing list for Madison County, Kentucky:

The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume XIII (July, 1905), No. 1, pages 53-64, "Virginia Gleanings in England," has the following:

DANIEL LLUELLIN of Chelmsford, Essex, planter. Will 6 Feb 1663/4; 11 Mar 1663/4. Lands, tenements, hereditaments in Charles county in upper part of James River in Virginia, to wife Anne for life, then to son Daniel LLEWELLIN. Ditto as to goods, but to daughter Martha JONES his sister two seasoned servants. Also to son Daniel LLLUELLIN best suite, cloake, coate and hatt, second best hatt with silver hatband, all Linnen, and my sayle skinn Trunk. To friend Mary ELSING of Chelmsford, spinster, for care, one of best white ruggs and my new peece of Dowlas, saving sufficient for a winding sheet to bury mee. To Mary DEERINGTON of Chelmsford, a widow one of wurst white ruggs. To daughter Margaret CRUSE 40s. for ring and to her husband ditto. To son-in-law Robert HALLOM ditto. To master Chr. SALTER living in Wine Court wiwthout Bishopgate and Anne his wife 10s. each for gloves. Goods sent over this spring and summer to be sold for debts due. Rest to son Daniel.

Executors: Thomas VERVELL of Roxwell, Essex, gent., James JAUNCY of Cateaton Streete, London, Merchant, Giles SUSSEX of Thames Street, London, Hottpresser, and Master William WALKER of Colchest:, Essex, Shopkeeper. To be buried in parish church of Chelmsford neare the Reading deske and friend Doctor John MICHELSON to preach.

Witnesses: Robert LLOYD, Tim CODE, senior, scrivenor.

The names CREW, CREWS and CRUSE start to appear in Charles City County, Virginia in the late 1600s but as yet we have been unable to find their place of origin. DNA testing shows that nearly all the CREWS of Virginia are related. An ancestral file on the IGI suggests that Margaret LLEWELLYN married a James CRUSE. I've no record of such a marriage and wondered if anyone had any further information.

A Cruwys connection with Charles Darwin

I had a long chat on the phone the other night with Norman Cruwys who has provided me with some further anecdotes about his family. I was intrigued to learn that one of his relations, Elizabeth Ann Cruwys née Bradford (1856-1939), the wife of his great uncle John Albert Cruwys (1858-1933), had supposedly at one time worked for the naturalist Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of the Species. I therefore decided to do some research to see if there was any truth in the story.

I already knew that Elizabeth Ann Bradford married John Albert Cruwys, a coachman, in 1886 in the Bromley Registration District. John was the son of William Henry Cruwys, a farmer, and Mary Jane Wonson, and is from the tree which originates in Brushford, Somerset. According to the 1891 census Elizabeth was born in about 1856 in Swaffham Bulbeck, Cambridgeshire. I discovered from the IGI that she was baptised on 24th August 1856 in Swaffham Bulbeck and was the daughter of William Bradford and Jane Hullyer. Her birth is registered in the June quarter of 1856 in the Newmarket Registration District. In the 1861 census Elizabeth, aged four, was living with her parents, William and Jane Bradford, at Hare Park, Swaffham Bulbeck. Her father, William, 50, was a farmer's labourer. Her mother, Jane, was 40. Elizabeth had a brother, Walter, aged two, and a sister, Silina, aged nine months. By the time of the 1871 census Elizabeth, now aged 14, had left home and was working as a domestic servant. She was living with Harriet Palmer, 63, a clergyman's widow, and her daughter Sophia Palmer, 23 at Shrey's Almshouses in the parish of St Giles in Cambridge. Once we get to the 1881 census the story suddenly becomes very interesting. Elizabeth Bradford, now said to be 26 (though in reality she was only 24 or 25), was a housemaid living at Down House in Downe, Kent, which was none other than the home of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma. It was a very large household, and I have provided a full transcription of the census entry below.

Down House, Cudham Road, Downe, Kent
Charles Robert DARWIN Head M Male 72 M.A., L.L.D., (Cambs) F.R.S., J.P. Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Emma DARWIN Wife M Female 72 b. Maer, Staffordshire
Elizabeth DARWIN Daughter U Female 33 b. Downe, Kent, England
William E. DARWIN Son M Male 41 Banker B.A. (Cantab) b. St Pancras, Middlesex
Sara DARWIN Daughter-in-law M Female 41 b. United States
George H. DARWIN Son U Male 35 Barrister M A (Cant), F.R.S, b. Downe, Kent
Francis DARWIN Son Widower Male 32 M.A. M.B. (Cant) b. Downe, Kent,
Bernard R. M. DARWIN Grandson Male 4 b. Downe, Kent
Herman FRANKE Visitor M Male 33 Music Director and Violinist b. Saxony, Germany
Rose C. FRANKE Niece M Female 34 b. Etauria [Etruria], Staffordshire
Charles Wood FOX Cousin U Male 33 Barrister b. Hampstead, Middlesex
James JOHNSON Servant U Male 23 Footman Domestic Servant b. Marylebone, Middlesex
Frederic HILL Servant U Male 20 Groom Domestic Servant b. Bromley, Kent,
Margaret EVANS Servant U Female 49 Hedgebottom, Shropshire, Cook Domestic Servant
Augusta DICKSON Servant M Female 44 Ladies Maid Domestic Servant b. Hamburg, Germany (British Subject)
Elizabeth BRADFORD Servant U Female 26 House Maid Domestic Servant b. Bullbeck [Swaffham Bulbeck], Cambridgeshire,
Harriet IRVINE Servant U Female 23 House Maid Domestic Servant b. Offham, Kent
Mary WILKINS Servant U Female 19 Kitchenmaid Domestic Servant b. Sundriger [Sundridge], Kent
Pauline BADEL Servant U Female 29 Nurse Domestic Servant b. Switzerland
Harriet WELLS Visitor U Female 24 Ladies Maid (Domestic) b. Portswood, Hampshire,
Leonard DARWIN Son U Male 31 Royal Engineers Lieutenant b. Downe, Kent

Charles and Emma Darwin moved into Down House in 1842. Some of their children were born at the house and it was here that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution and natural selection. We do not know how long Elizabeth Bradford was employed in the Darwin household, but Charles Darwin died at Down House on 19th April 1882 at the age of 73. Elizabeth quite possibly continued to work at the house after Charles's death, but would almost certainly have stopped working either upon her marriage to John Albert Cruwys in 1886 or upon the birth of her first child, Bessie, in 1889. By 1891 John and Elizabeth Cruwys and their two-year-old daughter Bessie were living in the High Road in Farnborough, Kent, and John was working as a coachman (groom). John and Elizabeth went on to have just one other child, a son, William John Cruwys, who was born in 1891 in Farnborough. Bessie married William Rice in 1919, and William married Doris Gregory in 1919. I do not know if there are any living descendants but I would love to hear from anyone who has further information about this family and the Charles Darwin connection.