Cruises in Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848-1864

Howard Mathieson, one of my colleagues in the Guild of One-Name Studies, has been working on producing maps showing the distribution of a surname in Ireland at parish level based on the Griffith's Valuation Indexes. He has very kindly produced some maps for me showing the distribution of the Cruise surname and related variant spellings. From 1848 to 1864 Ireland's Valuation Office conducted its first survey of property ownership in Ireland in order to determine the amount of tax each person should pay towards the support of the poor within their Poor Law Union. This survey became known as Griffith's Valuation after Richard Griffith who was the director of the office at that time. The survey recorded the names of both landlords and tenants throughout the country in both rural and urban areas, and it provides a snapshot of the population at a key point in Irish history, beginning at the time when the Great Famine was at its peak. It is a particularly important resource because no Irish censuses have survived prior to 1901 and it effectively serves as a census substitute. Griffith's Valuation can be found online on the Ask about Ireland website.

Howard's first map below shows the distribution of Cruise tenants in Ireland. It's interesting to see that there are still Cruises in the east of the country in Meath and Dublin, the counties where the Cruise family first held lands when they arrived in Ireland in the twelfth century, though there has been a noticeable westward drift into Galway and Mayo.

The second map below shows the distribution of tenants of Cruise landlords and therefore provides an indication of the landholdings of people with the surname in Ireland at the time.

Some Cruises still held land in Dublin and Meath, and there were still Cruice landlords in Cruicetown in County Meath. It is however somewhat surprising that the largest landholdings are now in the west and south west in counties Galway, Clare and Limerick.

For anyone with an interest in surname mapping I recommend a visit to Howard's Geogenealogy website which provides a wealth of information on the subject and lots of interesting links.

© 2011 Debbie Kennett and Howard Mathieson

Cruises in Irish civil registration indexes

Thanks to the hard work of a fellow Cruise researcher I now have a major new database to add to my collection of records for my one-name study. We have now extracted all the references to the surnames Cruise, Cruice and variants from the Irish Civil Registration Indexes, and they have been placed in Excel spreadsheets for easy sorting. The Irish BMDs are available online free of charge on the new Family Search website. The births cover the period from 1864 to 1958, the marriages are from 1845 to 1958 and the deaths from 1864 to 1958. BMD records are one of the core datasets in a one-name study, and the Irish BMDs will serve as a useful baseline and checklist when work starts on reconstructing all the Cruise families in Ireland.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

Surname distribution maps

I recently purchased a copy of the new edition of Steve Archer's Surname Atlas. The atlas provides distribution maps of surnames based on data from the 1881 censuses of England, Wales and Scotland. The new version has a number of enhancements including some very useful listings of surnames specific to individual counties. I shall be making full use of the list of Devon surnames to build up my list of surnames for my Devon DNA Project. I've been having fun playing around with the CD tonight and have produced maps showing the distribution in England and Wales of the surnames Cruwys, Cruse and Cruise and other variant spellings. It is now possible to do a comparison of four surnames at once. The first set of maps shows a comparison of the distribution of the surnames Cruwys, Cruse, Cruze, and Scruse in 1881. Cruwys and Cruze are both clearly Devon surnames. Cruse is found across the whole of the south of England, with further pockets in the north. There is some overlap with the surname Cruwys, but the Cruse surname appears to have multiple origins. The appearance of the surname in the north might be a result of migration in the search for work in the industrial heartlands. Scruse is a variant spelling of Cruse and originated in Wiltshire.      

The second set of maps below shows the distribution of the surnames Cruise, Crewes, Crews and Crew in 1881. The surname Cruise is predominantly found in Ireland and the Irish Cruises are distantly related to the Cruwyses of Devon. The northern Cruises are probably migrants from Ireland.  The Cruises in the south-west probably share a more recent origin with the Cruwyses and Cruses of Devon and Cornwall. One branch of the Devon Cruwys family settled in Cornwall in the 1500s, and as can be seen the Crewes spelling was still concentrated in Cornwall in 1881. All the people with the variant spelling Crewes are probably descended from this single Cornish line. Crews is again mostly confined to the southwest. Crews is the predominant variant spelling in the United States and we are investigating the theory that the surname there evolved from Crew or Crewe. Crew is notably absent from the south-west but is widely spread throughout the rest of England.

© Debbie Kennett 2011

IPM of Robert de Cruys of Nalle, Ireland 1292

ROBERT DE CRUYS OF NALLE

 Writ to Walter de la Haye escheator in Ireland, 25 March, 20 Edw. I  [1292]

[MEATH.] Inq. Sunday before SS. Philip and James, 20 Edw. I.

Le Nalle. Buildings with stone walls of which the timber is of oak wholly unroofed, lands, rents &c. (extent given with names of tenants), including 120a. arable in 'le Carret feld' and mill field, 20a. in 'le Resk,' 36a. on the hill (montana), 24a. at Lochmoyan, a hill containing 17a. pasture, a pasture called 'la Roche,' and a moor for oxen, held of the king in chief by service of 20s. when royal service is proclaimed.

Ardmays. Wooden buildings thatched with straw and a stone tower worth nothing because they are in the march among the Irish and cost much for maintenance, and if they are thrown down it will be to the great damage of the whole country, lands &c. (extent given), including 87a. land at Cruys town and a township at Kenethan held by the Irish.

Ynesken. The advowson of the church.

Cruys. The advowson of the church.

Moderath. Richard Moderath holds a carucate of land by rendering 16d. when royal service is proclaimed; and ½ carucate of land in fee, rendering a pair of spurs yearly to the heirs of Thomas le Gros.

            Reginald de Sancto Bosco and Isabel his wife, mother of the said Robert, hold in dower 173a. arable, meadow, a mill, an orchard, 40d. or 400 eels issue of the lake of Robert's town (Lacy Ville Roberti), with common of the whole pasture of Ardmass and howsebot and heybote.

            And the said Robert died seised of 9l. 5s. 9 3/4d. rent of freemen at Clonachbrenan in the lordship of Sir Theobald de Verdum.

            Helen (Ellena) the wife of the said Robert has a third part of all the aforesaid lands &c. as dower.

                                                                                    C. Edw. I. File 63 (15)

Source: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office. Volume III: Edward I. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912, no. 48, p37. Available online in the Internet Archive.

© Debbie Kennett 2011