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The Cruwys Family: One of the Oldest in Devon

Transcribed by Debbie Kennett from The Devonian Year Book, 1944, p.10

"One of the oldest families in Devon - the Cruwys Family of Cruwys Morchard, near Tiverton - was the subject last year of a broadcast talk in the National Programme by an Exeter man and former Hele's School pupil, Dr. W. G. Hoskins, Lecturer in Economics at University College, Leicester.

Dr. Hoskins entitled his talk "Seven Hundred Years in One House." He stated that the Cruwys family appeared in records as early as 1175, close to Cruwys Morchard, and they came to Cruwys Morchard House soon after 1200. Family papers dated back to the time of Richard I, and the present house dated from 1594, when the original structure was rebuilt. The foundations of the old house showed walls nearly ten feet thick, and a stream ran across the cellar floor - in under one wall and out under another - to furnish the water supply in case of siege. Manor Court rolls dated back to 1509. One early member of the family, Sir Robert Cruwys, fought at Cressey and at the siege of Calais under the famous Sir Walter de Manny's services, and was knighted in France for his services. He returned home to Cruwys Morchard, and paid off all his debts in the Church porch with the spoils of war."