CRUWYS MORCHARD

From

Samuel Lewis: A Topographical Dictionary of England

Volume I. 5th edn. S Lewis and Co, 1845.

https://archive.org/details/topographicaldic01lewiuoft

Transcribed by Debbie Kennett

CRUWYS-MORCHARD (HOLY CROSS), a parish, in the union of TIVERTON, hundred of WITHERIDGE, Cullompton and N. divisions of DEVON, 5 miles (W.) from Tiverton; containing 670 inhabitants. This place takes its name from the ancient family of Cruwys, whose seat, Morchard House, near the church, was originally built in 1199, and is now inhabited by their descendant, the Rev. G. S. Cruwys. The parish is situated on the new road from Tiverton to Barnstaple, and comprises by computation nearly 6000 acres. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £21. 11. 8.; patron and incumbent, Rev. G. S. Cruwys, whose tithes have been commuted for £524, and whose glebe comprises 150 acres, with a glebe-house. The church was struck by lightning in 1689, which rent the steeple and melted the bells; it contains a finely carved oak screen, and some ancient monuments to the Anerays [sic], and one to the memory of the Rev. Edmund Granger. In the churchyard is the burial-ground of the Cruwys family, the area of which is bounded by fir trees, marking out the site of the old family chapel, destroyed by Cromwell's soldiers; large pieces of alabaster, fragments of broken monuments, have been dug up on the spot.