CRUWYS (CRUSE), John (by 1530-66 or later), of Liskeard, Cornw.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1530, s. of Robert Cruwys of Liskeard by Alice, da. of John Bealbury of Liskeard. m. Jane, da. of Christopher Tredeneck of Tredinnick in St. Breock, 3s. 1da.1 suc. fa. c.1539.

Offices Held

Reeve, Liskeard manor 1560-1.2

Biography

John Cruwys was a merchant who probably came of a junior branch of the ancient family of Cruwys Morchard, Devon. His father died when he was only ten years old and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather John Bealbury. His appointment as residuary legatee and co-executor of Bealbury’s will of 4 June 1551 was to involve him in litigation with Bealbury’s creditors: he brought one action in the stannary court of Fowey against a London grocer who in his denial referred to ‘the great friendship that (Cruwys) hath in the said court’, and another in Chancery against William Lower. When he accused Lower of retaining silver plate which had belonged to his grandfather, Lower answered that Bealbury had supported the rebels during the uprising in 1549 and had forfeited his plate in punishment; Lower appealed, seemingly with success, to the Privy Council that the case should be dropped. Cruwys also petitioned Chancellor Heath against Lower for a debt from which his fellow-executor had allegedly released Lower: the outcome of this suit is not known. The first case against Lower was proceeding in Chancery when Cruwys took the senior place for his borough in Parliament; if his desire to enter the Commons sprang from the hope that this would improve his chance he must have been chagrined to find Lower chosen as his partner.3

Early in Elizabeth’s reign Cruwys was involved in the dispute with the inhabitants of Bodmin over dues payable by Liskeard men trading there, and in 1563 he was one of those chosen to represent his borough in the award made between the two. He was still alive in May 1566, when he is mentioned as a governor of Liskeard church lands, and he may have been the John Cruse, resident in the diocese of Exeter, whose will (now lost) was proved in 1573.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: J. J. Goring

Notes

  • 1. Of age when named executor of John Bealbury’s will. Duchy Cornw. RO, 499; Vis. Cornw. ed. Vivian, 122-3.
  • 2. Duchy Cornw. RO, 133, m.3v.
  • 3. Vis. Cornw. 122-3; Devon RO, 1707 M/F1-5; C1/1103/32, 1312/23, 1343/44-47, 1418-62; APC, v. 237.
  • 4. Bodmin Reg. ed. Wallis, 321; A. Allen, Liskeard, 134-5, 274; Cal. Wills and Admins. Devon and Cornw. (Index Lib. xliv), 37.