Margaret Campbell Speke Cruwys née Abercrombie (20 October 1894 – 12 March 1968) was an archivist and Devon historian. She was born in

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and was the daughter of Alexander Houghton Abercrombie, an officer in the 21st

Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Mar ...

. She married Lewis George Cruwys of Cruwys Morchard,

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, on 19 November 1917 at St David's Church,

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. She became a member of

the Devonshire Association The Devonshire Association (DA) is a learned society founded in 1862 by William Pengelly and modelled on the British Association, but concentrating on research subjects linked to Devon in the fields of science, literature and the arts. History ...

in 1931 and was elected President in 1952. She was a member of the

Devon and Exeter Institution The Devon and Exeter Institution is a subscription library in the City of Exeter, Devon, founded in 1813 for "The general diffusion of science, literature and the arts". It is situated at 7, Cathedral Close, Exeter, in a building facing the nort ...

, serving first as their secretary and then as president. Cruwys was editor of ''Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries'' for thirty years. She was awarded a Fellowship of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

in 1950 for the work she did indexing and cataloguing the large collection of family papers held at Cruwys Morchard House. She died on 12 March 1968 at 31 St Peter Street, Tiverton,

, and was buried on 18 March 1968 at the Church of the Holy Cross, Cruwys Morchard,

Work

* The Diary of John Cruwys of Cruwys Morchard (1682-8). ''Devon and Cornwall Notes & Queries'', Vol. XVIII, (1933-4), pp. 259–264. * ''A Cruwys Morchard Notebook, 1066-1874''. Exeter: J. Townsend & Sons, 1939. * Records at Cruwys Morchard residential address ''Trans. Dev. Assoc''. 84, 1952, pp. 1–19. * ''The Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials of the parish of St Andrew's Plymouth, Co. Devon, A.D. 1581-1618, with baptisms 1619-1633''. Exeter: Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1938-1954.

References

* Stéphan, D.J. Mrs. M. C. S. Cruwys: A Memoir. ''Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries'' Vol. 31 (1968–70), pp. 33–34.
Cruwys one-name study
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruwys, Margaret 1894 births 1968 deaths Historians of Devon 20th-century British historians British women historians Female archivists 20th-century British women writers