Birth: Before 1248 Farnham, Surrey, UK
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Marriage: Unknown
Wife: Unknown
Death: Before 1308 Greencross, Churt, Farnham, Surrey
John de Cruche b1263-c1307
Matilda atte Crouch b1295-a1311
Taken from the Manorial Fines for Churt in Churt: A Medieval Landscape by Philip Brookes 2000.
John de Cruce paid 13/4d for messuage and virgate of Tounsend (also called Townsend, and now known as Green Cross) from his father William in la Cloures, also known as William atte Cruce- no date, but prior to 1308.
Taken from entries in the Winchester Pipe Rolls from
SN4086 Peasant Land Market in Southern England, 1260-1350.
1311 Farnham,Surrey: Matilda atte Crouch' , daughter of William, paid 6/8d for the surrender of half a virgate in Churt previously owned by John atte Rygweye (Ridgeway) on condition that she builds the house before Michaelmas.
I assume William moved to what is now Green Cross from elsewhere and changed his name., and had a son John and daughter Matilda (Ridgeway Farm is at the other end of Green Lane where it drops down to the Punchbowl about 2 km from Green Cross).
Messuage - a dwelling house and legal rights such as access to commons etc.
Virgate - the Farnham Manor virgate was about 32 modern acres - see Medieval Farnham by Father (Etienne) Robo 1935.
Greencross - Interestingly my grandfather and father built their houses within a quarter of a mile of Greencross some 600 years later. Phillip Brookes describes Green Cross as "what remains of a typical West Surrey hamlet. The extent of the commons made any large farming area impossible, resulting in a series of hamlets made up of three or four houses where virgates met at road junctions; in this case Greencroft, Greencross, The Toft, and the house of Greencross Farm (now demolished). The Tounsend virgate was on the east side of Greencross Lane [and north of Green Lane]. This house [Greencross] was of three bays with a central smoke bay. The well on the east side of Greencross, discovered in alterations to the house, was found to be over 100 ft deep and stone-lined."
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