AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. C5 



speaks of his cousin, Mr. John Cranch, of Kingsbridge, 

 as follows : 



" Among remarkable Exonians connected with the same 

 trade [the woollen trade] the name of John Cranch is 

 well entitled to notice." Hawkins states that John Cranch 

 was born at Exeter, in 1785, of Kingsbridge parents, 

 and died 4th September, 1816, aged thirty-one. 



Sir J. Bowring supplements this by saying, " He was 

 not born of Kingsbridge parents. His father (Richard) 

 was a journeyman fuller, and he married Jane, eldest 

 daughter of John Bowring, my grandfather." He goes 

 on to say, "A short biography of this remarkable man 

 will be found in the introduction (written by Mr. 

 Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty, for whom I furnished 

 the materials) to the narrative of the proceedings of the 

 Congo expedition, under Captain Tuckey, also a Devonian, 

 which Cranch accompanied as zoologist, and there 

 perished, with most of the party. He was particularly 

 patronised by Col. Montagu, of Kingsbridge, and by 

 Dr. W. E. Leach (another Devonian) the Curator of 

 the British Museum, Avhose over-enforced studies brought 

 with them insanity and premature death. Richard, 

 the father of John Cranch, was a fuller, fond of music, 

 and one of the many who benefited by the instruction 

 of Jackson, the organist of the Exeter Cathedral. 



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Being left an orphan, John Cranch was bred by an 

 uncle to the humble trade of a shoemaker, in which 

 capacity he visited, and had a stall at the country fairs 

 in the neighbourhood ; but he deserted the employment 

 for the study of Natural History. 



He passed whole nights with the dredgers on the Devon- 



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