Lega-Weekes, Ethel Clelia

Obituary

Text published in DA Transactions, 1949.

MISS ETHEL CLELIA LEGA-WEEKES, F.R.HIST.S., died at Varnello, her home in Exeter, on 7th April, 1949, after a very short illness, aged 85. Born in London to an American father, Ansel Weekes, master mariner, by an English mother, Clelia Lega, née Fletcher, Miss Lega-Weekes, through her maternal grandparents, was descended from William Fletcher and Antonio Zombelli, the faithful servants of Lord Byron in Italy and Greece. Educated at Aramattapoisett, Mass., she came to England as a student in the art schools. Domestic influences, mainly those of her Italian grandmother, fostered her intense interest in mediaevalism. From genealogical research she gradually turned to the detail of local history. She settled with her mother (who kept her in perpetual tutelage) in Exeter, and made a close study of the civic and ecclesiastical history of the city.

Her best-known work is The Topography of the Close of Exeter. Of the “dry-as-dust” school, she was well acquainted with all relevant mediaeval writings, and was at all times a diligent investigator of minutiae. Perhaps the most valuable of the causes which she furthered was the preservation of the remains of Polsloe Priory. Behind the whole of her work was an elaborate slip-index of references. Herein lay both strength and weakness, since nothing was to be published except what could be proved as fact. In consequence she was often defeated by the deficiencies of the historical record. Much of her own work, then, she rejected as unsatisfactory, though such MSS. probably only needed reconstruction by a young fresh mind. We await a continuation of her valuable work.

One who knew her well describes her as an unconscious Platonist. Her life was Spartan; her mental activity never ceased; nor did the heart with which she fought against adverse circumstances ever flag.

She joined the Association in 1900, became a life member in 1902, and was a member of the Council for forty-five years. Her first contribution to the Transactions was The Old Mansion of North Wyke, 1900, and her last The Earliest-known Landholders of Throwleigh, 1940.

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Papers published in DA’s Transactions

Year			Vol.	Pages
1900	Miss Lega-Weekes	The Old Mansion of North Wyke	32	195-206
1901	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Neighbours of North Wyke	33	399-468
1902	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Neighbours of North Wyke. Part II	34	578-647
1903	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Neighbours of North Wyke. Part III	35	497-538
1904	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Neighbours of North Wyke. Part IV	36	415-444
1905	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Neighbours of North Wyke. Part V. Ash and South Zeal in South Tawton	37	325-374
1906	Miss E. Lega-Weekes	The Accounts of the Head and Subsidiary Wardens of South Tawton	38	496-528
1907	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	The Churchwardens’ Accounts of South Tawton. Introduction (continued)	39	302-336
1908	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Churchwardens’ Accounts of South Tawton. Part III	40	306-312
1909	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	County Armaments in Devon in the Sixteenth Century [extracts from South Tawton Churchwardens’ Accounts]	41	339-355
1909	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Introduction to the Churchwardens’ Accounts of South Tawton. Part IV.	41	361-367
1912	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	An Account of the Hospitium de le Egle, Exeter, some Ancient Chapels in the Close, and some Persons connected therewith	44	480-511
1912	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	William Wykes, ‘First Recorder of Exeter’, and Wykes, Sheriff of Devon	44	561-567
1913	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	The Freemans of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Bovey Tracey, etc.	45	450-454
1915	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Prudom, Prodom, etc., of Exeter: and the First City Seal	47	248-256
1920	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Saint Loye’s, East Wonford, Devon	52	360-366
1929	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	Gallants Bowers [Dartmouth]	61	237-248
1932	Miss Ethel Lega-Weekes	The Bishop’s Chapel of St. Faith at Exeter	64	415-416
1934	Ethel Lega-Weekes	The Pre-Reformation History of St. Katherine’s Priory, Polsloe	66	181-199
1935	Ethel Lega-Weekes	The History of St. Katherine’s Priory, Polsloe, Part II	67	349-359
1937	Ethel Lega-Weekes	History of St. Katherine’s Priory, Polsloe. Part III [continues 1935 paper]	69	447-470
1938	Ethel Lega-Weekes	The History of St. Katherine’s Priory, Polsloe. Part IV. Polsloe Tithes	70	423-432
1940	Miss E. Lega-Weekes	The Earliest Known Landowners of Throwleigh	72	185-190

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Notes

• Documents etc. held by the National Archives