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.

https://devonassoc.org.uk/person/lega-weekes-ethel-clelia/

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp98047/ethel-lega-weekes

Unlocking the Cage: Women Writers in the Exeter Library Special Collection - Kim Sherwood

I have been entranced by libraries since childhood: the communion of closely packed books, the murmur of pages, the soft words exchanged between students and those here for a warm chair and a good book. The first place I went to alone on a bus was my local library (after getting lost two or three times).

https://librariesevolve.org.uk/news/unlocking-the-cage-women-writers-in-the-exeter-library-special-collection-kim-sherwood

Exeter Memories The Chapel of St Loye, situated in East Wonford, is now a ruin, but it was once a domestic chapel, housing, a stable and a cow shed. The historian Ethel Lega-Weekes believed the chapel dated from around 1238, as William Gervais (Mayor and founder of Exe Bridge) was an important landowner, in East Wonford, in that year, and may have erected the building.

http://exetermemories.co.uk/em/_churches/st-loyes-chapel.php 

Genuki Name Index To

The Freemans of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Bovey Tracey etc. Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. 45, (1913) pp. 450-454. by Ethel Lega-Weekes

Prepared by Michael Steer

In this paper, the author links her family, via the Freemans, to William Brewster, Ruling Elder of the Mayflower. Ethel Clelia Lega-Weekes (abt 1864-1949) was a Devon antiquary, local historian and prolific author. Much of her work focussed on the South Tawton area and on Exeter. Many of her published articles may be accessed at the Devon Records Office and the Devon Heritage Centre. Perhaps her best known papers are her study of the topography of Exeter Cathedral, and her detailed study of the Weekes family and their neighbours at North Wyke, in South Tawton.

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Buckfastleigh/LegaWeekes1913

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