Benj. Homan 8, Mrs. Phillips 9, Edward Pierce 10, Wm. Waghorne 11, M. C. Pearce 12, Col. Jeffries 13, Jas. Offen 14, Chas. Pilcher 15, Hy. Hughes 16, C. H. Southall 18, Baldock and Breach 18.
Gensing Farm:
Robt. Deudney.
Deaths of Mrs. Neve, Miss Dyneley, Mr. Chester & Mrs. Philpott - Tivoli Fair - Silverhill &c
The last survivor of those whose husbands took part in resisting the attempt in 1837 (also in 1851 and 1858) to make the district between the Archway and the Infirmary other than St. Leonards, has now, too, joined the disembodied majority. This was Mrs. Sarah Neve, the widow of Councillor Charles Neve, whose death, at the age of 54 years, was the cause of regret in 1864. His widow after surviving her husband the long period of 32 years, has recently passed away (May 13th 1896) at the age of 85, and at 9 Undercliff, where she had resided nearly sixty years. This lady, who always manifested a deep interest in whatsoever pertained to the welfare of the town, came, I believe, with her husband, firstly from White-rock street (now Robertson street) to 4 Stratford place (now White-rock place); secondly to Norman road, where Mr. Neve had Mr. Hall as business partner for some years previously to trading by himself; and thirdly, as a residence only, at 9 Undercliff, which, as before stated, was Mrs. Neve's home for nearly 60 years. Much has been shown to prove the healthiness of Hastings and St. Leonards by their low death-rate statistics now for the best part of a century, but in addition to these it will have been proved in this History - more particularly in its interpolatory and obituary chapters - that the locality has been also conducive to longevity. The late Mrs. Neve (herself in her 86th year) was the bearer of a name which gives us further instances of long life. The following is a list of ages at the time of death :-
| 1823 | Hannah, wife of Wm. Neve | 78 |
| 1831 | William Neve, husband of Hannah | 93 |
| 1857 | Charles, son of Wm. and Hannah | 87 |
| 1861 | Elizabeth, widow of Charles | 87 |
| (leaving six sons and six daughters) | ||
| 1862 | William Neve, retired schoolmaster | 86 |
| 1862 | Caroline, widow of William | 76 |
| 1864 | Charles Neve, Town Councillor | 54 |
| 1873 | John Neve | 68 |
| 1877 | William Neve | 83 |
| 1896 | Sarah, widow of Charles | 85 |
As previously intimated, the surviving inhabitants of 1837 when this History was first published in 1878 were comparatively few, and after the last-named date the number was lessened by the passing away of two ladies whose names had been identified with the town almost from its commencement. Mary, the widow of John Philpot, died on the 5th January, 1880, at Chestnut Lodge, Hurstmonceux. She, with the husband, lived with a member of the Burton family, whose service they relinquished while the town was quite young, and entered into business (as shown by the foregoing list of names, at 38 Marina. In one portion of the premises Mr. Philpot carried on a boot and shoe trade, while in another Mrs. Philpot conducted a millinery and drapery business. Mr. Philpot died some years before his wife, and the widow subsequently retired from business, whence she removed to Hurstmonceux. The business is still carried on at 38 Marina by a member of the family; but who is there among the visitors of twenty or thirty years ago that could recognise in the present enlarged premises and elegant shop-front the comparatively small and modest-looking binary business of the Philpots in earlier days?
The name of the other lady whose death I have to notice was Catherine Dyneley, the last surviving daughter of the late Robert Dyneley, Esq., of Bramhope, York; and taking into account her great age and length of residence, was entitled to be regarded as the oldest inhabitant. Miss Dyneley, with her mother and an elder sister, was living, I believe, in Wellington Square, Hastings, at about the time that St. Leonards was commenced, and either in the year 1829 or '30, Mrs. and the Misses Dyneley took up their residence at what was at first called North Cottage, next to North Lodge. The house was afterwards known as North Villa, and at a later period was re-christened "Winterbourne." Some years after their mother's death, the Misses Dyneley removed to Gensing Lodge, a mansion which was expressly designed and erected for them. The elder sister (Eliza Dyneley) died on 21st of November, 1870, and her remains were interred in the Abbey Cemetery at Bath, beside those of her brother Charles. It is there also that the body of Miss Catherine Dyneley was deposited on the 16th of January, 1880.. The deceased lady - whose illness was only of a few days' duration - was born on the 15th of April, 1794, and her death occurred on the 12th of January, 1880; she had therefore nearly completed her 86th year, and had lived in St. Leonards half a century. Of late years the Misses Dyneley had courted retirement; but, doubtless, there are still a fair number of persons who remember them, so prim and so lady-like, mounted on their steeds, with a "natty" groom behind them. Latterly, the lady who was the last of her generation, was a member of the church of St. John's, although she continued her subscriptions to the schools and other institutions connected with the old church or its parish.
It has been hinted that in referring to Miss Dyneley as the oldest inhabitant, the writer must have forgotten Mr. Shoesmith, who was a nonagenarian. It might as well have been said that he had forgotten Mr. Brett, of Shepherd street, who was also a nonagenarian. But really there was no forgetfulness in this matter; for, although Mr. Shoesmith was the senior of the late Miss Dyneley by some five or six years, he had not been a permanent resident in the town so long a period as had the lady whom I said "taking age and length of residence into account," &c. For several years, Mr. Shoesmith was beadle for Hollington and the outbounds of St. Leonards, conjointly, and only came to be a permanent resident in the town at a later period. This reminds me that there were some other old inhabitants whose names did not appear in my list for 1837, and for the reason that I did not know their places of abode. These were William Balcomb, Edward Towner, William Kirkby, and a few others. I am further reminded that as among other persons who constituted the first tradespeople, mechanics and labourers of St. Leonards, there were many who migrated from Bexhill, Battle, Hollington, and the so-called "America," so about the time now under review (1837) several of the St. Leonards people, either from choice or necessity, migrated to the outbounds which have now become so populous as to rival many small towns. One of these immigrants was Mr. James Homan, a builder, who became the landlord of a new wayside public-house called the Wheatsheaf. Another of those who changed the venue of occupation was Mr. Thos. Phillips, who exchanged the business of a hatter, on the Marina, for that of a publican at another new Inn, called the Tivoli Tavern. The distance between these public houses was about half a mile, and the inhabitants in each district were so few as to scarcely justify the venture in either case. But a prospect of success appeared to lay in the new roads just opened up from Hastings and St. Leonards to Battle, Sedlescomb, and other places. To the Tivoli Tavern (afterwards a private mansion, known as Silverlands), were attached tea-gardens and pleasure-grounds, since converted into a double range of dwellings; and, as Bopeep fair had become or was becoming a thing of the past, Mr. Phillips established a "Tivoli Fair in honour of the "Glorious First of June." There were introduced the time-honoured sports of jumping in sacks, climbing greasy poles, bobbing for treacle rolls, &c.; and these pastimes, together with the accessories of a few stalls, were sufficient to attract a goodly number of sightseers. But after a few years the annual fete of the "Glorious First of June" degenerated into a mere fishermen's carousal (sic), and was ultimately abolished. Of Mr. Phillip's general success my readers must judge when I tell them that common report credited him with the virtue of never calling his landlord away from other business merely to receive the amount of his rent. There was said to be a stipulation in the arrangements between Mr. Phillips and Mr. Eldridge that the former should pay no rent unless he could sell on an average a certain amount of liquor per week; and so seduously (sic) did the publican endeavour to keep just under the stipulated quantity that on one occasion, when a party of huntsmen appeared likely to be better customers than usual, the virtuous victualler moralized on the duty of moderation, and actually set a limit to the huntsmen's imbibition. This was very kind of Boniface, seeing that "Bruce's Act" at that time was not even thought of. But the Tivoli Tavern changed hands long ere Mr. Phillips or Mr. Anybody else had time to realise a fortune. Indeed it was anything but a fortunate house notwithstanding that all sorts of attractions were from time to time provided including the before-mentioned fair, tea-parties, quadrille parties, concerts, skittles, cricket matches, pic-nics, and pyrotechnics. These amusements were chiefly of a spasmodic character, and frequently did not compensate the caterers for the outlay, whilst the district was so sparsely populated as to afford but scant support to a house with somewhat ambitious associations. In fact the Tivoli district, now known as Silverhill, with its churches, lecture-halls, schools, villas, and long ranges of houses and shops - consisted in 1837 of about a dozen small tenements, known as Tivoli row and Pottery cottages. An impetus to building operations and improvements in that district was first given by Mr. W. M. Eldridge but to the energy and enterprise of Mr. Clement, the proprietor of Silverhill house and lands, was mainly due to the present and populous town-like character of Silverhill. Let me hie me back, however, to the house which was known under the several appellations of the Tivoli Tavern, the Tivoli Inn, and the Tivoli Hotel, but most familiarly as "The Tivoli." Its changes of occupants were both numerous and frequent, and I remember, as some of the participators (sic) in those changes, the names of W. M. Edlin, R. Harman, W. M. Eldridge (the owner), W. Reeves, G. Bennett, and J. Barnett. It was, I believe, during the tenancy of the last-named person that the house and grounds were sold; and, in digging down for a lower foundation to the new house, the skeleton of a gigantic iguanodon was discovered, together with the bones of a smaller specimen, all of which have been preserved. At a later period James Barnett was found to be exhibiting his sign of the "Tivoli Tavern," in Hollington Lane, near to the spot where in 1837 some three or four cottages only existed, and which were occupied by Mrs. Ann Britt, Thomas Britt, Wm. Britt, and Jesse Chapman. The place is now known as Silverdale, and occupies a portion of two parishes - St. Leonards and Hollington. It lies on the main roads to Hollington and Battle, and the whole of the inhabited district includes long rows of houses, detached mansions, two churches (Old and New Hollington), a chapel, mission rooms and public schools, the last-named under the direction of a School board.
Coming back to the "Wheatsheaf" at Bohemia, whither, as already stated, Mr. Homan had migrated from St. Leonards, it enters into my plan to describe how far the place had grown in the way of human habitations since the period described in the early period of this History. In the larger and populous district to which the name Bohemia is now generally applied, there were in 1837 just a score of small tenements besides the mansion and cottages owned by Mr. Brisco. Two or three of these were at Spittleman's Down, and the remainder were known as the "New Houses." They were principally owned by Messrs. Scrivens, Deudney and Tutt; and the occupants were Messrs. Apps, Griffin, Halford, Macfarlane, Croucher, Lavender, Deeprose, Balcomb, Jinks, Kent, Elphick, Christian, Cossam, Drury, Coote, Standen, Dicks, Dahney and Cramp. If any of these inhabitants are still existent, they will, doubtless, recognise the accuracy of my list. But what a change has come o'er the scene! Shops, houses, places of worship, social institutions and a police station now cover what was once comparatively a desert; and, like the other two modern districts of Silverhill and Silverdale, Bohemia is far larger than some small towns.
I purpose relating a few lively anecdotes in connection with some of the names which compose the foregoing lists, and afterwards resume the thread of politics and general events.
Anecdotal Reminiscences - Quid pro quo
Not many years ago it was a custom with surgeons in small towns or sparsely populated districts to eke out a limited practice with the associative business of chemist and druggist; and in the list of St. Leonards residents in 1837 which has been placed before my readers, will be found -
