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years ago, he was unable to find any. The Corporation upon the report ordered Counsel's opinion to be obtained.

A new fire-engine - Four Candidates for the Mayoralty - Death of E. Milward

It was further resolved that an additional fire-engine be purcased with money raised by subscription, and an engine-house be built in the Castle Workhouse yard. The subscriptions amounted to £95 8s. 6d., and the expenditure to £150 4s. 2d. The erection of the engine-house cost £41 5s. 4d. Another Corporation matter was the election of Mayor, which took place on the 28th of April, that being the 2nd Sunday after Easter. In consequence of the late great increase in freemen, the choice was less a foregone conclusion than theretofore, and was invested with greater interest. There were four persons proposed, the votes for whom were 49 for Robt. Ranking, 19 for Nathaniel Crouch, 6 for Jos. Hannay and 3 for Frederick North. The last-named gentleman was probably the most popular, but it was reasonably believed that he would require all his time as a representative in the Reformed Parliament. Mr. Shorter was elected Town Clerk.

The father of the Town Clerk was Mayor during the preceding year, and on the 2nd of April of the present year, he convened a meeting to consider the advisability of constructing a harbour at the Priory. This project is noticed further on. The minutes of the Corporation contained a

Memorandum
That on the tenth of May, 1833, Edward Milward Esq. departed this life.

The Postman refers to this event thus:-

The time had arrived for his spirit to go,
Occasioning thus lamentation and woe;
The Mansion presenting a sorrowful scene
For him who a mayor had twenty times been.
A magistrate, too, of the borough and shire,
And once when he might have been called to stand fire
—
Id, est, in the year Eighteen-hundred-and-three,
—
Of Volunteer soldiers in Hastings was he.
The Mayor's or Deputy’s oftice he served
Some thirty-eight years, and was seldom unnerved;
It fell to his lot to be coroner, too;
Hence, surely E. Milward enough had to do.
His father before him was Mayor, as well,
And his than the son’s was a still longer spell;
Those two great officials’ united careers
Just making a total of forty-six years.
With them, as with others, it can’t be denied,
None knew their full value until they had died;
But let those who knew the last Milward the best,
In marbled memorial tell you the rest.

Sacred to the memory of E. MILWARD, Esq , who during a period of 40 years, zealously and impartially discharged the various duties of a magistrate for the county of Sussex and the Town and Port of Hastings. He was distinguished in private life by the liberal exercise of the most generous and disinterested acts of Friendship and Benevolence, and died deeply regretted on the 10th of May, 1833, in the 68th year of his age.

Mr. Milward at death was really in his 69th year, he having been born on the first day of January, 1765, on which occasion - as he was the only boy of the family, and consequently his father's heir - three guineas were given to the bell-ringers, and "open house" was kept for all who chose to join in celebrating the joyful event.

Other Diarial records

The less classified events of the year were as follows:-
Jan. 7 - At the Priory, two children of the name of Howe, fatally burnt in the absence of their mother.
Jan. 11 - Another child severely burnt, this time on the Barrack Ground (). On the same night a fire occurred at a carrier's in High street; the family being rescued by neighbours, and the fire extinguished by the engines.
Feb. 5 - Another fire in High street, also extinguished by the engines. This was at Thomas Clatter's, a butcher at No. 28 - On the same evening a woman of the name of Ann Hunter, 63 years of age, was seized by a fit while at tea, caught fire and died the next day
At or near this date an application was made to the Board of Ordnance to extend the Marine parade by taking in the disused battery
Also a burglary committed at Montpelier House on the Old London road, the residence of Mr. Catley, the borough surveyor, and £50 besides other valuables, stolen.
March 19 - A smuggler's cargo of 120 tubs seized by a Revenue Cutter and deposited in the Custom House
Around this time the report was current that a man got drunk and lost a sum of money, which, according to the advice of a transported brother, he had searched for and found secreted in a wood near Hastings!
Apr. 8. A wagon load of smuggled spirits seized and placed in the Custom House; the new water-works commenced; and the stone groyne, which the sea afterwards destroyed during the autumn. Also

When April the 8th in due course had come round,
The Couts, an East-Indiaman, homeward was bound;
And while up the Channel the noble ship sailed,
NORTH, Dudley of Hastings, a ferry-boat hailed.
He then to The Mansion despatched a Cape sheep,
The same for his aunt, Mrs. Milward, to keep;
And also some fowls and other things rare,
All which he consigned to his aunt Milward's care.

April 30 - George Gilmore, who was almost daily intoxicated, hanged himself till dead in a bedroom at the Ship Inn
May 7 - The Hastings Theatre sold for one-third of its cost, and converted into the Wesley Chapel which was opened in the following September, the alterations costing £1,600.
May 9 - A female visitor was killed by slipping off the East Cliff near Ecclesbourne and falling a distance of 273 feet
Dr. W. H. Fitton, who for many years resided in The Croft with his two sisters published his work "Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings"
June 12 - A poor boy, while taking daws' nests fell from the East Cliff and was killed.
June 21 - Capt. Daniels, a native of Hastings, hove to off Hastings, en route to Van Dieman's Land
June 22 - Some thieves broke into Mr. Hogeflesh's shop, in West Street, and carried off £30 worth of goods. Also on the following night a burglary was committed at the "Pelham Arms"