Chapter II
Hastings in 1828 & 1829
Fatal smuggling conflict (pg. 11)
Conviction and transportation of the smugglers (pg. 11)
A violent storm and its effects (pg. 12)
Court of Record (pg. 12)
Great Fall of cliff (pg. 11)
Choosing Mayor and other officers(pg. 16)
Erection of 1 to 6 Breeds Place (pg. 12)
Accidents and offences (pg. 11)
Launching of cutters (pg. 13)
Anchoring of an emigrant ship and a brig of war(pg. 13)
Exciting galley race (pg. 13)
The Theatre at Ore (pg. 12)
A new coach (pg. 12)
Visibility of the French coast (pg. 12)
Concerts at the Arcade(pg. 13)
Appalling thunderstorm(pg. 13)
Prize fight between Wood and Whiteman (pg. 13)
Hastings Races and the aeronaught Green (pg. 13)
Burglaries and robberies (pg. 13)
160 night watchmen (pg. 13)
Turning out the old year and ushering in the new (pg. 17)
Death of Tomsett and appointment of Shorter as Town Clerk(pg. 16)
Settling Dinners(pg. 18)
Smuggling seizures (pg. 13)
The Blue Room at the Ship (pg. 18)
Comptroller Bevil (pg. 15)
The Condemned Hole (pg. 15) (pg. 16)
Co-operative Stores (pg. 14)
Desperate fight by Whiteman and Neve (pg. 15)
The beadle Chatfield (pg. 15)
The new yacht "Atlanta” (pg. 15)
Lasher's and Saunders Charities (pg. 15)
St. Mary's Chapel defective (pg. 16)
Fatal fires (pg. 15)
Sales of stonebeach and paying for new Town Hall, new Light House, etc. (pg. 16)
Corporation demands for encroachments (pg. 17)
The Town Walk and Hundred Court (pg. 17)
Extensive bankruptcies. (pg. 17)
It suits my purpose before entering on the consideration of another year, to summarise as much as possible the hitherto unnoticed occurrences of 1828 and '9, as associated more particularly with Hastings.
Smuggling Fatalities - Trial and Transportation of Smugglers
In the first named year, on the 3rd of January, a party of smugglers rushed onto the beach at about two miles west of the embryo St. Leonards and landed a cargo of smuggled goods, which they conveyed in carts, on horses and on men's backs to Bexhill. There they were overtaken by blockadesmen who had been reinforced to about forty in number, when the smuggler's batsmen drew themselves up in regular lines of battle and a desperate fight ensued. In the first volley fired by the blockadesmen, a smuggler named Smith and one of their comrades were killed, and others were wounded, but the defenders fought with such determination as to repulse their assailants, after Quarter-Master Collins had been killed and many others severely bruised. Next morning the dead body of Smith was found with his bat still graped by his hands, the weapon being almost hacked to pieces by the cutlasses and bayonets of the blockadesmen. Some of the men, whose names were known were afterwards captured. These were Spencer Whiteman, Thos. Miller, Hy. Miller, John Spray, Edward Shoesmith, Wm. Bennett, John Foord and Stephen Stubberfield. They were indicted at the Horsham spring assizes and removed to the Old Bailey for trial, where, on the 10th of April, they all pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to transportation. Such was the afterwards good conduct of Spencer Whiteman (which I lately described in an obituary notice), that he obtained his freedom and died a highly respected nonagenarian at the Antipodes. [More copious details of the fatal fight at Bexhill have been given elsewhere].
January 12 & 13. A violent hurricane swept the Channel and drove all before it, followed by another on the 27th, after a beautiful phosphorescent sea. Among the Hastings fishing boats which came ashore at night was one which was capsized, thus snapping her foremast, throwing one man (Wymark) into the sea and cooping another ("Jane" Phillips) under the upturned boat. The first was rescued by Richard Adams and John Campbell, and the other, much exhausted, was got out with difficulty
