larly the last item, would probably amount to the seizure of the Hollington gate at a later period by one of the mortgagee creditors, he having failed in all his efforts to obtain any interest under the late management of Messrs. Ellman & Co.
I will close my road "surveying" for thé year under notice with an item anent the proposed new road over the Government property to which I alluded when the preceding year’s events were being treated of. At a Town Council meeting on the 3rd of August, with mayor F Smith presiding, a letter was read from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests concerning a road over the Priory Ground, and a communication was also received from Lord Cornwallis and Mrs. Milward in which they adhered to certain objections and stipulations which they had previously made. A discussion ensued, which closed with a resolution to proceed at once with the new road, irrespective of the claims set up by the aforesaid nobleman and lady. Four months elapsed ere the resolution was acted upon, owing, it is presumed, to the obstactles interposed by the persons here named, and in the month of December the Council repeated the resolution to proceed with the road without further delay.
Fashionables in Bexhill in 1823 - Great Robbery at Bexhill - Travesty of Facts
Having descanted on various matters pertaining to roads, it will not be far out of my own road to conduct my readers in a mental journey to Bexhill, there to witness in imagination a desperate burglary and robbery which were there committed in the year now under consideration, and which created immense sensation at St. Leonards. But before recounting those nefarious exploits, let me quote the description of the place by a writer in the days of pre-historic St. Leonards. In the month of October, 1823, We are told that "The pleasant village of Bexhill, truly called the Montpelier of England, has the following visitors :—Earl and Countess of Ashburnham, Sir David and Lady Ogilvy and family, Sir John Evelyn, the Rev. Dr. Clarke, Canon of Windsor, the Rev. Mr. Brown, Chas. Pankhurst, Esq. and family, Thos. Drain, Esq., and family, Dr. and Mrs. Miller, Mr. Riddle and family, Mr Lutwyche and family, Mr. and Mrs. Moorme, Mr. Kent, etc." Only think what a list of fashionables the little village of Bexhill could furnish five years before St. Leonards was commenced!
No wonder that the late James Burton dreamed a dream, the result of which was the founding of a new town four miles distant from Bexhill! And what was the cause of so comparatively a remote locality, with its humble habitations, assuming a fashionable phase more than 70 years ago? It was, doubtless, two-fold — the well-known longevity of the place, and the overflow of visiting nobility and gentry at Hastings. The old town had been growing into a place of fashionable resort for some years, and it was said by travellers that they frequently experienced great difficulty in obtaining accommodation. Of the general salubrity of this locality in general and the longevity.of Bexhill in particular I gave a marvellous proof in chapter XIX of this history; and, as a kindred item, I may now mention that on: July 12th, 1825, Mr. Duke, of Bexhill, a gentleman well known in Hastings, celebrated his 90th birthday by a dinner to his friends, and by giving to the poor people of the parish 150 stone of beef.
Thus much for the fashion, the long life and the generosity of Bexhill; and now for the dark side of the picture. On the night of the 4th of January, 1841, six armed men entered the farm-house of Mr. Holland, and whilst one of them kept guard over the principal, the other five plundered the house of notes and cash to the amount of £120, besides a watch and other articles, An elderly man named Fuggle, who was on a visit, was knocked down, and the ladies were all secured in their rooms. The villains were afterwards caught tried, and transported for life. Their names and ages were Henry Easton, 28; Charles Foster, 19; James Foster, 23; James Martin, 26; Thos. Balcombe, 23; and Jonathan Thompsett, 30. After their conviction, Martin made the following statement :—
Sometime before Richard Wimborn was committed for robbing Mr. Holland’s relation [for which he was transported], some children went to his house and said that old Holland had got such a lot of money. Wimborn told me and Stubberfield of it, and agreed to go and rob the old man. We went, but Wimborn said there wasn’t wind enough, and so we didn’t do it. We broke into a wash-house and stole a fat hog instead. Wimborn got committed for robbing Mr. Holland’s relation, and Stubberfield [alias Easton] was committed for stealing iron. Stubberfield expected to be transported, and then he was going to clear Wimborn by saying that he did the robbery that Wimborn was charged with, and carried the things to Wimborn’s house ; and then Wimborn and I were going to rob old Holland, and then going to Portsmouth to see Stubberfield. But Wimborn got transported. Stubberfield and I went to rob old Holland twice, but we were fearful; we only looked at the windows to see how they were fastened. Mr. Holland may rest satisfied that none of his workmen had anything to do with it. When Wimborn, Stubberfield and myself went to do it, Wimborn was at work down stairs, and Stubberfield and myself upstairs at all hazards. I am certain that Tompsett, Stubberfield and myself drew the two Fosters and Balcombe into it. Stubberfield and I stole Holland’s fat show sheep about three years ago at Hooe, and likewise Holt’s hog at Mackham Down. Stubberfield has killed above fifty sheep, and I have killed twenty-five sheep myself. I think it is a good thing we are transported, for no doubt if we had been allowed to go on it would have come to murder. The £10 spoken of by Tompsett was only told to him to do him (Tompsett) out of the money. About two winters ago, I was sent from Hellingly County House to Lewes gaol for getting drunk. When I came out I went into the House for two or three days; got out and went home intoxicated ; demanded my clothes of the governor; kicked we row; got over the wall, went to St. Leonards and Hastings, and there roamed about. When I returned, Stubberfield and I broke open the shoemaker’s shop at the County House, expecting to get a good many pairs of half-boots, but they were gone; so we took, the leather. We took the tiles off the roof, got in and fastened the door with a gimlet; we also stole one of the governor’s pigs because he sent us to gaol. Tompsett, myself and Balcombe also stole Mr. Wood's lamb at Laughton this winter, and the poor man's rabbit who caught Tompsett poaching.
- Easton and then Balcombes also made a statement to the effect that none of Mr. Holland’s workmen had anything to do with the robbery, and all of them declared that Tompsett, the approver, was the chief and head of the gang. — I need hardly say that the conviction and transportation of such a desperate band of thieves was a great relief to the harassed minds of property-holders, not only of Bexhill, but also of St. Leonards and Hastings, the numerous robberies and depredations committed about that period in and about the places named affording an assurance that a lawless gang was at work.
In enumerating the St. Leonards Commissioners and the parochial officers of 1841, I was led on to the alteration of roads and footpaths under their jurisdiction, as well as to the proposed new road, under the resolution of its promoters, called the Hawkhurst Junction. I then stepped a little out of my ground to narrate some of the doings of the Bexhill gang of robbers, and I forgot the perhaps unimportant item of a cart and carriage way being granted to Mr. James Kaye into his premises at 23 and 24 East Ascent.
There was also another phase of road-maintenance with which the Commissioners were concerned in 1841, and which from its almost constant presence came to be looked upon as a matter of course. In the latter part of September the sea was again lashed into a turbulent mood by a southerly gale, and the sea-wall and roadway at the western end of the esplanade were undermined to a considerable extent. These had to be restored, and as the shilling[1] rate on household property and sixpenny rate on agricultural property which the Commissioners were only permitted to levy twice a year were not sufficient to provide them with all they wanted, their funds were usually at a much lower ebb than the tidal waves which gave them o much trouble. How was this difficultv to be overcome?
Clearly, only by increased assessment. In the earlier years of the town’s existence, both the rates and the rents were comparatively low — a feature to which I have before referred, as helping to excite the jealousy of property-holders in the old town, who found it necessary to ask a much lower rent for the lodging-houses in Gloucester place, The Croft, Wellington Square and other fashionable districts in consequence. The last act, therefore, of the St. Leonards Commissioners in 1841 was to considerably increase the assessment of the property, more particularly the Marina houses Nos. 48 to 71, beyond which the larger mansions did not then exist. As might have been expected, the parochial authorities soon followed suit, the St. Leonards overseers, in vestry assembled, raising the assessment of the Silverhill and some other property, whilst the St. Mary Magdalen vestry also added to the assessment in that parish, and refused to abate one jot or tittle of Squire Brisco’s assessment at Bohemia which the "poor man" declared was monstrous. This means of adding to the local revenue was not, however, so effective as was desired, for the tradespeople — some of whom also speculated with the lodging houses — still suffered through the majority of the inhabitants and visitors making the larger portion of their purchases in Hastings, and the hitherto difficulty of "making both ends meet" was increased by the additional amount of rating. Hence, as a cause or a consequence, the collectors had a harder task to a consequence, the collectors had a harder task to secure compliance with their demands, the result of which was the issuing of summonses and distress warrants to a greater number of persons and for larger amount of arrears than before. This process, while it obtained from some of the defaulters the amount of their liabilities of from ten to twenty pounds, had also the effect of driving others into the bankruptcy court, and of relieving those with but little about them from payment altogether.
Albeit, the commercial condition of the borough was not bad, as compared with the state of the country in general, our two representatives, Messrs. Planta and Hollond, seeming to vie with each in their individual efforts to serve their constituents. The St. Leonards portion was perhaps considerably the lightest in the scale of moderate prosperity; yet, Mr. and Mrs. Hollond, with The Allegria as their country mansion, and with the weight of their purse and influence, did much to alleviate distress and to mitigate the effects of the stream of trade having a tendency to flow eastward, where Mr. Planta had his residence, and where his influence was thought to be more parmount.
On the 15th of October, Mrs. Hollond gave a fashionable quadrille party at Allegra; the house, I remember, being so crowded that the company could only move with difficulty. This event was after Lord Melbourne and his Cabinet had resigned, they having been beaten by 64 votes in the Commons and 72 in the Lords on an Amendment to the Address, and another Cabinet formed by Sir Robert Peel. Elated as Mr, Planta and his supporters must have been with the turn of the political tide, and at the accession to power of their favorite statesman, it is difficult to comprehend the meaning of a St. Leonards Radical in his letter to a Brighton paper, when he described Mr. Planta as a disappointed man. It appears that, as a set-off to the Liberal banquet, and to celebrate the triumph of Conservative principles, it was proposed that a big dinner should be arranged for, the same to be held on the 29th of October. This proposed demonstration was heralded by the writer referred to in the following facetious strain:—
The birth of the long-expected Tory monster of a dinner, which is to overwhelm us all with confusion, and under the tables of which the smaller voters who can't afford to largely spend their silver must hide their diminished heads, is at present only known to the select few; but it is certain that on Thursday morning our ever-grateful, but much disappointed Tory Member expressed in a letter under his hand and seal, directed to his well-beloved cousin, the chairman of the committee engaged in this Frankenstein, his will and pleasure that on the 29th of October next he will honour the christening of this monster with his presence, Great was the excitement caused by this announcement. Doctors and nurses were at once to be seen hurrying in every direction, spreading the glad tidings that they were really to have the monster on the table Accordingly, on the evening of the eventful 16th of September, there were assembled the most motley collection of would-be politicians ever known. Hogarth would have fainted with delight at the contemplation of such a group. By them it was unanimously resolved that as it is not probable that the services of the smaller voters will be again required for some time, there is no occasion to take further notice of them. particularly as they are easily gammoned when necessary by the wily tongue of the Tory serpent. Then, with regard to the small tradesman, he could not be fit company, except at election times for the aristocrats of the borough; so the price should be such as would exclude him, and thus permit the great ones to have it all to themselves. George Wingfield and Nelson Williams are even excluded because they have been too consistent, and in their room one has been called to the council who styles himself a gentleman, he being one whose variableness in religion and politics is proverbial.
My readers will, doubtless, rightly judge the foregoing quotation as a mere travesty of facts; yet I can assure them that there are still among us some old Liberals who, from having so often referred in their merry moments to some of the many burlesques of a similar kind which were rife in their earlier days, have come to believe in them as political truths, and will even now stand by them as such. Perhaps the same sort of illusion will haunt the minds of the present generation some forty years hence in the re-iteration that in 1882 the Conservative working-man was a myth. It is only fair to suppose that in the heat of political contention Conservative writers were sometimes equally smart with their bon mots, mystifications and distortions of facts; but I am bound to admit — as one who for half a century, had a better opportunity than most persons of simultaneously viewing opposite sides of political life — that the ideality of the Liberal partisan is, upon the whole, by far the most active. Perhaps it may be said of him that his intellect is keener, and that his vivid imagination is but the outcome of wit and wisdom. It is not for me to debate that question; and so, for the present, I will leave it, to the judgement of the reader when he has perused the following reprint of a letter by a St. Leonards scribe to a county paper.
It professes to pourtray the personal appearances and political principles of the committee to whom was entrusted the management of the big banquet which was to follow a similar demonstration already described as a dinner given by Mr. Hollond to his constituents. There are, perhaps, not many persons now living who will recognise these pen-portraits, but to as many as there are the overdrawn picture in each case can hardly fail to reveal itself. It is without a heading, but I have supplied it with one which to me at least appears to be sufficiently appropriate, as follows :—
CELEBRATING THE TRIUMPHS OF CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES
“We last week partly promised to present to our readers sketches of the political career of the committee who had been most active in getting up this monster Tory dinner, for the purpose, as they declared on their placard, of celebrating the triumph of Conservative principles. This from such wholesale traders in politics is too bad. To hear such men prate of doing any public act for the sake of the virtues connected with it is like listening to a certain old gentleman quoting scripture to suit his develish purposes; or to a prostitute preaching up virtue to cover her own shame; or to a despot haranguing on the heavenly attribute of mercy while his victims are writhing in all the agony of refined cruelty. Out upon such hypocricy ! We will, however, now introduce our readers to the presence of these aristocrats of Hastings; these disposers of their fellow labourers in the political field; these pocket politicians who rejoice in the distress of the poor labourers and mechanics, advocating, as they do, dear bread and limited employment, and consequent destitution of the community. We must request our readers to ascend with us one flight of the noble staircase at the old Swan Inn, and to be seated in one of the neat and comfortable rooms with which the house abounds, and to imagine that round the -
- ↑ An explanation of old currency and coinage may be found at the following website Pre-decimal currency, accessdate: 16 June 2022
