of Mr. Duke's first family of whom I had personal knowledge were George, Elizabeth, Wm. and Jane. George was & barrister-at-law, and resided some short time before and after 1838 at No. 1 Cliff Cottages, a semi-detached house that was built for him from, designs supplied by Mr. Walter Inskipp. This with the adjoining house — now known as 5 and 6 Eversfield place - were for several years the only dwellings between Verulam place and Seymour place, the latter now having the appellation of Grand parade. He had previously resided at West-hill Cottage, in Hill street, whence he removed to No. 8 High street in 1831, and whither he returned from Cliff Cottages before 1843. Six years after that date he ceased to be seen among men. Mr. George Duke was also a Borough and County Magistrate. His death took place on the 24th of January, 1849, and his remains were conveyed to Battle, where, in close proximity to those of his mother and father, a polished granite memorial was erected by his sorrowing widow. His sister Elizabeth was married to R Borradaile, Esq., and resided, with her husband, firstly at Bexhill, and afterwards at Hawkhurst, where Mr. Borradaile died. His widow — who was a biblical student and writer, but who in later life became a confirmed invalid — took up her abode at, St. Leonards, where she continued to dwell until the time when this was written, namely, Sept. 15th, 1883, on which day terminated her bodily suffering with her life, and at the age of 79 years. Her remains were conveyed to Hawkhurst; and it is a noteworthy coincidence that on the same day and at the same hour another Mrs. Borradaile (the two ladies being relatives) was buried at Blackheath. I learn also that a nephew of Mrs. Borradaile was buried exactly a week before. Mrs. Borradaile’s younger brother, William Duke, was a well-known physician who, from about 1830 to 1837 resided at 57 George street, ere King Commerce had raised a pile of bricks and mortar to hide from view the said house, with its front lawn, trees and flowers. Dr. Duke, with his family, afterwards removed to his own new house, No. 18 Wellington square, where he resided till about 1855, thence removing to 22 Grand parade in 1857 or '8. He had built for him a cottage at Silverhill, where he died on the 6th September, 1864, at the age of 59, having preceded the death of his wife (Sarah Batley Duke) by nearly three years. For several years Dr. Duke embraced the Roman Catholic faith, but it was reported that he recanted the same before his death took place. The younger daughter of surgeon Duke by his first marriage (and, consequently, the younger sister of Dr. Duke) was married to Richard Day, Esq., of Bexhill, a gentleman whose means enabled him to keep his carriage and his yacht, and whose manly stature was noticeable as he drove a fine pair of horses and a smart chariot through St. Leonards to Hastings. For many years, indeed, the denizens of both towns were interested in the drives of the Days and the Borradailes between Bexhill and Hastings, as they made their almost daily visits to their father’s residence in George street. Mr. Day, however, quitted the terrestrial sphere in the prime of-life, his death taking place in London on the 8th of December, 1845, and his remains being placed in a vault in the Battle churchyard. He was 46 years of age. A handsome raised and railed memorial supplies a record of his death and that of Richard Ansell Day, his son. Another son, Richard Worge Day, born about three years later, grew to be a fine and well-proportioned man when, at the age of 29, he met mishap, as I understood at the time, in the cricket field, and died after a brief illness.
His mortal remains were deposited in the Bexhill new cemetery in the month of March, 1863, where also were placed the remains of his mother, two years later She died, at the age of 57, on the 29th of June, 1865, and the record of both events is inscribed on a superb marble monument, surrounded by a covered space of white and black marble, and the whole enclosed by a handsome rail, A somewhat curious distribution of the family after death is shown in the fact that whilst some of its members were interred at Battle, others have severally found graves in the cemeteries at Bexhill, Hawkhurst, Netherfield and Hastings. Another circumstance is that, as the head of the family and his son-in-law (Mr. Day) both died in 1845, and the fast surviving daughter has just recently expired, the year of which I am writing and the year in which I am writing are once more brought coincidently in association.
In the accompanying view of Battle Church may be seen close to, and on the left of, the well-kept pathway to the church, the raised monumental tombs of Mr. and Mrs. William Duke and their son, George, whilst at the east end of the church, on the right hand, and behind the large monumental vault of the Lawrences, in the foreground, is a similar monument over the grave of Mr. Day and his son.
Adjoining these are the graves of Mr. John Worge, and Aum, his wife, relatives of Mr. Duke's wife, who was a Miss Worge. Mr. Worge, at the age of 68, died, Oct. 30th, 1860, and Mrs.Worge, at the age of 73, on May 20th, 1859. An account of the Worge family, one of whom was married to one of the co-heiresses of John Collier, Esq., of Hastings (a great man in his day),is given in chapter CXL of The Premier Cinque Ports. Immediately opposite to the last-named tombs is that of Isaac Ingall, who at the age of 120 years died on the 2nd of April, 1798. All of the mural monuments here described are kept in an excellent state of preservation.
There is a story told of Isaac Ingall (who lived 90 years in service of the Websters at Battle Abbey) that for 40 years of his life he drank two gallons of holland per day, and that the copper tankard in which he used to warm it is now in the possession of Mr. Ticehurst. This story is too incredible for acceptance, and the reader will prefer my own version (given elsewhere in some memoirs of the old man) that it was his practice to warm some water containing spirits, which he called "shaving water."
On the 8th of October, 1854, the Duke of Wellington — who had several times visited Hastings before and after his Peninsular campaign — came to the Castle Hotel, it being then forty years after he took to himself a wife and resided in our midst, That said wife, the Duchess of Wellington, twenty three years before this last visit of the Duke, attended a fashionable ball and card-assembly at the Swan Hotel, when there were also present the Duchess of Richmond, the Marquis and Marchioness of Hertford, Lady Lavington, the Ladies Russell, Count Munster, Lady Stuart, the Ladies Lennox, and other aristocratic personages, of whom in those days it was the boast of Hastings to have an overflowing number. The Hon. and Rev. Dr. Wellesly, brother of the great Duke, together with his family, was also a frequent sojourner at Hastings for about a decade of years—say from 1817 to 1827; first taking up his residence in The Croft (then the most fashionable part of Hastings), next at Pelham place (those houses being built in 1820), and lastly In Wellington square (after the name had been changed from Waterloo square) — both appellations being, of course, applied in honour of the great Duke and his crowning victory. His Grace’s visit in 1845 was said to be in connection with coast railways, of which he was a strong advocate. He came on from Eastbourne to St. Leonards and Hastings, and stayed, as already stated, at the Castle Hotel. Thence he proceeded via Hawkhurst to Staplehurst, there to take train on the South-Eastern railway to London. On one of his previous visits to this locality after the battle of Waterloo (Dec. 27th, 1816), the Duke went on to the town of Battle, where he was sumptuously entertained at the Abbey by Sir Godfrey and Lady Webster, the grand repast being partaken of in the elegant dining-room, then recently added to the ancient mansion. On that occasion, the Abbey guns were fired, and the church bells were made to ring right merrily. Apropos of the new dining-room, it may be stated that it was not the only improvement that had been effected at the time of the Duke of Wellington’s visit in 1816. For nearly two years — commencing in 1814 — artists and mechanics had been employed about the Abbey, and among the alterations and additions were three large windows of stained glass placed in the great hall.
Of the Battle people it may be said that in the early part of the century they were quite as demonstrative as were the people of Hastings, and many a time and oft had they an opportunity of showing it. One such occasion was that of Monday, October 31st, 1820, when the Duke of Sussex honoured Sir Godfrey Webster with a visit. His Royal Highness was drawn into the town by hand, amidst the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, and the acclamations of the inhabitants.
He stayed three days at the Abbey, and then went onto Tunbridge Wells, where, in turn, he received Sir Godfrey and Lady Webster as his guests. A few weeks later (Nov. 20, 1820) Sir Godfrey and Lady Webster took their departure for a three years’ residence in France. It was then that the late Eliza Bergerét, usually called “ Madame,”’ entered the service of Lady Webster, as housekeeper, thence to remain for a period of nearly fifty years, Her ladyship, with Madame Bergerét, returned to England in a yacht of 140 tons, which Sir Godfrey purchased of Mr. Smith, in the Spring of 1824, and which after undergoing repairs and renovations at the hands of Messrs. Ransom and Ridley, was re-launched at Hastings on the 1st of June, when it immediately sailed for Calais. Taking London and Dover on her return, the yacht, together with another yacht, — the latter owned by Mr. Reynolds, - arrived at Hastings on the 22nd, of the same month, saluting the townspeople with her guns, and making a grand display of bunting by day and -
