been.
At a later meeting of the Commissioners, Mr. Ginner was requested to take the chair, and the business began with a statement by Mr. Harvey that he could find nothing in the Act that warranted an adjournment, to which the clerk responded that there has been shown in the case of was no such warrant.
Next came the question of buying the ground adjoining the Swan Lane where Humphrey Wickham's old house had stood, so as to throw it open for a new approach to St. Clement's church. Mr. Williams had heard that a sum of £285 had been subscribed, and that the price of the ground was £400. On the proposition of Mr. Harvey it was agreed to further consider the matter at the next meeting. The business closed with electing Mr. Hendry to be collector of coal tickets at the London road turnpike gate.
At this time, the Rev. F. Hazlewood was officiating at Hastings as curate to the Rv. J. G. Foyster, and although, upon the whole he might have been a worthy man, he was not held in very high esteem by the townspeople. He resided at 7 The Croft, and in the year still under review (1840), a subscription list was opened for the purchase of an organ for St. Clement's church, with understanding that the organist was to be a son of Mr. Joseph Hart, an admired organist at St. Mary's-in-the-Castle. It was said, however, that the curate was working unfairly to prevent it, and as he was not so generally popular as might have been wished, it is possible that more was laid to his discredit than was quite his due. Hence the Dover Chronicle which as been shown in the case of Troup, could be warmly censorious, had the following warning in its issue of Aug. 8th:-
Many serious complaints have reached us from Hastings of the course proposed by the Rev. Mr. Hazlewood in the performance of his duties as Curate to the rev. J. G. Foyster. We shall not enter into detail on the points of complaint at present further than to hint to the Rev. Gentleman that we know Maidstone, and we believe that he does; but if he thinks to make of Hastings a second Maidstone, he reckons without his host. If we hear of any more "sayings and doings" of his, similar to those which our attentions have been called to, he shall not recline on a "bed of roses". We have every respect for religion, but we detest priestcraft, and will expose its evil tendency under what guise soever it may appear. We would, in the meantime, recommend Mr. Hazlewood to follow the example of his employer, the Rev. Mr. Foyster, who, we are free to admit (Radicals as we are), attends to his own business, and that only, in a way that has gained for him the respect of the inhabitants generally.
In the succeeding week's issue the same journal under the heading of Hastings and St. Leonards had the following paragraph:-
The remarks which appeared in this paper have had the desired effect. The subscriptions in favour of the proposed organ to St. Clement's Church have entirely been put a stop to: while a large portion of those who had put their names down for various sums have refused to make good the cash until a thorough investigation has taken place, and justice done to Mr. Hart. Sen. and his much injured son. During the past week the "mischief has out". It appears that the former being a Poor-law Guardian, is opposed to a paid Chaplain at the house; hence the very disinterested opposition of the clergy to the just claims of his unoffending offspring. This is Priestcraft to the backbone; and it makes its appearance in one of its most hideous forms too. Much do we congratulate ourselves that we have been the cause, in some degree, of raising a well-merited sympathy on the part of the town generally towards the Messrs. Hart. But our task is yet but half completed: we shall not be content until the finishing stroke is actually given, the young man's appointment ratified, and himself secured from all needless interruption by the manoeuvering of a domineering and reckless priesthood.
The Hastings agent for the Dover Chronicle was Mr. Thomas Ross, at that time a stationer in Castle street. like the Chronicle, itself, its agent was a strong Liberal politician, and it is a noteworthy coincidence that he was elected for the first time to a seat on the Council board in the year now treated of.
Difficulties and disagreements of the Flimwell and Hastings Trust are described in Chapter XXI
