and Noon, St. Leonardensis wrote to say "Please keep my subscription, but disenroll my name, as I fear that my conscientious scruples are more likely to harm than to benefit the association." But I will continue the story in the first person instead of the third, it being a more, convenient form of writing, and need not necessarily reveal the personal identity of the writer. I may say, then, that the gentleman, who solicited me to becgme a member of the association never afterwards spoke to me for a period of twenty years, whilst the etiquette of one or two of his political associates was also some degrees colder than its former wont. Thus I found it to be perfectly true that which I was told me at the first and only meeting that I attended, namely, that I had yet much to learn. I was an apt pupil, and I soon learnt the lesson that to have an opinion, of one’s own and to act upon it, was the unpardonable sin of political economy. To my own view I was the exponent of a right principle, but in the eyes of party politicians I was an unmanageable crotcheteer.
Yet I have gone on from that time till the present in a similar course of sin until I have become incorrigibly indifferent to the suspicion of being a bad Liberal and a worse Tory. This introduction of personal matter may seem to be in questionable taste, but I desire to give it the chance of a permanent-record, if only as a proof of fitness for writing history especially political history without bias.
Having already enumerated the parochial officials and given some account of their doings, also described the action taken by the inhabitants of both towns for the introduction of railways, and reviewed the political situation, I now proceed to the narration of events of a more miscellaneous character. In these, the shipping interest and maritime casualties seem to claim precedence.
Between the 21st and 23rd of March there were no fewer than eight vessels, owned by Hastings and St. Leonards ship-merchants, delivering, their cargoes on the beach; namely, the schooner Burfield Brothers, the schooner Caroline, the sloop William Pitt, the sloop Milward, the brig Victoria, the brig Pelican, the sloop Phoenix, and the brig Lamburn. And as this was no uncommon occurrence, it will give my readers an idea of how coal, timber and general merchandise were brought to the borough before the railways were constructed, the return voyages being frequently utilised by the conveyance of hops, marine stores, "empties," and even fish.
On Saturday, April 20th, there was considerable excitement in both towns in consequence of the steam-boat Waterman, No. 10, having struck upon the Castle rocks nearly in front of Beach cottages. The engines were immediately reversed, and the vessel was got off; but as it was found that the larboard bow had sustained damage, thereby letting in the water freely, an attempt was made to run the ship ashore at the Fishmarket. In this attempt, however, she encountered another obstacle by striking on the Pier rocks. She had now a second hole in her hull, but was ultimately beached at Caroline place where she remained five days for temporary repairs, and was then re-launched for London, She was 107 feet long and was propelled by two engines, each of 16 horse power. She had been on an experimental trip to Ostend, had called at Dover to deliver letters, and was making a pleasure-trip to Hastings, some of the party on board having arranged to dine at the Oak.
A much more serious disaster occurred on 2 Tuesday, July 30th, through an on-coming southerly gale at the time for getting off three vessels which had been discharging cargoes. One of them, named The Kent, the property of Messrs. Robert and Chas. Deudney, was on the beach at St, Leonards, it having brought a freight of coals to Mr. Charles Deudney’s warehouse at the West Marina. In attempting to get her off in the teeth of the gale the hawsers broke and she was driven broadside on, where, exposed to the fury of the wind and waves, she became a complete wreck. The crew were got ashore by means of a rope, but they were unable to save their clothes. The sum of £30 was afterwards collected and divided amongst them. The other two vessels were at Hastings, one of which, named The Brothers, was owned by Messrs. Burfield, and the other, named Mary Anne, was the property of Messrs. Harman and Co. The last-named sustained no very material damage, and was got to sea on the following night; but the Mary Anne, after getting out to sea, was blown ashore at the Ness Point, where she also became a wreck, the crew being fortunately saved. It was only a few days before this loss was sustained by Mr Harman that his son, a lad about ten or eleven years of age, had a narrow escape from being thrown from a horse. The animal was being led by another boy of about the same age, when it started off at a sharp gallop up High street, as far as the Roebuck inn, where it was stopped by Mr. Campbell, Inspector of Police, who, while seizing the bridle by one hand, caught the boy in his other hand and arm. This was regarded by those who witnessed it as a dexterous feat.
On the 30th of August there was a successful regatta, the details of which I am unable to give; but, as an occurrence of quite a different type in connection with the water, it may be stated, on the authority of the Longford Journal, that in the month of August the death of Captain Granville Heywood Elliott, of the 4th Dragoon Guards, was caused by drowning, He was,29 years of age, and the only son of Col. Elliott, a retired officer, of Valebrook Lodge, near Hastings. The old Colonel had a great penchant for music, and it was the privilege of the present writer on more than one occasion while having the management of a public band, to perform some of the Colonel’s favorite marches and other military airs for his delectation.
I have said nothing of smuggling lately, and for the very sufficient reason that there has been nothing to say, the traffic in contraband having almost died out. On the 27th of January, however, a carrier of Icklesham, named Barden, was fined £100 for having been detected in conveying to Hastings a quantity of smuggled brandy and tobacco. His horse and van were also declared to be forfeited to the Crown. The detectives were two Customs-house officers, Sargant and Picknell.
It now comes in my way now to chronicle the deaths of those who in the year 1844 were persons of sufficient standing and influence to claim recognition at my hands. The brief, but painful illness and subsequent death of Mr. William Scrivens (a Hastings banker, and the father of our highly-respected Mr. George Scrivens) have already been referred to, as well as the election of Mr. William Duke to succeed Mr. Scrivens on the aldermanic bench. That Mr. Scrivens took an interest in the local railway schemes of 1843-4 is but natural, although he did not live long enough to witness their accomplishment. The same may be said of his friend and fellow-townsman, Mr. William Lucas-Shadwell, whose death also occurred in the same year. This gentleman, as before stated, was the mover of a resolution in favour of the South-Eastern line, as opposed to the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings projection; and it is a singular coincidence that his death took place on the 18th of September, the very day that a public dinner at St. Leonards signalised the passing of the Bill for the Brighton line. Mr. Shadwell had nearly attained to the age of four-score years, had followed the profession of an attorney in Hastings for over fifty-six years, and was probably articled to "Lawyer Thatcher" or "Lawyer Carey." He was the last male descendant in a direct line of a very ancient family, who derived their name from their estate called Shadwell, in the parish of Buxsted, near Uckfield, where the family resided as far back as the reign of Edward III. In more recent times the principal branches of the family became residents at Ripe and Ringmer, in the same county. Thomas Shadwell, Esq., of Middleham, Ringmer, was High Sheriff in 1728, and his son William married a daughter of John Lucas, Esq., of Longford, Barcombe. Descending from these were Thomas, Mary and William, the last of whom was the subject of this notice, and who, while practising at Hastings, on the 7th of December, 1788, married a Miss Ayling, of Tillington, near Petworth. About the same time his elder brother (Thomas Lucas Shadwell, of Ringmer) was married at Hanover square, London, to a Mrs. Bristow. This brother died, without issue, in 1804. In the month of June, 1811, the name of Lucas was added to that of Shadwell by the Prince-Regent’s so-called license or grant, and in conformity with the will of Mr. Shadwell's last-surviving maternal aunt, of Longford, in Sussex. On the 25th of September, 1844, the remains of our Mr. Lucas-Shadwell were conveyed to Fairlight church, attended by his tenantry in that parish, as well as by many of the Hastings tradesmen, who partially closed their places of business on the mournful occasion. In the funereal cortége were also many gentlemen’s carriages. Mrs. Shadwell, who was somewhat the senior of her husband, had died two years before, and was buried at the same place. On the 10th of December following, the London Gazette announced that her Majesty had been pleased to authorize William Drew Stent, Esq., who had succeeded to the estates of Mr. Lucas-Shadwell, to assume the surname of Lucas-Shadwell, instead of Stent, in pursuance of a request for that purpose by his late uncle. Of this last-named gentleman, who afterwards built a stately mansion at Fairlight, raised and commanded a corps of artillery volunteers, laboured zealously in the cause of temperance, and was in many other ways an estimable man, but who died thirty years after inheriting his uncle’s name and estates, much could be said that deserves to be put on record. Also connected with the life and death of the elder Mr. Shadwell, whose career in Hastings embraced so considerable a period of the 18th and 19th centuries, are many local associations of historical interest.
Within four days of Mr. Shadwell’s demise the death was announced of T. C. Bartrum, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn. I only knew this gentleman as a visitor at St. Leonards, but by those who enjoyed his personal acquaintance his death was deeply regretted. Another visitor who died about the same time or a little later was Samuel Tertius Galton, Esq., whose age was 61 years. Still somewhat later, namely, in the last week of November, Death overtook an esteemed resident in the person of Hugh William Brown, Esq. This gentleman, with one or two members of his family, had resided for several years at 62 Marina, as part-occupant with the Dowager Lady Lubbock, to whom -he was step-nephew. It was his daughter - Miss Brown - whose marriage with the Rev. G. J. Symson was celebrated with flaunting of flags, firing of guns, feasting of tradesmen, &c., as described among the events of 1838, On the death of this lady’s father, the tradesmen and inhabitants, to the number of fifty, again testified their respect by following his remains to a vault at St. Leonards church. This was on the 2nd of December, 1844, the deceased being in the 69th year of his age.
On the 16th of the same month the death of Mr. Charles Deudney occurred, and as suddenly as did that of his brother Arthur, seven, years previously. His residence was at 105 (now 116) Marina, and although he at times suffered greatly from tic douloureux, he retired to rest on a Sunday night in what was regarded as a fair condition of health, but in a few hours afterwards, life was extinguished. Mr. Deudney was a partner with his younger brother Robert as a coal-merchant and ship-owner, and, like his brother, had been a parish officer and a St. Leonards Commissioner for ten years or more. He was 52 years of age, and his death caused another gap in an extensive family circle, while it left a widow and five children not over-well provided for. His father was Mr. Charles Deudney, whose nativity and mortality both took place in the Gensing farmhouse, and his grandfather was Thomas Deudney, who was born at Guildford in 1718, the fifth vear of the reign of George I., and who came from Horsham to what is now St. Leonards in 1750 as a tenant-farmer and agent of Sir Charles Eversfield.
These and other particulars of a family esteemed throughout the county for nearly 150 years have been given in previous chapters of this History, and as I proceed there will, doubtless be occasions on which further reference to the family will become necessary. To return, however, to the later Charles Deudney whose death in 1844 is now under notice, it may be said that he was one of a very numerous family. But the names of those which have come under my own recognition are fourteen in number, and as follow:—Thomas (a farmer at Ditchling), Arthur (hotel-keeper), Charles (merchant, and married to Miss Fagg. of Lydd), Stephen (died at the age of 14), George (a sailor), John (a traveller), Robert (farmer, alderman and magistrate; married Miss Blackman, of Hooe), William (a miller), Sarah (married to Mr. Edward Wenham, of Hastings), Cordelia (married to Mr, Arkcoll, of Hurstmonceux, April 8th, 1814), Harriett (died, unmarried), Anne (married to Mr, Falcover or Faulkner), Jane (married to Mr. Tucker, of London, same day as her sister Cordelia), and Charlotte (married to Mr. Thomas Smith, a London merchant).
Widow Miller (Mrs. Thomas's elder sister, and consequently Mr. Thomas Deuney's eldest daughter) died also at High Street, Hastings on March 19, 1874, aged 86.
One of the employees of Mr. Charles Deudney, the elder (whose death occurred 18 months after the commencement of St. Leonards as a town) was the young man James Murdock, who, as related in an earlier chapter, sold as much as 300 quarts of milk a day to the comparatively few inhabitants and among the ten or eleven hundred workmen then engaged on the buildings. Mr. Murdock has been a milkman ever since, and at one time was the occupier of Blacklands Farm which no longer exists. He was one of a family of seven belonging to Master-gunner Archibald Murdock, whose settlement and career in Hastings have been heretofore described. James, the last surviving son, was married on the 14th of July, 1833, to Miss Mary Ann Noakes, then of Bexhill, the bridegroom being about 22 years of age; and the event is now rendered noteworthy by the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Murdock, together with a few friends, celebrated their golden wedding with a trip to Normanhurst. That Mr. Murdock should have lived for a period of 72 years in the almost immediate neighbourhood of Catsfield, that he should have known the. locality and even the haunts of the smugglers of bygone times in and around that district, and that he should have deferred a visit to Normanhurst until he and Mrs. Murdock had realised a married life of fifty years is a circumstance almost unique; and the wish of the writer is that these long-period denizens of St. Leonards may have many more opportunities of a visit to the beautiful mansion and grounds of Sir Thomas Brassey.
Among the St. Leonards marriages of 1844 was the humble one of the writer; and the event is here referred to as an introduction of a practice that in later years has been more honoured by its abrogation than it would have been by its continuance. As soon as it became known that two persons had become man and wife in lawful matrimony, it became a matter-of-money with members of the "Rough Band," who saluted the wedding party with as much harmony as could be produced with cows’ horns and tin kettles until certain exactions were complied with. In my own case, with a knowledge of the probable duration of the infliction and of its repetition for several evenings if the indicated demands were resisted, I "tipped, up" at once, and was then favoured with the more familiar strain of "He’s a jolly good fellow!" The "Band" then adjourned to some public-house for refreshment, but as a souvenir of its visit a large log of wood was thrown into the house, for which a claimant could never be heard of. The said log, or a portion of it, was kept for many years as a memento of the 25th of January, 1844.
To the several occurrences already described, may be added two others, to which I need make but a brief allusion, It was in 1844 that Mr. Robert Deudney was appointed agent to the Eversfield estate, which office he relinquished twenty years later, and it was in 1844 that "General Tom Thumb" paid a visit to St. Leonards, the visit being renewed twenty years later: and, as a further coincidence, it is the present year (1883) that Death has taken over these two persons, each in his own way a man of mark, Of Tom Thumb, it may be said that his real name was Charles Stratton; that he was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S., on January 11th, 1832; that on his first visit to St. Leonards he was represented as being 26 inches in height and 15lbs in weight (the latter probably understated): that on his second visit he was 31 -
