Admission is free for members and there is no need to reserve your place.
Everyone is very welcome, but there is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available in advance via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg
Please arrive in good time for a prompt start at 7.30 pm. We hope you can join us.
A selection of Lewes History Group publications will be on sale, including the recent addition to our Street Stories series: Station Street (formerly St Mary’s Lane).
PS. We would very much appreciate some help with putting out the chairs for the talk. We need to start doing this from 6.30 pm, and all volunteers will be welcome. Many thanks in advance.
Please note: this Bulletin is being put on the website one month after publication. Alternatively you can receive the Bulletin by email as soon as it is published, bybecoming a member of the Lewes History Group, and renewing your membership annually
1. Next meeting: 14 Jul 2025, Mary Burke, ‘The life and times of John Evelyn’ 2. Discover Thomas Paine in the heart of Lewes (by Leanne O’Boyle) 3. St Nicholas’s Hospital, Lewes 4. The Rev John Delap, Vicar of Iford & Kingston (by Timothy Ambrose) 5. Rev Israel May Soule 6. The penalty for homelessness 7. An 1841 Lewes petition to the Home Office 8. Holloway’s Restaurant 9. An illicit Christmas Feast 10. Morris Road, Cliffe
1. Next Meeting 7.30 p.m. King’s Church Monday 14 July 2025 Mary Burke The life and times of Lewes resident John Evelyn
John Evelyn (1620-1706) spent most of his childhood in Lewes. He lived at Southover Grange from the 1620s until he went to Oxford at the age of 17. So what was he doing here when his family lived at Wotton House in Surrey?
In her talk Mary will tell us about his Lewes background and ancestors, and what happened to him after he left Lewes. He lived a long life, as a young man through the tumultuous times of the Civil War and the through the Restoration of the Monarchy, and right through to the reign of Queen Anne. He was an important figure at the Court of King Charles II, a friend of Samual Pepys and the writer of an extensive diary about his life, with landscape design among his many interests.
Admission is free for members and there is no need to reserve your place. Everyone is very welcome, but there is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available in advance via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.
2. Discover Thomas Paine in the Heart of Lewes (by Leanne O’Boyle)
Thomas Paine: Legacy (TPL) was founded in 2024 to celebrate the life, work and ideals of one of the 18th century’s most influential thinkers. Now, TPL has opened a new museum and Centre for Democracy at Bull House – Paine’s former home in Lewes – where visitors can explore his radical legacy. The museum is open on Thursdays and Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with free entry for all.
Thomas Paine lived in Lewes from 1768 to 1774 and wrote his first political pamphlet here, ‘The Case of the Officers of Excise.’ His later work, ‘Common Sense’ (1776), was a spark for the American Revolution and helped shape the birth of modern democracy. His powerful words still resonate today: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
TPL is now looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join the team—as house stewards, researchers, or in marketing. If you’re passionate about history, democracy, or community engagement, get involved and help keep Paine’s legacy alive. Please email info@thomaspainelegacy.org or visit www.thomaspainelegacy.org
3. St Nicholas’s Hospital, Lewes
The print of St Nicholas’s Hospital below comes from Rev Pierre du Putron ‘Nooks and Corners of Old Sussex’, a volume of old engravings published in 1875 by the rector of Rodmell. It is clearly a very similar view to the 1779 watercolour by James Lambert (1741-1799) included in Bulletin no.86 (reproduced below), but not quite the same image.
4. The Rev Dr John Delap, Vicar of Iford and Kingston (by Timothy Ambrose)
John Delap (1725-1812) was a poet and dramatist who served as Vicar of Iford with Kingston from 1765 to 1812, during which time he lived at 20 South Street, Cliffe. The year 2025 marks the tercentenary of his birth. This article provides a brief outline of his life and work.
John Delap was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, the oldest of four children. Following his schooling in Beverley, Yorkshire, he was admitted in 1743 to Trinity College at Cambridge University and then in 1744 migrated to Magdalene College. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1747 and was elected to a fellowship at Magdalene in 1748. In 1749, he was ordained as a Deacon and installed as Curate at Londonthorpe Chapel and Gonerby, near Grantham in Lincolnshire. He was awarded the degree of Master of Arts in 1750.
In 1750, Delap was ordained as a priest in the Church of England and immediately appointed Rector of East Keal in Lincolnshire, where the advowson was held by a relative, and it appears little personal attention to the duties was required. From 1750 to 1752, he was also employed by the Welby family of Denton, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, as a private tutor to William Earle Welby at Eton College. From 1756 to 1758, he served as curate to the Rev. William Mason (1724-1797), who was Rector of All Saints Church in Aston, near Rotherham. Mason was a poet and dramatist and a close friend of the poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771) perhaps best known for his ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’. From 1759 to 1765, Delap was Rector at Ousby in Cumberland, but again there is little evidence of his personal involvement in parish work there.
Between 1750 and 1765, Delap was busily engaged in writing both poetry and plays. His first published work was ‘Marcellus: A Monody’ (1751), a lament inspired by the death of Frederick Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II, and inscribed to his widow, the Princess of Wales. Delap’s second publication was his ‘Elegies’ (1760), in which he was heavily influenced by the work of Thomas Gray. Delap’s play ‘Hecuba’ was his first dramatic success. It is a neo-classical tragedy in three acts and was produced in December 1761 by the well-known actor/manager David Garrick at his Drury Lane Theatre in London. Although it only had a short run, it met with some critical acclaim and its success must have encouraged Delap to continue as a dramatist. At the end of 1771, Delap was corresponding with Garrick on the production of a new tragedy entitled ‘Panthea’. The play did not however meet with Garrick’s approval and does not appear to have been produced or published. Delap was also working on his doctorate during this period. His thesis for the degree of Doctor in Divinity – ‘Mundi perpetuus administrator Christus’ (Christ the everlasting ruler of the World) – was examined in 1762; it was published in Cambridge in 1763.
John Delap moved to Sussex in 1765 at the age of 40 following his appointment as Vicar to the combined parishes of Iford and Kingston. He did the duties there himself, with services in each church on alternate Sundays. In 1774, he also became Rector of Woolavington, near Midhurst, where he kept a curate. He did not make his home in any of his livings but chose to settle instead in South Street in Cliffe where he lived until the end of his life in 1812. It was from Cliffe that he rode or walked to carry out his pastoral duties in his parishes and continued to write plays and poems. Then from 1779 to his death he was also rector of Cilcain, in the diocese of St Asaph – a post that was a complete sinecure, as there was also a vicar there to do all the work. The patron of the rectory was the Bishop of St Asaph, who was reportedly a friend of Mrs Thrale. He must have seemed to his rural parishioners (at least to those who actually met him) as rather an unusual, even exotic, pastor. Delap became acquainted with a number of important literary, theatrical and political figures of the day, including the poets William Mason and Thomas Gray, the actor-manager David Garrick, the arts patron Hester Thrale, the actress Mrs Siddons, the writer Dr Samuel Johnson and his acolyte James Boswell, the musicologist Charles Burney, and his daughter, the novelist, diarist and playwright, Frances Burney. It is through the first-hand testimony of their letters and diaries, and his work itself that a picture can be built up of Delap’s circle of acquaintance and his character and personality. Unfortunately, no portrait of him survives.
Comments by Thomas Gray and Dr Johnson, the subject matter of one of his own elegies ‘To Sickness’, and his surviving letters all suggest that Delap was something of a hypochondriac. Frances Burney, who met Delap in Brighton in 1779 when he was 54 and she was 27, described him in these terms: ‘”He is commonly and naturally grave, silent and absent, but when any subject is once begun upon which he has anything to say he works it threadbare, yet hardly seems to know, when all is over, what, or whether, anything, has passed. He is a man, as I am told by those who know, of deep learning, but totally ignorant of life and manners. As to his person and appearance, they are much in the ‘John-trot style” – that is to say, somewhat old-fashioned.
Hester Thrale’s home at Streatham Park in London became the centre of an important coterie of artistic, literary and political figures and Delap stayed there and at the Thrales’ seaside residence in West Street, Brighton on a number of occasions. Frances Burney, also a frequent guest, records a number of conversations with Delap in her journals. Hester Thrale seems to have been genuinely fond of him and a number of letters from Delap to her that survive illustrate his admiration and affection for her. Writing from the continent at a later date to an acquaintance, she said “Now you live so much at Brighthelmstone (Brighton) you perhaps see Dr Delap often, do tell me how he does: few Men in England have given me more Pleasure unmitigated with any Offence than Dr Delap. I therefore reflect on his past Friendship with great Esteem and Tenderness, and hope he continues it for me; for few people love him so well”. He seems to have inspired both affection and respect among his friends and acquaintances, even if his creative output did not always receive favourable critical comment.
Undaunted by Garrick’s rejection of ‘Panthea’ in 1771, Delap continued to write. On 24 October 1774, he published in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser his rather stirring ‘Panegyrical Verses on the Forty-Five Cliffites who went to Chichester to vote for Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson’. The poem had been completed on 22 October in the immediate aftermath of the county parliamentary elections in Chichester when the independent Wilson was one of the two successful candidates. It gives an indication of Delap’s political awareness and leanings, but also the strength of feeling that county elections could arouse on the part of those who were entitled to vote.
In 1779, Frances Burney described a play Delap had drafted called ‘Macaria’ and his obsessive concern with its detailing. It was later retitled ‘The Royal Exiles’ and finally produced as ‘The Royal Suppliants’. It was accepted by David Garrick, but not performed until 17 February 1781, running for eight nights at the Drury Lane Theatre. Garrick had advised Delap to make a number of changes to provide the play with greater dramatic interest, but he did not himself live to see the play performed. It was finally presented in five acts, under Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s management of the Drury Lane Theatre. The subject of the play is a dynastic power struggle, based on Euripides’s ‘Heraclidae’ and ‘The Suppliants of Aeschylus’. The play was published in 1781 with a dedication to the poetic Lord Palmerston (1739-1802).
Delap’s next play was another classical tragedy, ‘The Captives’. The play was presented at Drury Lane on 9 March 1786. It ran for three nights but sadly met with neither audience approbation nor critical success and was the subject of a number of satirical pieces in the London newspapers. The Times tartly reported that the play ‘experienced marked reprobation from the morose, pity from the kind, and support from the Doctor’s particular friends’. It was the last time that one of Delap’s plays was to be performed in London. But despite these setbacks, Delap continued to write. His verse drama ‘Gunilda’ was published in 1786, and ‘An Elegy on the Death of the Duke of Rutland’ appeared in 1788. ‘Sedition, an Ode occasioned by His Majesty’s late proclamation’ was written in 1792 and denounced in no uncertain terms the writings of Tom Paine as being revolutionary. ‘The Lord of the Nile, an Elegy’ was published in 1799. He also produced a number of poems on members of the Pelham family. His last published work was ‘Dramatic poems: Gunilda, Usurper, Matilda, and Abdalla’ in 1803. Abdalla is of particular interest as it is a powerful verse drama condemning slavery and the slave trade, reflecting the strong movement in Britain to abolish the slave trade that had been gaining ground in the previous twenty years or so. It was performed at the theatre in Lewes in the 1804/5 winter season and received a positive response from the townsfolk.
Despite being evidently attracted to young ladies of a literary disposition, John Delap never married. He died in 1812 aged 87 years and was buried in the burial ground of his local parish Church, St Thomas à Becket in Cliffe, since demolished to make way for the Cuilfail Tunnel. His last will and testament dated 24 November 1807, with three codicils dated 3 April 1808, 24 November 1809, and 18 April 1812, is preserved in the National Archives. He left some £8,453 10s 0d in legacies and gifts of money, a not inconsiderable sum, together with his property. A special gift of 50 guineas was made to the poor of each of his parishes of Iford and Kingston. His house in South Street in Cliffe was sold by his niece Mary Hastings at auction on 13 March 1813. The description read, “The premises Comprise a delightful Drawing Room, a Dining Parlour, Several Comfortable Sleeping Rooms and Closets, an excellent Kitchen, convenient attached and detach’d Offices, a two stall Stable with Loft over, a very large beautiful Garden, Planted with the Choicest of fruit trees and properly cropped etc”. Some fifty years after Delap had died, Mark Anthony Lower noted in his book Sussex Worthies in 1865: “Dr Delap is still remembered with respect by the older inhabitants of Lewes and the neighbourhood”.
Sources: John Delap is the subject of articles in Wikipedia and the Dictionary of National Biography. This article is based on my larger study of his life – timothyambrose@btinternet.com. He is also mentioned in Heather Downie, ‘The South Street Story’. For further information about Kingston and Lewes in the long eighteenth century, see Charles Cooper, ‘A Village in Sussex, the History of Kingston-near-Lewes’ (2006) and Colin Brent, ‘Georgian Lewes 1714-1830 The Heyday of a County Town’ (1993). The image above shows the title page of one of his publications, printed in Lewes by William & Arthur Lee, from the library of the Gage family at Firle.
5. Rev Israel May Soule
Israel May Soule was born in about 1806 at Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire, and first appeared in Lewes in 1829 as the new young minister of the town’s Baptist church. In June 1831 he was living in St John-sub-Castro parish when he married Eliza Button at All Saints church. She was born in 1797, a daughter of the Baptist Cliffe schoolmaster John Button, so almost a decade his senior. In the following month she advertised that her school on North Street would reopen shortly. Sadly their marriage was short as she was buried at All Saints just over a year later, in July 1832, aged 35. After another two years Israel May Soule, Protestant dissenting minister and widower, married again at Cliffe church. His new wife was Ann Moore, daughter of Rev George Moore of Malling Street. The Baptist church register of the births of church members’ children records the birth of a son, George May Soule, in February 1836. Then in 1837, with the onset of civil registration, it was Israel May Soule’s task to hand in the church registers to the authorities, where they survive in the public record office.
While at Lewes he was a prominent supporter of the Mechanics Institution, where he was quoted as saying that enquiry was the first step towards the attainment of knowledge. He was also an opponent of slavery, which had then been abolished in the parts of the world controlled by Britain but was still prevalent in America. In October 1837 at the Lewes Registration Court the Conservatives objected to the inclusion of his name in the Lewes electoral register, but as they failed to prove legal service of the notice of their objection his name was allowed to remain. At these courts both parties routinely objected to the inclusion of their opponents whose qualifications were questionable. Soon afterwards, after completing seven years ministry, he left Lewes to take up a new post at Battersea Chapel. He evidently left on good terms, as he returned in November 1838 to preside at a marriage at the Lewes Baptist chapel. When the present Eastgate Baptist Chapel was opened on 11 October 1843 he was one of the three Baptist ministers invited to preach at the three different services held on the opening Sunday, and he also participated in the 1842 opening of the new Baptist chapel in City Road, Brighton.
He arrived at Battersea in 1838, at the same time as the railway opened up what had been a quiet Surrey village for development, and he remained there for 35 years until his sudden death in November 1873, aged 66. His ministry there was enormously successful, and still remembered today. He was ecumenical in spirit, highly regarded, and under his leadership his church flourished. In 1841 he married yet again. His third wife, Amelia Tritton, was the daughter of a banker who had supported the chapel. This enabled them to live comfortably, rebuild his chapel to accommodate its larger congregation, develop a British School and build a row of almshouses. They had at least nine children, with all seven sons given the second Christian name May. When he died the local press reported that 7,000 people attended him to the graveside. His Baptist church still flourishes, though now translocated to a modern building following redevelopment of the area. He is also remembered in the street name Maysoule Road (originally May Soule Road), postcode SW11 2BT.
The 31 October 1866 Sussex Advertiser and the 1 November 1866 Brighton Gazette both report that the “vagrant nuisance” Patricia Gurney had been brought before Lewes magistrate Burwood Godlee charged with sleeping in the open air in Friars Walk at one o’clock in the morning. The prisoner said that she had no home. As she had a previous conviction for a similar offence, she was sentenced to 11 days imprisonment.
I cannot help feeling that will only have been a rather temporary solution to her problems. However, according to recent press reports the legislation under which she was convicted is soon to be repealed.
7. An 1841 Lewes petition to the Home Office
The Home Office archives include a file numbered HO 18/49/7 (1841) in which two Lewes men, Alfred Gell and Francis Thomas Gell sought a reduction in their sentences. They had been convicted of assault at the Sussex Lent Assizes held on 22 March 1841, and each sentenced to imprisonment for one month and a fine £50 fine. They were aged 28 and 24, the sons of a prominent Lewes solicitor.
The file contained the following:
A petition from the prisoners stating that the judge admitted that from the evidence disclosed that the assault for which they were convicted was committed under circumstances of ‘great provocation’, which are detailed at length.
A second petition from prisoners stating that the sentence was inadvertently recorded as one ‘calendar’ month instead of one ‘lunar’ month, which will make a difference of five days on the term of imprisonment.
A covering letter from John Auckland, solicitor, transmitting a petition signed by 53 inhabitants of Lewes, Sussex, and its vicinity, stating the prisoners’ dependence on their father, who for 30 years had practiced as a most respectable attorney.
An extract from the letter of Baron Parke, the judge at the Assizes, stating that he was of the opinion that the fines ought to be enforced.
Outcome: no action was taken, and the Gells served their sentences. Alfred Gell was buried at All Saints in 1849, aged 32. In 1851 Francis Thomas Gell was himself a solicitor, in Surrey
8. Holloway’s Restaurant
This 1936 press cutting, offered for sale on ebay recently, shows the remarkable interior of Holloway’s restaurant in Lewes. The room appears to be set up for an elaborate formal dinner.:
Holloway’s restaurant was at 57-58 High Street, next door but one to the White Hart, and sandwiched between Wycherley’s estate agency at 56 High Street and the Westminster Bank, on the corner of St Andrews Lane. It was used for the formal dinners of a wide range of local organisations and societies, and also hosted dances. It survived into the 1950s, but my 1964 Kelly’s Directory shows it replaced by a café and a bakery.
9. An illicit Christmas Feast?
Four days after Christmas in 1869 the Brighton Guardian reported that early on the previous Friday morning the shop of Mr Kemsley, butcher, in the Market Tower, Lewes, had been broken into and the hind quarter of a sheep weighing 20 lbs and several joints of beef varying in weight between 4 lbs and 8 lbs had been stolen. The police were said to be on the alert, “but will probably have to be very sharp now to bring the ruffians to justice”. They thought the evidence would have disappeared!
10. Morris Road, Cliffe
This postcard image shows Morris Road, with one of the gas holders belonging to the Gas Works in the background. There are a number of glass negatives of this area in the collection now at The Keep taken by Lewes solicitor’s clerk Henry John Bartlett (1878-1965), who lived at 14 Morris Road after his marriage [ESRO ACC 8509/1]. Many of his images were published as postcards by a range of different publishers.
Morris Road was described in April 1891 by Reginald Henry Powell of the Lewes surveyors Powell & Co as a proposed new road to be built on land that had belonged to Ebenezer Morris (died1888), the Cliffe iron founder and Jireh Chapel elder. In April 1891 plans were approved for the houses now 21-43 & 16-50 Morris Road, while plans for 12-16 Morris Road were approved in Jun 1892.
Sources: Henry John Bartlett’s glass negatives are ESRO ACC 8509/1; plans for Morris Road are in ESRO DL/A 25/74, 25/75 & 25/84a and BMW/A 13/5/4-5.
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Lewes History Group 