Publications
Biographical Sources among East Sussex Parish Records, by C. R. Davey, published March 1984 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 6 no. 1, article, pp.8-11) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9788] & The Keep [LIB/501258] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
East Sussex Sentences of Transportation at Quarter Sessions 1790 - 1854, edited by Roger Davey, published 1988 (v + 37 pp., Friends of the East Sussex Record Office) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/503670] & East Sussex Libraries
East Sussex Land Tax, 1785, edited by Roger Davey, published 1 April 1991 (vol. 77, xxxvi + 309 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450386 & ISBN-13: 9780854450381) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11681][Lib 13075] & The Keep [LIB/500454][Lib/507860] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:The Land Tax, like a rate, was an annual charge on the occupiers of houses and land which for over two centuries in England and Wales formed one of the staple sources of income for the government. The records of its assessment and collection have long been recognised as of major importance for a wide range of historical studies, from aspects of social and economic history, to the more personal or local (but no less fascinating) realms of family and estate history. This volume, however, achieves for the first time (so far as it is known) the publication of a full transcription and index of the lists for an entire county in a single year.
The year chosen is 1785, one of the earliest to provide national coverage through surviving records, and the county is East Sussex-comprising 146 parishes and liberties, including the towns of East Grinstead, Lewes, Hastings and Rye, as well as the biggest single parish covered, the important developing town of Brighton. Over 12,500 units of assessment (houses and land) are listed, of varying sizes, which were in the ownership or occupation of nearly 10,000 individuals. The lists thus represent more than half the contemporary householders of the county, or nearly 10% of the population. All personal and place names are indexed here, making the volume in effect a 'directory' of East Sussex of a considerably earlier date than the useful printed series developed in Victorian times. Moreover, many farm and other minor local names which are not readily to be found in other reference books can now for the first time be speedily located.
This volume is thus an essential tool for locating ancestors and setting them in their local context. It also enables the social and economic historian to identify the spread of large and small estates, to make some assessment of the wealth of individuals, and to indicate the concentration and diffusion of land ownership in different areas. And last, but not least, it provides a valuable 'key' to much more by unlocking the means of entry to other original records-earlier and later land tax assessments, and related records such as manorial court rolls, rate books, title deeds, and estate papers. It is hoped that the volume, as a pioneering venture, may point the way to similar projects in other areas, thus opening up an important source to wider study.
The year chosen is 1785, one of the earliest to provide national coverage through surviving records, and the county is East Sussex-comprising 146 parishes and liberties, including the towns of East Grinstead, Lewes, Hastings and Rye, as well as the biggest single parish covered, the important developing town of Brighton. Over 12,500 units of assessment (houses and land) are listed, of varying sizes, which were in the ownership or occupation of nearly 10,000 individuals. The lists thus represent more than half the contemporary householders of the county, or nearly 10% of the population. All personal and place names are indexed here, making the volume in effect a 'directory' of East Sussex of a considerably earlier date than the useful printed series developed in Victorian times. Moreover, many farm and other minor local names which are not readily to be found in other reference books can now for the first time be speedily located.
This volume is thus an essential tool for locating ancestors and setting them in their local context. It also enables the social and economic historian to identify the spread of large and small estates, to make some assessment of the wealth of individuals, and to indicate the concentration and diffusion of land ownership in different areas. And last, but not least, it provides a valuable 'key' to much more by unlocking the means of entry to other original records-earlier and later land tax assessments, and related records such as manorial court rolls, rate books, title deeds, and estate papers. It is hoped that the volume, as a pioneering venture, may point the way to similar projects in other areas, thus opening up an important source to wider study.
Schools in the 19th Century, by Roger Davey, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.84-85, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
The origins of Thomas Turner, by Roger Davey, published 2000 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 138, article, pp.191-219) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14509] & The Keep [LIB/500298] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:This paper investigates the family background of Thomas Turner (1729-93), shopkeeper (mercer) and diarist of East Hoathly, and supplements the work of previous writers on the subject. It identifies a number of relatives named in the diary as members of the Ovenden family of Boarshead, Rotherfield (his mother's connections), and shows how his father John Turner alias Fann rose from illegitimate beginnings in the Groombridge area of Sussex and Kent to be himself both a mercer at Groombridge (later Framfield), and the owner of a 74-acre farm at Chiddingstone Hoath in Kent.
The diarist's paternal grandmother, Sarah Fann, later married to Thomas Bennett, is shown to have been of a Frant yeoman family with London trading connections. His paternal grandfather cannot be certainly identified, but is likely to have been from a family of farmers in the Ashurst/Groombridge area of Kent, closely related to the Turners of Alksford Farm, Withyham, by whom John Turner may have been brought up. Links are demonstrated to the Constables and Combridges, earlier mercers at Groombridge, and to John Luck of Penshurst, from whom in 1712 John Turner inherited his farm.
The diarist's paternal grandmother, Sarah Fann, later married to Thomas Bennett, is shown to have been of a Frant yeoman family with London trading connections. His paternal grandfather cannot be certainly identified, but is likely to have been from a family of farmers in the Ashurst/Groombridge area of Kent, closely related to the Turners of Alksford Farm, Withyham, by whom John Turner may have been brought up. Links are demonstrated to the Constables and Combridges, earlier mercers at Groombridge, and to John Luck of Penshurst, from whom in 1712 John Turner inherited his farm.
Three Lewes Martyrs of 1557, by Roger Davey, published 2000 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 138, shorter article, pp.231-234) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14509] & The Keep [LIB/500298] & S.A.S. library View Online
East Sussex Parliamentary Deposited Plans 1799-1970, edited by Roger Davey, published 2003 (vol. 87, vii + 269 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450548 & ISBN-13: 9780854450541) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14963][Lib 15657] & The Keep [LIB/500464][Lib/507870] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries View Online
Abstract:The infrastructure which makes possible many of the conveniences of modem life is often taken for granted: water supply, electricity and gas, harbours, docks and navigable rivers, the road, railway and former street tramway networks, and so on. Many of these, however, were only made possible by the inventive genius and initiative of the 19th and earlier 20th centuries, and even long-existing provision (such as for water and roads) was transformed in the same period. This volume describes in detail one of the principal sources for tracing the history of this crucial and wide ranging provision - the series of 586 East Sussex plans which accompanied Bills to Parliament to authorise the various schemes put forward, and which in many cases resulted in Acts. Copies of the plans had to be deposited locally, and it is this series, complete from 1799 to 1970, which is listed here. Of particular interest are the plans for schemes which were promoted, but which never came to fruition. East Sussex in this context means primarily the pre-1974 county, including the 'Mid Sussex corridor'; but because many schemes (e.g. those for railways) overlapped the boundary, some plans feature parts of West Sussex as well. West Sussex plans (with some East Sussex overlap) were described in an earlier volume published by the Society in 1968 (66), but for either area the full indexes provided with the volumes enable the user readily to identify plans covering particular places. Every local town (notably Brighton and Hastings), and almost every rural parish, was affected by works proposed at one time or another. The work of national and local surveyors can likewise be traced here, and the maps contain much useful topographical information, with details of the owners and occupiers of land and buildings in the areas affected by potential schemes.
The birth date of Thomas Turner, by Roger Davey, published 2004 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 142, shorter article, p.150) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15489] & The Keep [LIB/500360] & S.A.S. library View Online