Publications
Famine and mortality crises in Mid-Sussex, 1606-1640, by Ian Nelson, published Spring 1991 in Local Population Studies Society (Issue 46, article, pp.39-49) Download PDF
Hurstpierpoint - Kind and Charitable, edited by Ian Nelson, published 7 March 2001 (428 pp., Burgess Hill: Ditchling Press, ISBN-10: 0950058467 & ISBN-13: 9780950058467) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14648] & The Keep [LIB/509467] & British Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Mid Sussex Poor Law Records, 1601-1835, edited by Ian Nelson and Norma Pilbeam, published 2 June 2001 (vol. 83, 453 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450505 & ISBN-13: 9780854450503) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14468][Lib 14474] & The Keep [LIB/500460][Lib/507866] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:This book presents the fullest picture yet to be achieved of an almost invisible community: the English rural poor of the two centuries up to 1835.
The poor had their annals; and they are by no means "short and simple" as Thomas Gray suggested. They survive in formidable quantity. Their lives have come down to us through the bureaucracy which controlled and monitored their movements, apprenticed their children and attempted to arrange the maintenance of their illegitimate offspring. The records of the parish overseers and the vestries, and of the courts of Quarter Sessions, combine to preserve their stories. Although this documentation exists in all English counties and is a well-known source, its publication in such range and depth has never been achieved before. In this volume the editors have attempted the coverage of a cohesive rural area by abstracting the records for a block of 23 parishes based round the modern area of Mid Sussex.
There are a host of personal stories - like that of William Roberts, in 1618 whipped as a vagrant at Cuckfield and sent to "travayle" home to Anglesey within 30 days. Or Mary Willson, in 1743 a serving maid in a London coffee house, left destitute by the death of her soldier husband at the siege of Cartagena in Central America. Or Edward Hillman, in 1741 sent back in his old age from Tonbridge to the "home" parish of Cuckfield he had left 37 years before. Or Anne Wright, a soldier's wife found begging in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in 1746 and sent back by a succession of carriers to her husband's parish of East Grinstead. Or Thomas Andrew, a Marine from Chatham in 1764, sent back to Cowfold where he had been born in a barn to vagrant parents a quarter century earlier.
The result is the biography of a rootless underclass over two centuries. It records the origins, movement, employment and unemployment of over 10,000 individuals whose poverty made them subject to constant invigilation from the local officials. The volume will have enormous appeal to family historians, and great value to demographers, and to social historians of the dispossessed. For the first time they will have a database which will be sufficiently large and consistent for genuine comparisons to be made and significant conclusions to be drawn.
The poor had their annals; and they are by no means "short and simple" as Thomas Gray suggested. They survive in formidable quantity. Their lives have come down to us through the bureaucracy which controlled and monitored their movements, apprenticed their children and attempted to arrange the maintenance of their illegitimate offspring. The records of the parish overseers and the vestries, and of the courts of Quarter Sessions, combine to preserve their stories. Although this documentation exists in all English counties and is a well-known source, its publication in such range and depth has never been achieved before. In this volume the editors have attempted the coverage of a cohesive rural area by abstracting the records for a block of 23 parishes based round the modern area of Mid Sussex.
There are a host of personal stories - like that of William Roberts, in 1618 whipped as a vagrant at Cuckfield and sent to "travayle" home to Anglesey within 30 days. Or Mary Willson, in 1743 a serving maid in a London coffee house, left destitute by the death of her soldier husband at the siege of Cartagena in Central America. Or Edward Hillman, in 1741 sent back in his old age from Tonbridge to the "home" parish of Cuckfield he had left 37 years before. Or Anne Wright, a soldier's wife found begging in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in 1746 and sent back by a succession of carriers to her husband's parish of East Grinstead. Or Thomas Andrew, a Marine from Chatham in 1764, sent back to Cowfold where he had been born in a barn to vagrant parents a quarter century earlier.
The result is the biography of a rootless underclass over two centuries. It records the origins, movement, employment and unemployment of over 10,000 individuals whose poverty made them subject to constant invigilation from the local officials. The volume will have enormous appeal to family historians, and great value to demographers, and to social historians of the dispossessed. For the first time they will have a database which will be sufficiently large and consistent for genuine comparisons to be made and significant conclusions to be drawn.
Hurstpierpoint School 'To be Learned not Washed'. Three Centuries of Village Education, by Ian Nelson, published 2006 (301 pp. + 23 pp. of photos, Hurst History Group, ISBN-10: 0954374622 & ISBN-13: 9780954374624) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15629] & West Sussex Libraries
Frederick Weekes: the diary of a Sussex Farmer, 1837-1852, edited by Anthony Bower and Ian Nelson, published 2007 (137 pp., Hurst History Group, ISBN-10: 0954374630 & ISBN-13: 9780954374631) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:Keen historians of the Victorian age will welcome the publication of a diary written by Sussex farmer Frederick Weekes of Brighton and Hurstpierpoint. His diary written between 1937 and 1852 provides snapshots of rural life as Sussex emerged from the Georgian era to embrace the Victorian age.
Edited for publication by Ian Nelson and Tony Bower of the Hurst History Study Group, Weekes' notes will be of particular interest to genealogists because they include references to many of the tradesmen living in and around Mid Sussex.
Edited for publication by Ian Nelson and Tony Bower of the Hurst History Study Group, Weekes' notes will be of particular interest to genealogists because they include references to many of the tradesmen living in and around Mid Sussex.