This story reflects badly on the servants, but it must be remembered that dutiful and loyal servants are rarely mentioned in newspapers except perhaps on their deaths, or in bequests by their masters or mistresses. Also, the magistrates were much more likely to believe statements by the master than by the servants. The Hastings and St Leonards News, in their weekly issues of the 16th, 23rd, and 30th September 1864 are the sources for this story.
The 16th September issue, in giving proceedings before the magistrates on the Hastings Bench, began by stating:
Elizabeth Gomm, 21, and Amelia Gomm, 15, her sister, servants from Marylebone, who had accompanied their master to the sea-side, were charged with stealing a quantity of black lace, three muslin pocket hankerchiefs, some silk boot laces, &c.; as well as a quantity of tea, some brandy, and a bottle of claret, the property of Mr Edmund Barker Ray.
They had formerly worked for a Mrs Meade, an invalid, and later for Mr Ray of 15 Prince’s Gate, Knightsbridge. They had been in his service for ‘some time’, the elder one the longest. Ray was a fundholder in his sixties. In the 1871 census at Prince’s Gate he and his wife had no fewer than seven servants. He died there in 1873 leaving an estate of £35000, equivalent to £3.2 million today.
Mr Ray, and presumably his wife Frances, who is not mentioned, were staying at 1 West Hill Terrace, a substantial building now numbered 1 West Hill Road. Mr Ray’s arrival there was announced in the 27th August issue of The Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser.
It was formerly the first house in a terrace of nine houses as approached uphill from the old Turkish baths, and on the same English Channel side. It now stands separated from its new neighbour, a modern block of flats, following bomb damage in World War II. Both the same Mrs Meade and her sister Mrs Matilda Brown were visiting Mr Ray in St Leonards at the time that the thefts were discovered.
17lb. of tea had been provided for the household and it had all gone in less than a month, and other items had gone missing, and Mrs Brown stated that
In consequence of the complaints which had been made, she went into the kitchen about eight o’clock the previous evening, on hearing the noise of a cork drawn from a wine bottle. Seeing the younger prisoner hurrying away, and the coal cellar open, witness went into the cellar, and found a bottle of claret with the cork drawn, and a small quantity had been taken out. Witness said to the younger girl, “Mary, what does this mean?” She replied “I don’t know,” and laughed at witness. She afterwards admitted to witness that she had taken the bottle of wine one day when she had been sent into the wine cellar. The prisoner Elizabeth was in the kitchen at the time.
Why did Mrs Brown call Amelia by the name of Mary ? Perhaps she called all servants Mary. Some wealthy women could not remember servants’ names, and simply called all their servants Mary (or John), and she was a visitor after all. And where was the cook in all this ? We are not told the exact roles of the sisters, but 21 was quite young for Elizabeth to be the cook. Amelia was perhaps the kitchenmaid.
Mrs Brown told Mr Ray, and he went in the Gomm bedroom, accompanied by ‘the two ladies now present’ [presumably his wife and Mrs Brown] and Mrs Meade. He asked to see the contents of their boxes, and they reluctantly complied. He believed that the discovered tea and sugar, and the brandy, to be his own property. Some articles belonged to the ladies.
Mrs Brown claimed that the servants had been committing petty thefts when in her sister Mrs Meade’s service (in that case why did Mr Ray employ them ?).
The Gomm sisters said that they had been promised that they would be forgiven if they confessed. However, Ray stated:
In reply to the prisoners’ statement respecting the promise of forgiveness, he said that he had endeavoured for two hours to induce them to “make a clean breast of it,” but it was useless; and it was not till after the constable had been called in that they made any statement about it.
The girls said the confession was previous to the time Mr Ray had stated, but this he positively denied.
Letters had been written to relatives in London ‘describing, in vivid terms, the “high life below stairs” in which they have carried on since their residence here.’ A letter by Amelia was read out in court, in ‘which the Cockney lass had expressed herself to her mother as being much delighted with St Leonards, and continued “I had a bath in the sea this morning, and it’s so jolly.” The P.S. said, “Take care of yourself. We have just had some wine and brandy, and have gone up to bed quite tight !” ‘Another letter said that ‘Nice young men’ had come to see them at the ‘area window’.
They elected to be sentenced by the magistrates instead of taking their chances at the Quarter Sessions. They each received two months’ imprisonment at the gaol in Lewes. As is so often the case, I was unable to identify the sisters in the censuses, and so do not know what happen to them later.
As for the Rays, the list of inhabitants for West Hill Terrace that The Hastings and St Leonards Advertiser gave each week listed them at no. 1 until the 8th October issue; the house was apparently empty in the 15th October issue.