A year ago I led a pub walk around St Leonards on Sea and afterwards posted here on The pubs of St Leonards: closures in 1905. This post follows two repeats of that walk, after I discovered the fate of Frederick Campbell, who I erroneously, last year, had thought had died as only Mary his wife was present in the town.
The Railway and the Royal public houses in St Leonards on Sea share a connection besides being across the road from each other. The photo below shows how they look today, with St Leonards Warrior Square station out of sight to the left.
In the 1861 census Frederick Campbell was the innkeeper of the Broad Oak Inn, at Brede, Sussex, which continues to trade today. It stated that both he and his wife Mary were born in Brede. They had married in 1851 at St Leonards church, he a blacksmith, son of another blacksmith, she the daughter of a labourer, both of St Mary Magdalen. They had a son, Noneus, and a daughter, Daedemia (her name is spelt various ways in documents).
Two months later the inquest into the mysterious death by gunshot of Frederick’s father James Campbell was reported in the Sussex Express, 22 June 1861. The father had been working for his son as an ostler for several months. The two had had an argument – a mild one, claimed the son, while the father was of course no longer around to give a different account. The jury said it was suicide.
The 22 March 1862 issue of the South Eastern Advertiser stated that, formerly of the Broad Oak but now of Westfield, he had successfully sued a Northiam doctor for not paying for ‘refreshments’. The 3 May 1862 issue stated that he had given up the license.
He had moved on to the Railway Tavern, St Leonards. It had opened in 1854 as a beer house, but was given a full licence in 1862, with the first landlord being Frederick. He quickly got into trouble when the tradition of allowing customers to run up a ‘score’ for a week, and not just on the night, got him into trouble with one difficult customer. The sum involved was equivalent to over £130 in today’s money. The amusing story is told in the Hastings and St Leonards News, 3 July 1863:
ASSAULT BY A PUBLICAN. – Frederick Campbell, landlord of the Railway Inn, Western road, appeared to answer a summons for assaulting George Rummens, brickmaker, lodging at 32 London road.
During a somewhat laughable hearing, it was shown that Rummens had run up a score of £1 4s 2 ½ d with defendant during the previous week. Instead of paying on Saturday evening, complainant went to Bopeep, to return home by train. Defendant was informed of this and went in pursuit, suspecting Rummens had no intention of returning. The two went to the Terminus Hotel, and after wrangling together for about three-quarters of an hour, defendant lost his temper, Rummens having refused to pay in rather abusive terms. Defendant then struck complainant in the eye, and drew “the claret.” This was the assault complained of.
The Mayor said the magistrates were quite satisfied defendant had asked for his money civilly at first. Defendant had acknowledged that he did assault the man, who, there was no question, had behaved very badly. The Bench would inflict the smallest fine possible; and complainant would not be allowed any expenses for his attendance.
Fined 1s and costs (12s.).
The Terminus Hotel was about a mile away from the Railway, close to the no longer existing St Leonards West Marina railway station. Brett, the chronicler of St Leonards, asserted that is now the Bopeep pub was formerly the Terminus Hotel.
In the April 1871 census we have the following household at the Railway Tavern, Western Road.
Frederick Campbell, M[arried], 40, innkeeper, born Sussex Brede
Mary Campbell, wife, M, 43, born Sussex Brede
Deidanna Campbell, dau, S[ingle], 19, born Sussex Brede
Noneus Campbell, son, S, 17, born Sussex St Leonards
Emily Kemp, serv, S, 15, genl servant, born Sussex Ewhurst
Sophia A. Skinner, lodger, S, 58, born Sussex Battle
There were also seven visitors.
The detail from the map below shows the Railway pub with empty land to its east.
A big change happened a couple of years later in the household. The 10 May 1873 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer has this excerpt, before the magistrates:
LICENSES. – Mr Meadows made application that the license of the Railway Hotel, Gensing-road, should be transferred from William Campbell to his wife, Mary Campbell. Mr Meadows explained that there was a deed of separation between the parties, Mr Campbell being desirous of going to America, and agreeing that the hotel, the license, and all connected therewith should be transferred to his wife. – The Bench acceded to the request.
Frederick is called William in error but it’s certainly him. Before I explain what happened to Frederick, over to Mary.
On the 4 March 1876 a planning application (which I have not looked at), numbered DH/C/6/1/1864 at The Keep record office in Falmer, was approved. Its catalogue title is ‘House and hotel, 1 St Johns Road.’ This is the building now known as the Royal.
Mary Campbell then asked for a licence for that building. From the 26 August 1876 issue of the Hastings Observer:
Mr Bealey applied on behalf of Mrs Campbell for a license to sell intoxicating liquors at a house in course of construction near Gensing Station. He trusted there would be no rivalry in this case. There was no other place near the station for a ladies’ coffee room, a coffee room and commercial room. Near the Hastings station there were four houses, and they gave all the accommodation necessary. He concluded by handing to the Bench the application, which contained no less than 64 signatures.
Mr Langham opposed the application.
The notices were proved by the usual witnesses.
Mr W.L. Vernon, architect, said the plan showed the necessary accommodation. The house was, he thought, well adapted for the purposes of middle-class people.
In answer to Mr Langham, he said the house was not quite furnished. There had been a slight alteration.
The local police superintendent had no complaints about Mrs Campbell. The station master, Mr Descou, said that there had been much house building in the area and that he thought ‘there would be a great demand for the house.’ The account continues:
Mr Langham thought it was not just that Mrs Campbell should just before the expiration of her tenancy build a house directly opposite.
Mrs Campbell was nevertheless granted her licence by the magistrates. The map below shows the amount of building that had occurred by 1897.
The new pub’s architect, Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914) emigrated to Australia in 1883 where he had an important practice in Melbourne.
Meanwhile the licence of the Railway was transferred in October 1876 to George Layton.
Mary Campbell at first called her new hotel the Railway Hotel, which caused confusion for many visitors as the rival establishment was the Railway Tavern. Hence it changed its name to Mrs Campbell’s Hotel, later Campbell’s Hotel.
The Hastings Observer, 8 November 1879, has an interesting account of the St Leonards Steam Fire Brigade carrying out exercises by using a new fire escape to bring down from the top floor among others ‘Mr and Miss Campbell’, who were presumably the children. Mrs Campbell ‘liberally’ provided refreshments for the brigade.
The 1881 census shows the occupants of Campbell’s Hotel, 1 St Johns Road:
Mary Campbell, head, M, 52, licensed victualler, born Sussex Winchester
Emily S. Warren, barmaid, U, 14, barmaid inn, born Berkshire Windsor
Kate Irving, serv, U, 20, housemaid dom, born Devon Plymouth
James Moore, serv, M, 24, waiter inn, born Sussex Hastings
Hannah Moore, wife, M, 27, cook dom, born Sussex Ashburnham
Charles Moore, son, 2, born Sussex Hastings
Winchester was presumably a mistake for Winchelsea, although she claimed to have been born in Brede in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. The census shows that much of St Johns Road was built by then, namely nos. 1-15, although nos, 9, 10, 12 and 15 were either uninhabited or being built.
The 31 March 1883 issue of the Hastings Observer has an advertisement for the sale of the 50-year lease on Campbell’s Hotel. Enquirers were to apply to Mr Veness of the same address. This was George Veness, an auctioneer, who in fact took over the licence from Mary Campbell in January 1884. He soon changed the name to the Royal Hotel in apparent deference to the Royal Concert Hall, which was at the time on Warrior Gardens (since replaced by parking for a sheltered housing block).
In the 1891 census Mrs Campbell was living at 5 Swan Avenue, Hastings Old Town, with her widowed daughter Deidamia Day, 39, lodging house keeper, and her four sons, the youngest, Allen, a mere three days old. Mary was ‘living on her own means.’ Deidamia had married in 1880 at London, Frederick William Day, a publican; he had died 27 March as a hotel waiter at the house, just a week before. Mary died some years later.
Back to Frederick, her husband. How did he fare in America ?
He went to Nebraska, in a district that had only been settled in the mid 1860s. The Plainsman Museum located in the nearest town, Aurora, kindly sent me (with other interesting material) an account told by neighbour Merle Jacobs to his grandson Ivan Jacobs. This includes:
Fred Campbell, a widower, came to Nebraska from Portsmouth, England and homesteaded 160 acres in Hamilton County in 1875 during the peak of the Nebraska settlement years. He built a small, single-story frame house, drilled a well, erected a windmill, built a barn, granary, and the blacksmith shop. He was a blacksmith by trade in England and brought with him all the tools and equipment to set up a complete shop.
It goes on to say that he had a peg leg and that everything was arranged in his shop to make things as easy as possible. He eventually left America at the urging of his daughter and sold the farm to Ivan’s grandfather.
This account isn’t quite right – he arrived in 1873, he wasn’t from Portsmouth, he was no widower, and while he was a blacksmith when he married he had of course kept a public house (he was not the only publican in St Leonards who was also a blacksmith). Maybe he was keeping his options open in a religious area.
In the 1880 census he was a blacksmith living with housekeeper Esther Sheedy, also born in England. Their marital status was not given. Several weeks later, on the 4th of July, they married at the house, he of course as a bigamist. Again marital status was not given, although Esther is referred to as Mrs. She stated that her father had the surname of Stuart. They were both about 50.
Her tombstone states that she was born in Westfield, only a couple of miles from the Railway pub. She was the daughter of a farmer (named Catt, not Stuart) in the 1871 census, and married in 1872, in the Uckfield area of Sussex, Cornelius Sheedy, an Irish-born police constable from Rye, Sussex. Cornelius died several months later. Several months later again the Campbells separated. Perhaps Frederick and Esther knew each other, and Esther was the cause of the separation. However, the 1900 US census stated that Frederick had immigrated in 1873, and Esther in 1880. Maybe it was a coincidence that they came from the same area of Sussex, and if she arrived in 1880 the two certainly wasted no time in marrying.
My readers may wonder why I am certain that this was the ‘right’ Frederick Campbell. Besides the information from the Plainsman Museum, there are two pieces of evidence for this, both from the Hastings Observer. First from the 14 August 1886 issue:
INTERESTING INFORMATION. – Many readers of this journal will remember Mr Frederick Campbell, late of the Campbell’s Hotel, St Leonards, who left this town about thirteen years ago for Nebraska, for the purpose of carrying out his trade as a smith, and pursuing farming there… returning to England about four years after first settling in America, and making his views known in regard to some matters of forestry, Mr Campbell obtained, through the courtesy of the then Mr Thomas Brassey, a quantity of pine seeds…
It goes on to quote from the Aurora Sun of July 2nd which described his farm in some detail, including 3,000 trees in a district which I believe lacks trees. It then says that his son, Noneus F. Campbell, sent a copy of that newspaper to Lady Brassey, who replied graciously. Thomas Brassey (1836-1918) was the 1st Earl Brassey, Liberal member of Parliament for Hastings. Why was the newspaper sent to Lady Brassey and not him ?
Second, from the 16 November 1901 issue:
HASTINGER GOING TO AMERICA. Many readers will regret to hear that Mr Noneus F. Campbell, of Aurora House, Caroline-place, Hastings, is about to leave the town, having decided to go to America, where he will help his father, Mr Frederick Campbell, who is 74 years of age, and is failing in health. Mr Campbell is a native of Hastings. He went to America in 1871, and on returning was for some years with the late Councillor John Wood… his future address will be Aurora, Hamilton County, Nebraska, U.S.A. The good wishes of his many friends will go with him to his new home.
Note that his house was named Aurora House, suggesting perhaps that his father had joined him in Aurora in 1873 after Noneus ‘went to America in 1871’. He had returned to England by 1876 when he married his first wife. Perhaps at the same time his father temporarily returned and obtained the pine seeds. As a widower with four children Noneus had married in 1894 at St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, Mary Anne Jane Shilton, a widow, and had a child by her. I wonder if his family accompanied him to America ? If so they were on different ships, as an N.F. Campbell, 48, caterer, was on the Philadelphia which sailed from Southampton to New York on the 23 November. I find it all rather peculiar.
Esther died in 1904 and was buried at Aurora. The Grand Island Daily Independent begins her obituary by stating that she died peacefully ‘after many years of patient suffering’. She was an invalid: ‘for the past seventeen years she had not been in Aurora and for fourteen years she was unable to get from the house to the road and ten years of this time unable to dress herself.’ Aurora was several miles away.
At some point Noneus and Frederick both returned to England, the latter after his wife’s death, with the Plainsman Museum having a carte de visite showing Frederick, complete with peg leg, with his by now widowed daughter Daedemia, made at a studio at Landport, a district in Portsmouth. This may explain the mention of Portsmouth in the reminiscences. The two were living together in Portsmouth in the 1911 census, where he died in 1915.
There are a number of unresolved issues and problems such as Noneus apparently going to America by himself and the lack of shipping information. When did the children learn that he had married a second time ? When did Mary, his real wife, know ? When did Esther Sheedy know ? Apparently the couple helped found a local chapel, too.
I am extremely interested in local history and appreciate the extent to which you have researched this family. Thank you for sharing.