William Mantell Eldridge, St Leonards brewer and public house owner

In the 9 May 1848 issue of the Sussex Advertiser there was a report on magistrates hearing an application for a liquor license.

This was by Louisa Barnett, single woman, for the license of the Tivoli Inn, recently held by Richard Harman. She was represented by her lawyer, Mr Baker. The Tivoli was situated on the site of what is now Knight Accountants, where Battle Road and Sedlescombe Road North converge in Silverhill, near Asda. The inn later moved to Battle Road.

The inn had been assigned by Harman to his creditors in July 1847, and as a result Barnett now held possession, but Harman had refused to give up the license to Barnett as attempted by Mr Quaife. The whole situation sounded straightforward, but there was a twist. The newspaper continued in this fashion:

The Bench enquired if there was any certificate of the good character and fame of the applicant.

Mr Baker submitted that the proper notices having been served on the officers of the parish in which the house was situate, that this application would be made, and no one being here to oppose the granting the license, it was not for the justices to inquire into character.

The Bench – to Mr Quaife – Is it not notorious that the applicant is living with a married man. Cannot reply to the contrary.

The Bench – From our knowledge of the common reputation of this woman we do not feel justified in granting her the license.

Application refused accordingly.

When I came by chance across this article I obviously wanted to know who the married man was. He turned out to be a substantial figure in the St Leonards liquor trade, William Mantle Eldridge. He appeared frequently in the newspapers, sometimes in an unflattering light.

In the 1841 census at Silverhill Richard Eldridge, 55, was an innkeeper. Next door was presumed relation William Eldridge, 44, brewer, together with Louisa Barnett, 30, and Alfred Barnett, 3 months old. William Eldridge’s own wife, whom he had married in 1819 in London, she as Venis, was in the same census at St Leonards Green with four young daughters, aged 5 to 15.

Both William Mantle Eldridge and Louisa Barnett were named as parents in the baptism at St Leonards church, 8 July 1849, of Richard Hastings, noted as an illegitimate birth. Their other children do not seem to have been baptised.

The 1851 census at the Tivoli Road House gives the following household:

W M Eldridge, head, M[arried], 52, brewer employing 17 laborers farmer 9 laborers on 225 Acres of Land, born Sussex

Alfred Barnett, son, 10, born Sussex

William Mantell Eldridge, son, 7, born Sussex

Louisa Barnett, dau, 5

Richard Hastings Barnett, son, 2

Louisa Barnett, servt, U[nmarried], 39

Mary Moore, servt, 18

Selina Cloke, servt, 15

Normally places of birth are given in the census but it is missing for some occupants here.

He was involved in numerous business activities. His first enterprise appears to be running the Saxon Hotel, which was built for him in about 1831 (at the location of the Bonjour café, at 13 Grand Parade). This was according to a letter by T.B. Brett in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 25 March 1905, when the building was being demolished.

At various times Eldridge held the Tivoli tavern, the Norman Hotel (now the Piper), the Crown Brewery on Shepherd Street (which in 1851 was selling Eldridge’s St Leonards bitter ale) plus adjacent beerhouse the Crown Tap (later the St Leonards Arms), the Horse and Groom in Rye, the Old England, the Yorkshire Grey (the Admiral Benbow in its last manifestation), and other pubs in Hastings, including the Swan Hotel, and other houses and shops. It made sense, of course, for a brewer to have a chain of public houses to sell to. Louisa Barnett’s brother, James Barnett, was landlord of the British Queen, North Street in 1855, and in 1857 the Tivoli Tavern.

There is a great deal more on him on the Historical Hastings website by Helena Wojtczak, who says his own birth was illegitimate. She mentions him going bankrupt. On this hint I was able to find, in the London Gazette, 2 January 1838, a hearing to be held at London to audit the accounts of William Eldridge of the Swan Hotel, hotel-keeper and brick-maker, dealer and chapman. This was following a ‘fiat of bankruptcy’ awarded against him on the 20 July 1837.

The Brighton Gazette, 6 August 1840, had a poignant case before the Bench on the 30 July, though they confused Eldridge’s forenames.

LOUISA BARNETT v ELDRIDGE. A case of assault. It appeared in evidence that complainant, who lives with the husband of defendant, N.W. Eldridge, of the Tivoli Tavern, was walking with him at White Rock Fair, when she was assaulted by Mrs Eldridge, who met them, and tore the bonnet and cap from the head of complainant. Mrs Eldridge did not deny the charge, but pleaded the excitement of her feelings in extenuation. Under these circumstances the Bench dismissed the case, and the complainant and her paramour were greeted with some unharmonious yells as they left the neighbourhood of the Court.

In the Sussex Advertiser, 26 October 1840, Mrs Eldridge appeared again before the Bench to ask for agreed maintenance payments to be made:

Mrs Eldridge, wife of William Eldridge, asked for her 5s a week, which had mutually been agreed to. Told to apply to overseer of her parish.

I do not know the outcome.

An indication of Eldridge’s temper is given in an almost farcical rumpus in February 1848. The following account is taken from the Sussex Advertiser, 15 February 1848, and the Brighton Gazette, 17 February 1848. It was a case before the magistrates of James Waters v William Mantell Eldridge and four other men, all his own staff.

Eldridge was behind on mortgage payments on the Crown Brewery on Shepherd Street by £2 16s to Mr Beecham. James Waters was put into its possession and was authorised by Mr Voysey the auctioneer to go inside it. He spent two hours there, and then Eldridge appeared. He asked what business Waters had there, and then ordered Waters out. On Waters’ refusal, he gathered some of his men, two of whom brought broom handles. ‘Mr Eldridge asked me if I valued my head, I told him I didn’t know as I did much, Mr E said if you do not go out I will knock your brains out.’ He was marched out, pushed onto the footpath, and Eldridge struck him three times over the head with a bat, although Waters stated that he was not hurt because of his hat. All the men were fined, Eldridge 20s and costs, two of the men 5s each, and the two others 10s each.

Again Eldridge did not come off in a good light in the Sussex Advertiser, 18 June 1850:

Mr W.M. Eldridge applied for orders of ejectment upon John Brooks and Thomas Britt, two labourers, occupying cottages near Silver Hill farm. The former attended the bench, and stated his inability to procure another residence. Orders, however, were granted in both cases.

In the 1851 census the youngest daughter by his wife, Flora, was a servant at Ashburnham Place, and her sister Caroline Sarah was a visitor at a farmer’s in Battle. In the same census their mother was 52, married, born Guestling, a visitor at 121 All Saints Street in Hastings’s Old Town. This was the house of Samuel Gutsell, 39, grocer, and his wife – Mrs Eldridge’s sister — Hannah, 39, born Guestling. In the 1861 census Caroline Sarah and Mary Ann were running a lodging house at 57 Eversfield Place. I have not attempted to trace the children by Louisa Barnett.

The Sussex Advertiser, 28 December 1852, had a barbed notice on the death of Mary Eldridge. It was obviously inserted by her side of the family, though it did hide the estrangement.

ELDRIDGE. – December 21, at Hastings, age 54, Mary Ann Eldridge, wife of Mr William Eldridge, Crown Brewery, St Leonards. In the hope of a joyful resurrection, after many years of bodily and mental sufferings, leaving four daughters and many friends to lament her loss.

At a time when divorce was virtually impossible this of course released the couple to marry, which they did on the 27 April 1853 at Battle, he a widower, 53, of Battle, she 42, spinster, of St Leonards on Sea. Both left a blank for the father’s details.

He appeared twice in the London Gazette. In the 26 April 1853 issue Solomon Stubberfield of Silver Hill Terrace, beer retailer, petitioning as an insolvent debtor, was said to be in partnership with Eldridge. In the 5 August 1853 issue it was stated that the partnership between George Bennett and William Mantell Eldridge of St Leonards on Sea as Bennett and Co. was dissolved by mutual consent. I do not know more than these enigmatic mentions.

The 1851 census said that Eldridge was a farmer as well as a brewer. In the Sussex Advertiser, 30 September 1856, the itemised livestock and implements of Loose Farm, Battle, was for sale at auction following the termination of Mr W.M. Eldridge’s lease. Also, the 29 August 1857 issue has a sale by the same at Burnt Chimney Farm, whose lease was expiring, of live and dead stock from Burnt Chimney and Brans Hill farms, Battle.

Eldridge appeared again in a poor light in the Sussex Advertiser, 28 July 1857, if only with his threat of defenestration. Langham, with the closing quoted remark in this extract, was his solicitor.

A TAX COLLECTOR v A TOWN COUNCILLOR. William Mantell Eldridge was summoned to show cause why he should not be bound over to keep the peace towards Charles Valentine Levitt, who alleged that defendant had used threats towards him.

Mr J.G. Langham appeared for defendant.

Complainant deposed – I live at 21, North Street, in the parish of St Mary Magdalen, a collector of income and property tax. Last Thursday, about 12 o’clock at noon, I was in an up-stairs room at the Anchor Inn, in George Street, passing my accounts to the Surveyor. The defendant entered the room and had not been there long before he began to abuse me, and called me a liar, a —- rascal, and a robber. He also said, “I would throw you out of the window if you were here alone.” When he was leaving the room he threw out his left arm and said “You —-, I will give it to you when I catch you alone.” He then left the room, and I am now afraid he will do me some bodily harm.

Mr Hickes – Did you give him any provocation ?

Complainant – No, Sir, I did not give him any whatever.

Mr Langham – I believe Eldridge came there to complain that you had charged him more taxes than he ought to have paid.

There was a great deal of questioning. Eldridge was bound over in his own recognizances of £20 to keep the peace for six months. Levitt was not happy at the light penalty, but reluctantly accepted it on Langham’s advice.

The Sussex Advertiser, 29 December 1857, had a detailed report on Moses Ade, charged with unlawfully assaulting and ill-treating Thomas Cook, one of Eldridge’s employees at the brewery. Ades also had to keep the peace towards Eldridge and his lawyer, Langham. In a long but entertaining story, Ade was in a beer shop arguing first with Mr Mose, Eldridge’s rent collector, and then with his groom. This was witnessed by Cook, who heard Ade saying he would leather Eldridge and all his men. Cook made the mistake of trying to calm Ade down in a friendly fashion, so Ade gave him a black eye and broke a window. Cook thought Ade was sober at the time. The defendant was fined £2 including costs, or six weeks’ imprisonment.

William Mantle Eldridge died on the 16 July 1858 at St Leonards. There was no notice in the newspapers. At his burial in Sedlescombe, the location of his baptism, he was said to be 65, and of St Mary in the Castle. He left a small estate of £300, which would not have included the value of his properties.

The Brighton Gazette, 2 September 1858, announced in three adverts the auction on the 23 September at the Swan Hotel of mostly freehold property including the Norman Hotel, the Crown Brewery, six houses on London Road, the Queen’s Head and the Crown Inn in Hastings, the Bell Inn in Bexhill and the King’s Head at Horsebridge, the Tivoli Hotel and several nearby cottages. Eldridge is not named but I am sure these were all his properties.

He did have one property at least on a mortgage. The Sussex Advertiser, 14 September 1858, had an application for the renewal of the licence of the Old England, the occupier being a unnamed tenant ‘of the late Mr Eldridge, who held a lease from the Law Property Office, in London.’ Someone had to collect the rents, and the Sussex Advertiser, 5 October 1858, reported on the case of Edward Mose v James May where Mose stated that he was collector of rents for the late Mr W.M. Eldridge. This was Edwin Mose, a house agent at 20 London Road.

It is remarkable that he had achieved so much both as a businessman, and had been elected at least three times as a councillor in view of his unusual domestic circumstances in Victorian England, besides his obvious temper.

What of his widow ? The Sussex Advertiser, 14 September 1858, reported the case of Rosina Francis, ‘a young woman of very respectable appearance’, who was charged with stealing clothing from her mistress, Louisa Eldridge, a widow living at 15 East Ascent. Many juicy details were included in a long account, with her 14-year-old daughter Louisa Eldridge (who had the surname of Barnett in the 1851 census) mentioned. Rosina claimed that Louisa had used ‘very abusive language’ to her. The case was dismissed by the Mayor, and ‘this announcement from his worship was received with loud applause from the body of the hall’, and silence needed to be restored by the police. Clearly the audience did not like Louisa. Her lawyer stated that his client would not have brought an unfounded case.

I cannot trace her further until the 1891 census when she was a lodger at 3 Upper Shornden Terrace, which is now London Road, roughly opposite St Matthew’s Church. Louisa died in 1895 in the Hastings area.