In 1773, an Act of Parliament was obtained for erecting and holding a daily market, Sundays excepted; and the waste land of the Bartholomews being a central situation, and the common property of the town, it was fixed on for the site of the said market. The workmen, who were employed in digging for the foundation of this building, happened to cut through a little cemetery, which seems to have belonged to the chauntry of St. Bartholomew, and were so strongly impressed with superstitious awe, by the bones which they uncovered, that they refused to proceed with their work. The vicar, the Rev. Henry Michell, being informed of their scruples, came to the spot, and instead of exerting his personal influence, which was very great over all classes of his parishioners, or vainly combating the prejudices of ignorance with reason, applauded their veneration for the supposed remains of Christians, but assured them that all who had ever been interred there were rank Papists. Their first prejudice being thus laid by a stronger, the men resumed their work, and turned over the rest of the bones with the apathy of grave-diggers.
About fifty years since, in one of the old tumble-down houses which occupied the site whereon now stand the Schools of Mr. Henry Catt, by the “Knab Pump,” resided Thomas Herbert, a short, stout, fat, and greasy old fellow, possessing but one eye, who professed to make the best sausages out of Germany. He was a maker of small meat pies and sausages; and with these he exhibited his “Publications for Sale.” He was the author of the play, “Too much the Way of the World,” and likewise of “A Brief Sketch of Human Life;” which, with his other literary works, lay cheek by jowl with his comestibles. He had been a butcher; and the following specimen of his literary talent, written in a bold hand, in his window, expressed the cause of the change in his occupation; as he stated he was one
“Who, for want of cash, the shambles spurn’d,
And is for once a play-wright turn’d.”
Chapter IX.
THE WORKHOUSE.
From the deepest research which the compiler of this work has been able to make, he cannot find that any Workhouse existed in Brighton prior to 1727, in which year the following entries appear in the Town book:—
February 26th, 1727,—That a mortgage be effected on the workhouse, to indemnify Thomas Simmons, in paying the moneys he made of the materialls of Blockhouse, to the constable and churchwardens; by them to be disbursed in payment of materialls and the workmen employed about building the workhouse.
May 10th,—Order in Vestry for Churchwardens and Overseers,—with all speed to borrow £50, to pay for materials and workmanship about the Workhouse, in the building of it, to be repaid out of the poor rate, or taxes to be raised in the parish, on or before the 10th of May, 1728.
At a public vestry meeting, held at the Old Ship, October 18th, 1727, it is agreed that the Churchwardens and Overseers shall take up with all convenient speed, and borrow one hundred pounds, upon interest at 5 per centum per annum, towards building the new workhouse.
Amongst the minutes of the public vestry, 13th November, 1727, there is the entry of a contract being entered into, between the parish and Thomas Fletcher and Thomas Tuppen, for digging and steining the well to the new workhouse, complete, with fittings, for ten guineas.
The Workhouse at this period was evidently of very limited extent. But in 1733 a portion of the Almshouses in connexion with the chauntry of St. Bartholomew was added to the building. The spot is now occupied by the east end of the Brighton Market. A tenement for the poor previously existed in East street; and in 1690, in consequence of the great increase of the poor-rates, on account of the inroads of the sea, and the injury experienced by the town from the civil and foreign wars of that and the preceding century, by order of the Justices at the quarter Sessions, at Lewes, the following parishes, that had no poor of their own, were called upon to make the following contributions:—
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Patcham, the yearly sum of | 17 | 16 | 7 |
| Hangleton | 4 | 16 | 9 |
| East Aldrington | 6 | 1 | 1½ |
| Blachington | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Ovingdean | 6 | 0 | 10½ |
| £38 | 17 | 10 [53] |
Formerly the recipients of parish relief were compelled to wear an insignia of their pauperism; as in a vestry minute appears the following:—