Deeds of the Egremont Arms Hotel and 1 Little Western Street, Brighton

The Egremont Arms Hotel was built on two pieces of land:

1 part of 8 pauls called The Blacklands in the Hedge Furlong, formerly the Duke of Dorset

2 part of 8 pauls formerly Thomas Friend

Land formerly the Duke of Dorset

The manor of Brighton was among the estates settled on the marriage of Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex, and Grace Boyle on 24 and 25 October 1744. Lord Middlesex became Duke of Dorset on the death of his father Lionel Cranfield Sackville, and died without issue in 1769, when the estates passed to his nephew John Frederick Sackville, son of his younger brother Lord John Philip Sackville. On 21 April 1769 the duke barred the entail on the estate by common recovery, and on 1 and 2 January 1790 settled them on his marriage with Arabella Diana Cope, spinster (2).

On 29 and 30 September 1795 the Duke of Dorset acquired from the trustees of his marriage settlement (Frederick [Howard], Earl of Carlisle, and George [Capel Coningesby], Lord Malden) an estate in fee simple in property in Brighton in exchange for land of greater value in Hartfield and Withyham which he had purchased in March of the same year from Charles Sackville, Lord Sackville. The estates were described as:

1 barn, stables, wagon-lodge and adjoining close, lately erected and enclosed, with eight yardlands (58a) in the common fields of Brighton, occupied by Nathaniel Kemp, esq, John Hicks, innholder, and Mr Lupino, at rents amounting to £115 12s 6d.

2 messuage and 188¼a called the moiety of two barns otherwise Perry Hill Farm, occupied by John Hall at £120, before John Spencer, with The North End of Long Shaw (5a 2r 20p) and Home Grove Wood (11a 1r 8p) in hand, in Hartfield and Withyham [for the title of this land see below]

By his will of 28 March 1796, the duke bequeathed his estate to his wife Arabella Diana for life, with remainder to his son George John Frederick Sackville and his heirs in tail. The duchess subsequently married Charles Whitworth, Lord Whitworth. On 11 September 1804 they paid £3537 2s 2¾d to redeem £96 9s 4d charged on estates in Gloucestershire. Towards that sum the farm and eight yards of land in Brighton were valued by James Ingram, gent, and William Tuppen (a Quaker), and sold to Thomas Kemp of Coneyborough in Barcombe, esq, for £2062 8s 9d on 26 December 1804 (2). Part of the property was described as:

1 piece of land (12 pauls or 1a 1r 31p statute measure, being the third field in the West Fields in Brighton (N: the Second Field; S: the Fourth Field, both late Thomas Friend, formerly Gunn)

2 piece called The Blacklands (8 pauls or 3r 15p statute measure) in the Hedge Furlong next to Wickland in the West Laine of Brighton (N: 24 pauls late Thomas Friend, formerly Gunn's; S: the West Fields hedge).

Land formerly Thomas Friend

By his will of 6 March 1761, Thomas Friend bequeathed his farm in Brighton which he had purchased from Sackville Tufton, Earl of Thanet, and his farm called The Priory (19a) in Brighton which he had purchased from William Shadwell, gent, late Gunn's, to his wife for life, with remainder to his nephew Thomas Friend and his heirs in tail, and successive remainders to his nephews John Kemp, George Kemp and Nathaniel Blaker. The will was proved in PCC on 11 January 1762 (2).

Thomas Friend the nephew died a bachelor and was buried at Brighton on 23 December 1763; George Kemp was buried at Lewes St Michael on 3 November 1767 leaving Thomas Kemp as his eldest son and heir. In April 1771 John Kemp joined his nephew Thomas Kemp to settle the estate, formerly occupied by Philip Mighell, on Thomas Kemp's marriage with Ann Read (2).

John Kemp died without issue and was buried at Brighton on 29 September 1774 and, doubts having arisen concerning the validity of the recovery of 1771, a further recovery was suffered in May 1775. On 15 May 1797 Thomas Kemp appointed a sum of £5000 in favour of his only surviving daughter Ann Kemp, and a further sum of £5000 on her marriage with the Revd George Bythesea, on which a settlement was executed on 17 May 1797. George Bythesea died on 14 December 1800 leaving an only child George Bythesea. On 14 June 1806, by which time Ann Bythesea was a widow, Thomas Kemp settled further sums on his son Thomas Read Kemp. George Bythesea the son died, aged 9, in 1809. On 26 July 1809 Ann, now the wife of Abraham Cumberbatch Sober, esq, agreed with the trustees of her marriage settlement to extinguish a sum settled on her in return for an annuity of £250. By his will of 1 May 1810, Thomas Kemp appointed his son Thomas Read Kemp his executor; Thomas Kemp died on 3 May and the will was proved on 19 November 1811 (2).

As to both properties

Thomas Kemp bequeathed his estates, excluding the manor of Brighton, to his brother Nathaniel Kemp, esq, and William Brett Whitfeld, clerk, in trust for sale for the payment of his debts and to raise £10,000 for specified purposes, with remainder to his son Thomas Read Kemp, to whom he bequeathed the manor of Brighton. On 23 and 24 April 1819 the trustees vested the remaining estate in Thomas Read Kemp and his trustee George Hoper, gent; the deed incorporated a schedule of 36 properties in East Chiltington, Lewes and Brighton, with the names of the purchasers, which the trustees had sold since 1811 (2).

On 20 February 1818 Ann Sober, then a widow, released her brother from the liability to pay the sums secured by the settlements of 1771 and 1797 (2).

On 26 and 27 September 1825 Thomas Read Kemp sold four pieces of land to William Manfield in trust for Thomas Hoskins of Gosport in Hampshire, merchant, Thomas Turpin of Commercial Road, Lambeth in Surrey, gent, and Charles Turpin of Lambeth, gent, who had paid the consideration of £2919. The land, described in detail, lay between Western Road on the North, to Western Street on the East, to part of the Revd Thomas Scutt's Wick Farm on the West and to land sold to Charles Ewer, late James Mills, on the South. It measured 100 feet wide from East to West and a total of 402 feet from North to South on the West side and 417 feet on the East side. Detailed covenants in the conveyance secured a building-line five feet back from the roads and a minimum value of £600 for the houses to be built on the North or East fronts of the land (2).

On 11 and 12 August 1826 Thomas Hoskins sold his third share in the property to James Turpin and his trustee Theodore Turpin of Commercial Road, lighterman, for £973; the money was paid by William Manfield. On 1 and 2 January 1828, when houses had been built and were in the course of erection by William Manfield, the remaining third shares of Thomas and Charles Turpin were conveyed to Manfield and his trustee the Revd James Caporn of West Thurrock in Essex, clerk, for £1946 (2).

On 24 November 1828 William Manfield of Brighton, late of Denmark Hill in Surrey, esq, leased the Egremont Arms Hotel, on the north-west corner of Norfolk Square, with a house at 1 Little Western Street, to William Bulbeck of Brighton, innkeeper, for 14 years from 29 September 1828 at £65 for the first year and £130 thereafter; a plan of the buildings appears on the lease (3-4).

On 20 July 1829 Bulbeck mortgaged his lease of the Egremont Arms, 'together with the erections, buildings and improvements', to Edward Beard and Charles Henry Chitty of Lewes, brewers, to secure the sum of £500 and further amounts to a total of £980, including £200 for beer; on 1 October 1830 Bulbeck acknowledged that the debt amounted to £900 (5). On 26 September 1831 Bulbeck assigned his personal estate to Thomas Atkins Inman of Brighton, grocer, and William John Faithfull of Brighton, gent, for the benefit of his creditors.

On 7 December 1831 Beard and Chitty, who were owed £958 6s 7d on the mortgage of 1829, assigned the lease to Inman and Faithfull for £250 in discharge of the outstanding sum (6-7). On 9 December 1831 Bulbeck and his trustees assigned the lease to John Lewis of Brighton, cabinet-maker, who had purchased the fittings of the Egremont Arms and adjoining house; the trustees were satisfied that their interest in the lease was worthless (8).

On 27 September 1832 John Lewis assigned his interest to William Manfield of Denmark Hill and William Grane of Hampstead in Middlesex, gent, to enable them to grant a new lease. The following day Manfield and Grane, with the consent of Elizabeth White the wife of Thomas White of Stonehouse near Stroud in Gloucestershire, clothier, granted a lease of the Egremont Arms for 21 years from 29 September 1832 at £100 to Charles Ewer of Brighton, coal-merchant; a plan of the property appears on the deed, which is endorsed Lot 12 (9).

On the same day Manfield and Grane leased the tenements, stables, coach-houses, buildings and out-houses in Little Western Street (details) to John Lewis of Brighton, cabinet-maker, for ten years from 29 September 1832 at £35 (10).

On 8 December 1842 William Manfield of Brighton, esq, and William Grane of Bedford Row in Middlesex, esq, granted a lease of 1 Little Western Street, consisting of a house and workshops (plan), to John Smith of 6 Bedford Place, Brighton, carpenter, for 21 years from 29 September 1842 at £26 (11-12).

In June 1846 John Smith agreed to surrender his lease to Manfield and Grane and died the following month without executing any deed. His will of 19 April 1846 was proved at Lewes by his wife Isabella Smith and George Coleman of Waterloo Street, Hove, brass-founder, on 15 December 1846. William Manfield died on 19 September 1851 and on 8 June 1852 Isabella Smith and George Coleman, then of 46 Western Road, Brighton, surrendered the lease to William Grane (11-12).

William Hallett of Brighton, brewer, to whom the lease of the Egremont Arms had been assigned, surrendered the term to William Grane who on 23 June 1852 granted Hallett a new lease for 21 years from 29 September 1851 (9).