Letter describing the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Lewes

The annual country meeting and show of the Royal Agricultural Society took place in Lewes between 14 and 16 July 1852, and co-incided with elections for the borough and county parliamentary seats, of which only the latter was contested. In the words of the Times correspondent, 'the inhabitants of this usually quite town are thrown into no small state of bewilderment'. This letter, written by the labour-master at Lewes Prison to his daughter, probably at Uckfield, vividly brings to life the excitement which gripped the town on this occasion. William Shephard (1798-1865), the author of the letter, was baptised at Uckfield in 1798, and is possibly to be identified with the William Shephard who married Maria Vine at St Martin in the Fields in London on 2 September 1821. Their daughter Martha, to whom the letter was written, was possibly the girl of that name born on 9 July 1824 in the parish of Lewes St John and baptised at the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel in the Cliffe on 8 August. By 1830, when he voted for Sir John Shelley, William was a tailor living in St Martin's Lane (LEW C5/3). Between 1835 and 1837 he joined the staff of the House of Correction in North Street, where he was on duty in 1841, enumerated as a taskmaster. Maria and five of her children were at home in St Martin's Lane (TNA PRO HO 107/1120/4, 6). William Shephard seems to have been interested in politics, and his voting pattern can be traced from the poll books for the Lewes Borough seat (LEW C5/3). At every election between 1830 and 1841 Shephard gave both his votes to the Conservative candidate, but in 1847 deserted the party and plumped for the Liberal Robert Perfect, the only former Tory voter in the Borough to do so. His decision to boycott Henry Fitzroy, to whom he seems later to have been reconciled, was probably a result of his vote in favour of the Maynooth Grant, which caused many Tory Nonconformists to take the same action: Colin Brent, 'Voting patterns at Lewes in 1865 and 1868'; Southern History 2 (1980) 129-178. Maria Shephard died on 24 December 1863 and was buried in Lewes Cemetery five days later; William, described as a trades instructor at Lewes prison, died on 7 April as a result of a severe fracture of the leg (East Sussex News 14 Apr 1865) and was buried at Lewes Cemetery on 10 April. The ceremony was conducted by the Revd Ebenezer Vinall, minister of the Jireh Chapel in the Cliffe (DL/D1/1). In 1841 Martha Shephard was already in service in Uckfield, where she was to remain until her marriage to Eli Durrant of Waldron at Lewes St Michael on 23 August 1858 (PAR 414/1/3/2); their first child, William Shephard Durrant, was baptised at Uckfield on 24 April 1859 (PAR 496/1/2/3). Durrant, a carrier at the time of his marriage and in 1861, was by 1871 a gardener at Waldron, and was buried there on 10 March 1899; Martha followed him to the grave on 27 December of the same year. William Shephard's son Thomas Shephard (1827-1903) joined the staff of the new prison in 1852, having occasionally worked at its predecessor in North Street. In 1871 he was a resident of Keere Street, and retired from the prison, as gatekeeper, on ill-health grounds in 1888. Described by his obituary as an ardent Liberal, he had been a founder of the Lewes Co-operative Society and a member of the board of its Building Society. He died at 6 New Road on 19 March 1903 (East Sussex News 12 Oct 1883 p5, 27 Mar 1903 p5).

<p>For a copy of the souvenir issue of the Sussex Express for the Royal Agricultural Society of England's meeting at Lewes, with an engraving showing the south view of Lewes and the exhibition yard, 1852, see ACC 8792/16; for papers in the archive of the former Lewes Borough Council concerning the holding of a Royal Agricultural Society show in Lewes in 1852, including a minute book, Mar 1849 - Jan 1853, see LEW/C/9/58; for a narrative of the Corporation's planning for the show, see 'The Town Book of Lewes 1837-1901 (SRS 70) 72-3, 81-7; for a view of Lewes from the South by Thomas Henwood, showing the Dripping Pan equipped with booths for a show, see Helen Poole, Lewes Past (Phillimore, 2000) 114.</p>

Purchased for £40 with the aid of a grant from FESRO, 11 May 2006 (ACC 9425)