Records of Lewes Borough before incorporation in 1881

LEW

Records of Lewes Borough before incorporation in 1881

1542-1919

Summary of classes

LEW/A/1-7 Lewes Savings Bank minutes of the trustees and managers, rules, depositors' ledgers, repayment books; 1816-1918

LEW/B/1-5 Lewes Branch of the Hove War Hospital Supply Depot committee minutes, annual reports and accounts; 1915-1919

LEW/C/1 Lewes Town Books; 1542-1882

LEW/C/2 Constables' records, consisting of account books, vouchers to account, plan of the Borough of Lewes, plan of the Godfreys in East Chiltington, agreement with S H Smart concerning a window and waste pipe provided by the Constables on a recently erected water closet attached to a house on the High Street which forms part of Steere's Charity; 1693-1882

LEW/C/3 Lewes Town Commissioners minutes, letter books, account books, copy of the Lewes Improvement Act, papers concerning the purchase of a shop on Fisher Street for road widening, security on the rates; 1806-1881

LEW/C/4 Lewes Swimming Baths committee minutes, cash account book; 1861-1869

LEW/C/5 Papers concerning Parliamentary elections, consisting of precepts for the election of Burgesses, registers of electors, poll books, returns of elected Burgesses; 1586-1868

LEW/C/6 Papers relating to weights and measures, consisting of a letter from the Privy Council announcing that the new set of standard weights is available for collection, certificate of receipt of a set of standard measures, receipt for making and verifying the standard measures; 1588-1700

LEW/C/7 Lewes night patrol papers, consisting of patrol lists, nightly patrol reports; 1830-1831

LEW/C/8 Charities and Town property papers, consisting of bonds and securities, deeds of the Rotten Row (Slutter's Grant) Charity, Ann Smith's Charity, Broken Church (St Nicholas) Charity, Earl of Dorset's Gift, securities for the new market, sale particular and papers concerning letting the shop under the tower adjoining the Crown Inn, conveyance of the Pells; 1557-1878

LEW/C/9 Other records, consisting of an exemplification of a plea in the Queen's Bench concerning Lewes bridge, letter from the Privy Council announcing the king's need to raise money by a voluntary contribution, order for the collection of a fifteenth and tenth, writ of fieri facias concerning the recovery of the debt against George Goodwin by the constables, order to levy 58s towards provision of coal for the royal household, letter concerning the delivery of gunpowder, letter concerning the repair of the town armaments, papers concerning the commemoration of peace at the end of the Crimean War, maintenance and repairs to fire engines, copy of address on death of Prince Albert, notices to quit town property, letter concerning Lewes Bonfire society, site for new market, plans of Odins Farm and Cinderhill Farm in Horsted Keynes, papers concerning the use by the borough of the new County Hall, deed of settlement of the Lewes Corn and Hop Exchange Company, papers concerning the holding of the Royal Agricultural Society show in Lewes, minutes, accounts, etc of the Royal Sussex Artillery Militia Fund, Patriotic Fund and Indian Famine Relief Fund minutes, account of the address presented to the King of the Belgians on his visit; 1594-1866

LEW/C/10 Cliffe Improvement Commissioners copy of the act, accounts, securities and rate book, Southover Lighting Inspectors' minutes, Treasurer's accounts; 1828-1881

English

About 500 items

LEW/C/8/4 and LEW/C/8/5 have not been deposited

The items in this collection have been deposited variously by Lewes Borough Council (between 1956 and 1974), Lewes Town Council (from 1974) and Lewes District Council (from 1974). The following is an incomplete concordance of accessions and references in this catalogue

ACC 174 (28 Feb 1956): LEW/A/1-7, B/1-5

ACC 1516 (1 Aug 1972): LEW/C/9/59/1-4

ACC 1536 (30 Oct 1972): LEW unidentified; LEW/C/1, 2/1, 2/2; 3/1, 2, 3; 4; 5/1-2; 5/3/1-4; 5/4; 6; 7; 8/1/6-8; 8/2/1; 8/3/1; 8/4/1-6; 9/60; 10/2b, 3

ACC 1977 (28 Jun 1976): LEW/C/5/3/30

ACC 1742 (26 Jul 1974), 1832 (11 Feb 1975), 1939 (7 Oct 1975): LEW/C/2/3/1-3; 3/4/1; 9/54/1-3; 9/55-58, 60

ACC 1570 (21 May 1973), 1945 (29 Mar 1976), 2017 (8 Oct 1976): LEW/C/3/4/2-4; 4/2/2; 5/3/5-29; 8/6/17/2-10; 9/62, 63

Victoria County History, Sussex, (1940)

7-43, contains the best concise account of the town's institutions and history

The Town Books provide the principal record of activity, which become increasingly informative under the influence of the Town Meeting in the last quarter of the 18th century. The Minutes and Accounts of the Commissioners under the Town Act of 1806 give a full account of the work of what amounted to an independent roads committee

These records relate almost entirely to the parishes within the ancient borough, from which the parishes of Southover and The Cliffe and part of St. Anne were excluded. Hence The Cliffe found it necessary to procure its own Town Act in 1828, and Southover needed to adopt the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833. However, the convenience of dealing with the town as a whole was recognised in the 19th century not only in the extension of the borough for the parliamentary franchise in 1832, but also in the habit of calling Town Meetings of the 'Extended Borough' when occasion arose, and which were entered in the Town Books. The Night Patrol Papers are a further example of this co-operation. The town was finally united under one administration (excluding however the urban sanitary authority and board of guardians) under its Charter of incorporation in 1881

Only casual papers outside the main record of minutes and accounts have survived, a few of them have been pasted or bound into the Town Books. The Town properties appearing in the lists below are incomplete. Of the Miscellaneous Papers attention may be drawn to the exemplification relating to Lewes bridge (1564), Privy Council letter for a benevolence (1622), and papers on the movement of munitions to and from Lewes (1678-93)

The minutes of the Court Baron of Lewes Borough, 1787-1800, which are, in effect, drafts for the Court Book of the manor and listed by V.C.H. have not been included in this list, having no connection with the borough records as such

The principal printed references referred in abbreviated form are

Rev. T.W. Horsfield, The History and Antiquity of Lewes and its Vicinity, I (1824)

L.F. Salzman (ed.) The Town Book of Lewes, 1542-1701, Sussex Record Society, 48 (1945-6)

W.H. Godfrey (ed.) The Book of John Rowe, Sussex Record Society, 34 (1928)

William Figg, Some Memorials of Old Lewes, in Sussex Archaeological Collections, 13 (1861)

Victoria County History, Sussex, 7 (1940), article on the Borough of Lewes pp. 7-43