Deeds of The Brewers Arms, 91 High Street, Lewes

The house became known as The Brewers Arms on its purchase by Obediah Elliot, the owner of a brewery in Fisher Street and already the tenant of the house, in 1769. In 1727 and 1733 the owner, Erasmus Rowe, was referred to at The Red Lion; his successor John Hayward leased the house as The Ship to John Bishop in 1744

The site was rebuilt by the brewers Page & Overton in 1905 - for plans, see 31 below, another copy of DL/A1/47/275; for a description of the former building in 1897, see SAS/ACC 1244/7 and for a photograph of it c1870, see Brent and Rector, Victorian Lewes (Chichester, 1980), plate 8

The house formed a freehold tenement of the manor of Lewes Borough, held by a quitrent of 4d. In 1624 the owner was Richard Knight, and the property described as late Dallington's (SRS 34 12)

Until 1691, the title also included a garden with a pigeon-house south of The Bull. This property was sold off in that year to Benjamin Henshaw and its deeds, now in the British Library, also include the title of The Brewers Arms. A summary of these deeds is included in the narrative below

It is suggested that the demise of the neighbouring Bull as an inn, which occurred in the mid-1690s, was the probable impetus for the use of 91 High Street as a public house

Until 1691, the title of 91 High Street also included a one-acre garden with a pigeon-house south of The Bull, which was sold off in that year to Benjamin Henshaw. The house, described as a messuage, brewhouse, stable, slaughterhouse and buildings near Westgate, had belonged to Richard Grisbrook [listed as owner in manorial rentals of 1655, 1673 and 1685] and his wife Ann. On 14 January 1690 Richard's son John Grisbrook of Lewes, butcher, mortgaged both properties to Elizabeth Miller of Chiddingly, widow, and in October of the same year they were sold to Rogers and Rossum, with whom the title in the deposited deeds begins - see BL Add Ch 30669-30671

On 30 & 31 October 1696 the property was sold by Thomas Rogers of Iford, gent, and Robert Rossome of Cliffe, brewer, to Erasmus Rowe of Lewes, cordwainer, for £120; it was described as

A messuage, slaughterhouse, stable, buildings and backside near the Westgate in Lewes St Michael, occupied by John Eager (N: High Street; W,S: a back lane leading to a messuage formerly called The Bull Inn; E: messuage and backside of John Marten)

On 1 September 1711 Erasmus Rowe mortgaged the property, now in his own occupation, to Richard Moore of South Malling, shepherd, for £70 at 5%; £20 was repaid to Moore on 1 September 1725 and £50 to his widow Hannah on 11 October 1731 (1-3)

By his will of 1735, Erasmus left his dwellinghouse to his wife Mary for life, with remainder to the children of his two daughters, Elizabeth Turner and Martha Heward. He died in 1738, and the will was proved at Lewes on 20 February 1739. Mary Rowe was buried on 15 December 1745 (4)

Obediah Elliott of Lewes, brewer, whose lease of the property expired on 25 December 1769, agreed to buy it from the several members of the Turner and Heward families in which it was vested at the end of 1768. His son John Elliot, a Lewes attorney, obtained an extract from Erasmus Rowe's will, and also extracted details of the baptisms of the seven children of John and Martha Heward. On 20 January 1769 J A Stainsby of Lincolns Inn gave an opinion that the seven children of William and Elizabeth Turner and Martha Heward who were alive at Mary Rowe's death in 1745 were entitled to the estate; Elliot endorsed it with instructions to [?his clerk] Mr Taylor to make copies for his father and for William Turner (4, 5)

A contract for the purchase of the Turner share was executed on 27 September 1769. It refers to the house as a messuage in two dwellings known by the sign of The Ship, part occupied by John Ansell, victualler, and part by Richard Skinner, yeoman. As well as the purchase price of £66 13s 4d, the value of their two seventh shares, Elliot gave a further £20 to compensate William Turner for £78, representing a moiety of 23 years' rent of the building, which he had received by mistake and had been required to repay to his children, nephews and nieces (6)

The conveyance, followed by a final concord, was executed on 22 & 23 November 1769. The vendors were William Turner the elder of Phillips Lane in St Mary Aldermanbury, London, warehousekeeper, his wife Elizabeth and their children Thomas Turner of Wood Street, Cheapside, London, brassfounder and William Turner of Wood Street, cooper, and Martha Hayward of King Street in St James Westminster, widow of John Hayward, and their four surviving children Thomas Hayward of Streatham in Surrey, carpenter, John Hayward of Sackville Street, St James Westminster, yeoman, Jane Hayward of Duke Street, spinster, and Henry Hayward of Carnaby Street, St James Westminster, hosier. Another son, James Hayward, had perhaps died since the counsel's opinion had been obtained in January 1769. The purchase price was £220, and the messuage on the east was then owned by William Stafford (7-10)

On 10 October 1771 Obediah Elliot insured the pub, then called The Brewers Arms and occupied by Hugh Tulley, victualler, for £250, an empty 'back house', formerly occupied by Richard Skinner, for £100 and a stable and wash-house in one building for £50. (11)

On the death of Obediah Elliot his property was inherited by his son, the attorney John Elliot. By his will of 31 October 1779, he left his late father's house in Lewes St John and The Brewers Arms in Lewes St Michael to Bateman Robson, esq and Roland Lickbarrow, gent in trust for the benefit of his sister Elizabeth Elliot and wife Margaret Elliot for their lives, with remainder to his cousin Obediah Elliot of Hartfield, younger son of his uncle John Elliot of Hartfield, in tail male. The executors proved the will in PCC on 2 March 1782, and the insurance policy was transferred by the agent Araunah Verral to Elizabeth Elliot on 14 October 1782 (25, 11)

Margaret Elliot died on 23 March 1791, Elizabeth Elliot on 6 January 1799, and in June 1800 Obediah Elliot, his wife Sarah and eldest son George suffered a recovery of his entire estate (12, 13). As well as the Brewers Arms, it consisted of

Messuage, yard and 7a called Roughtie in Hartfield, occupied by John Baldwin, formerly purchased by John Batchelor from John Beach

Messuage, barn, stable and 30½a called North Clay in Hartfield, lately part of the manor of St Tye, occupied by John Farmer, late Alexander Farmer, and purchased by John Batchelor from Jeremiah Curteis

Newly built messuage, barn and 36½a, formerly wood, with Bramble Grove or Toll Wood (5a 1r 8p), all called Sandhurst (formerly Riddings and Bramble Grove) in Hartfield, occupied by John Kenward, and purchased by John Batchelor from Jeremiah Curteis

Messuage in three dwellings with gardens in Hartfield, occupied by James Everest, [blank] Leany, widow and Edward Young (late Benjamin Dobson, John Slater the elder and John Slater the younger), (E: Hartfield Street; N: tenement formerly occupied by John Elliot; W: part of a tenement lately occupied by Sarah Luck; E: tenement lately occupied by Samuel Slater), purchased by John Batchelor from Francis Blaker

Messuage, shop and gardens in Hartfield, occupied by James Downard (W,N: duke of Dorset; E: road; S:ditch dividing it from tenements of John Slater and Jospeh Spencer), purchased by John Batchelor from Edward Medhurst

Messuage called Mill Place otherwise Chilleys with barns, stables, buildings and 120a in Buxted (E: High Hurstwood - Crowborough road; S: Turklands, formerly Thomas Medley before Pettit; NW: Newnham Park, land formerly William Coe; NE: Crowborough Common), occupied by George Elliot, purchased by John Batchelor from Hannah Alchorn

Messuage and garden in Fisher Street, Lewes (W: Fisher Street; E: garden of the New Bank, late [blank] Wheatly, spinster; N: messuage, buildings and yards late Serjeant William Kempe, occupied by John Whiteman; S: premises belonging to The Star Inn), late John Elliot, gent, before his father Obediah Elliot, before Sarah Phillery, spinster, formerly occupied by John Gell, before Charles Scrase, before John Elliot, before Obediah Elliot

John Elliot's will had provided that James Wood, the occupier of the Brewers Arms, should remain tenant at the same rent. The property was sold to him and his trustee, his son John Wood of Lewes, victualler, by Obediah Elliot (then of Ringmer, gent) and his trustee Henry Thurloe Shadwell of Ringmer, esq for £625 on 4 & 5 January 1802 (14, 15)

By his will of 2 March 1805, James Wood left the Brewers Arms to his son John Wood, subject to a £40 annuity to his wife Mary and legacies to his daughters Elizabeth wife of Abraham Curtis of Cliffe, flaxdresser, Martha wife of Thomas Baxter of Southover, an excise officer and Mary wife of Jesse Wood of Boreham in Wartling, shopkeeper; the will was proved at Lewes by William Verrall of Lewes St John and John Blaker of St Michael, mercer, on 26 November 1807. Discharges were given for the legacies charged on the personal estate in December 1807 and January 1808 and for those charged on the real estate (that of Martha Baxter being witnessed by Abraham Walter, customs riding officer) in January and February 1821, after the death of Mary Wood in April 1820 (16-21)

By his will of 30 June 1820, John Wood left the Brewers Arms to Joseph Jones of Lewes St John (formerly of the Sussex Militia) and William Daynes of Keymer, butcher, in trust to allow his widow Sarah Wood to carry on the business for as long as they thought fit, and with power to appoint another fit person to run the house, or to sell it. By a codicil of 25 April 1825, Wood appointed Burwood Godlee of Lewes, merchant, trustee in the place of William Daynes deceased. Jones was buried at St Michael's on 8 May 1825 and Godlee proved the will alone on 10 June 1825 (22). Burwood Godlee and Mrs Wood mortgaged the Brewers Arms to John Rickman of Ringmer, esq, for £600 at 5% on 29 September 1827 (23). Sarah Wood married William Stephens of All Saints, widower, at St Michael's on 14 November 1828 (26)

The Brewers Arms, occupied by James Wood, was auctioned on the premises by Verral & Son on 30 December 1837, and sold to James Scott of Keere Street (acting for the Southover brewer William Verrall) for £1730. An abstract of title, drawn by Woollgar & Auckland of Cliffe, was delivered to Mr Verrall the following day, registration certificates obtained on 22 and 23 February and the property was conveyed to William Verrall and his trustee John Blaker the younger by William Stevens of Wexlow Farm near Southall, Mx, farmer and his wife Sarah on 22 & 23 March 1838; the mortgage to John Rickman was paid off from the purchase price (28, 29)

On 3 July 1891 the house was let to Horace William Graham of Lewes, innkeeper by Francis Verrall of Southover, brewer, on a monthly tenancy from 24 June 1891 at an annual rent of £40 (30)

Verrall's Southover Brewery was sold to Page & Overton of The Shirley Brewery, Croydon, in 1897; for the particulars, in which a detailed description of The Brewers Arms appears, see SAS/ACC 1244/7

Plans for the rebuilding of the front of the property were prepared on behalf of Page & Overton, brewers by E H Fuller of Lewes, architect, in October 1905, and approved by the Lewes bench on 7 November 1905. They also show a building behind the public house containing a club room on its upper floor, which was to survive the demolition of the rest of the property (31)

Fuller prepared plans for the replacement of the old club-room with a single-storey building with cellarage beneath it in August 1922 (32); the plans were approved by Lewes Borough Council on 6 December 1922 see DL/A1/49/524

The land tax charged on the property was redeemed by Page and Overton's Brewery of Croydon on 2 September 1950 (33)

In about 1980 Colin Brent provided the landlord Mr Dobson with extracts relating to the house from his research in the correspondence and papers of the Pelham family in the British Library (34)

Documents deposited 28 September 1994 (ACC 6474)