Correspondence of the Revd John Philip Gell, rector of Buxted, concerning a proposed...

Copies of documents from the archive of the Gell family of Hopton Hall, Derbyshire

<p>The school opened in 1883 and closed in 1936; for logbooks, 1883-1936, see ESC 97; for Education Department files on Poundgate School, 1921-1932 and 1936, see PRO ED 21/40906, 62016; for files on Fairwarp Church of England School (formerly Ashdown Forest National School), 1881-1914, 1919-1935 and 1938, see PRO ED 21/17271, 40978, 62083; for Alexander Nesbitt's correspondence with the Education Department pressing for the enlargement of Fairwarp School, see PRO ED 2/434/10138, ED 7/121 no 92 (cited in Janet H Stevenson, 'Alexander Nesbitt, a Sussex antiquary, and the Oldlands estate' in SAC 137 (1999) 161-73 at p167).</p>

Derbyshire Record Office

The originals of the letters were deposited at East Sussex Record Office by Col Philip Gell, Hopton Hall, Wirksworth, Derbyshire, 8 June 1967 (ACC 5591), and were returned to the Derbyshire Record Office, to be re-united with Gell's other papers as rector of Buxted among the Gell of Hopton Hall archive, in May 2004.

These papers concern the successful attempt of the incumbents of Buxted and High Hurstwood to resist the rating of Buxted to support educational provision of 32 Buxted children at Fairwarp School within the parish of Maresfield. The proposal was the result of a campaign by Alexander Nesbitt of Oldlands in Maresfield, who in 1879 began to press for the enlargement of Fairwarp School, which had been built in 1873. He viewed it as futile 'to expect anything like regular attendance from children living from two to four miles distant from a school', and the correspondence of the Buxted incumbents is based on a similar assumption.

The means chosen was the erection of a new school at Poundgate in High Hurstwood, to which the reluctant parishioners were encouraged to contribute by threats of a School Board, that future rating might be demanded in respect of Buxted children living near Crowborough and the loss of the legacies for a school in the wills of Francis Vernon Harcourt and his wife Catherine, former owners of the Buxted Park Estate.

A certain coolness can be detected between Gell and his main correspondent, the Revd Edward Sanderson, vicar of High Hurstwood (written as three words throughout these papers). Sanderson slightly testily reminds Gell that it was he who had originally pointed out the risk of the Maresfield proposals; Gell on a number of occasions corrects Sanderson's understanding of the legal points at issue. Gell's letters, addressed 'My dear Sanderson', are relentlessly answered 'Dear Mr Gell'.

John Philip Gell (1816-1898) was born at Matlock in Derbyshire on 10 March 1816, the son of the Revd Philip Gell of Duffield Bank (1783-1870) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Chadwick Dod. He was educated by Dr Arnold at Rugby and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1835; his brother Charles Augustine Gell (1819-1840) died at Trinity and their brother Frederick Gell, Hebrew lecturer at Cambridge 1850-1852, served as bishop of Madras from 1861 until his death there in 1819.

Dr Arnold induced John Philip Gell to travel to Tasmania to organise the educational projects of the governor; he was ordained deacon there in 1843 and priest in 1844. He acted as chaplain to the bishop of Tasmania 1844-1848, and as warden of Christ's College, Hobart, 1846-1848.

Returning to England, in 1849 Gell married Eleanor Isabella, daughter of Admiral Sir John Franklin of Spilsby in Lincolnshire. In the same year he became curate of St Martin in the Fields, London, of St Mary, Bryanstone Square, 1850-1854 and vicar of St John, Notting Hill, 1854-1878. He was presented to the living of Buxted in 1878 and died at 36 Hyde Park Square, the residence of his son, on 12 March 1898.

Edward Sanderson (1839-1930), educated at Lancaster Grammar School, entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1859, and obtaining a rowing blue in 1862. Ordained priest in 1868, he was curate of Acton in Middlesex 1867-1871, St James Westminster 1871-1875, and vicar of High Hurst Wood, 1875-1880. In 1880 he became rector of Uckfield, which he served until retirement in 1927; he became a canon of Chichester in 1903, and died at South Lodge, Uckfield, on 24 June 1930 (The Times, 31 July 1930). In 1872 he married Mary Jane, eldest daughter of Henry Scott Turner of Acton. Their only son Ronald Harcourt Sanderson (1876-1918), also a rowing blue and a colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, was killed in action on 17 April 1918.

John Banks Meek Butler (1839-1897) was the second son of Charles Salisbury Butler, MP, of Upper Clapton. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1858, was ordained priest in 1863 and served as curate of St Leonards, 1862-1865, and of Langton in Kent 1865-1869. He was rector and patron of Maresfield 1872-1897 and died there on 1 May 1897.

William Henry Berkeley Portman (1829-1919), eldest son of Edward Portman, first Viscount Portman (1799-1888) and Emma Lascelles, sat as Liberal MP for Shaftesbury, 1852-1857 and for Dorset, 1857-1885. In 1855 he married Mary Selina Charlotte Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, who in 1877 inherited the Buxted Park estate under the will of her aunt Lady Catherine Julia Harcourt, née Jenkinson (1811-1877).

For Alexander Nesbitt of Oldlands in Maresfield (1817-1886), see Janet H Stevenson, 'Alexander Nesbitt, a Sussex antiquary, and the Oldlands estate' in SAC 137 (1999) 161-73.