Hi Morleyman
First of all you can view historical directories free at:
http://www.historicaldirectories.org However, whilst I cannot help re. Brighton baptisms I have been doing a little digging and have a theory. It seems strange that whilst there are a number of Tuppen's in Sussex there is no trace either in births or the census pre 1911 for James Alfred Tuppen. I then decided to look for an Albert Tuppen and have come up with something which could well be a red herring and you may dismiss it entirely.
Albert as a christian name wasn't hugely popular until the late 19C so to find there was an Albert Tuppen in Sussex intrigued me. There are a large number of Tuppen's on Ancestry Public Trees 2 of which related to an Albert Tuppen b.1856 Willingdon, Sussex (the trees take this line back quite a way). One of the entries lists him on the various census - in 1871 he is 15 and an Ag. Lab., 1881 and 1891 a Stoker at Water Works, and 1901 a Pastoral Labourer. He died in 1905. You probably think I'm off my trolley at this point but bear with me.
The other entry was not very detailed but a note had been put on showing
'Gardener for Lord Willingdon'. (The local manor was owned (in 1867)by Frederick Freeman Thomas and from googling it seems that his son - or some other member of the family - became 1st. Marquess of Willingdon and Lord but not until after 1900). Since he does not appear on any census as a Gardener the person who submitted this entry must have some personal knowledge of Albert. I wonder if he first worked for the local manor as a gardener and at the tender age of 14 had his wicked way with a young servant girl with James Alfred being the result. He'd have been too young to make an honest woman of her and she'd have been fired no doubt from her post and sent back from whence she came (Brighton??)!!!
That being so he would have been registered in his mothers name and appear under that on the census or, indeed if his mother subsequently married, under his step-fathers name neither of which helps us to locate him and at what stage he decided to take his father's name is unknown. He may have known Albert in later life and when Albert died in 1905 decided to use the name Tuppen then. Seems strange that we find no trace of James Alfred as a Tuppen until his marriage the following year. All theory on my part of course but it makes some kind of sense.
What do you think?
Annette