The Brett Manuscripts have been transcribed by Rod Lavers as part of "Hastings Local History Resource"

Rod has over the years been working on a number of things to try and help anyone doing local history research with the intention to eventually be able to electronically search through the indexes of all the Hastings history books and antiquarian guide books, all at the same time, and to further know what Hastings pictures, drawings and photos were already in print or in private collections, and what subject matter they showed. This would all then be combined in order to help others with their archaeological and local history research.

Thank you Rod, I am happy to be able to publish your work.

Chapter Twenty Four: Hastings 1840 Page 231

Great fire in Breed's yard - Rocklands cottage burnt down - Rocklands, the abode of Canning, (with memoirs and statue of that statesman) - Election of Planta; his residence at Fairlight - Louis Napoleon at Hastings - Political trial (Harman v. Planta) - Harman re Morley - Wingfield re Harman - "Dover Chronicle” errant James Troup (libelous and scurrilous criticisms) - Apology demanded and granted - Municipal elections - Shipbuilding and launching of vessels - More smuggling, with heavy losses and fines - The Condemned Hole as an ornamental enclosure - The Commissioners and the Turnpike Trusts - Burying ground at the Swan Lane - Criticism on the Rev. F. Hazlewood, in connection with an organ fund - Mr. Ross's life and death - Mr. Bayley's bankruptcy - Reminiscences of the Town Halls of 1700 and 1824.

Chapter Twenty Five: St.Leonards 1841 Page 238

Mr. Troup and his houses - parish officials - A breach in the boundary wall - Norman road and Lavatoria united - Erection of Commissioners' office - Agitation for open meetings - Local support of the projected new road - The Bexhill burglary and transportation of the gang - Planta and Hollond benefiting the borough - Political travesty of facts - Municipal elections - The new Infirmary - Arrival of the steam carriage. Fatal accident to Joseph Mepham - The census - (Deaths in 1841). Interpolatory.

Chapter Twenty Six: Hastings 1841 Page 242

Planta and Hollond's rivalry; ditto canvassing, nomination and re-election - Speeches at the hustings - The new Parliament-Conservative majority of 96 - Commentary on the addresses - The Lushington divorce case - Trial of Earl Waldegrave and Capt. Duff - Commissioners' meetings - Proposed consolidation of funds - Offers to give up front gardens at York Buildings - Town Council meeting - Resolution to make a road over the Government ground - A political sketch - Marriages, deaths, etc.

Chapter Twenty Seven: St.Leonards 1842 Page 252g

The town and parish officers - Arrangements for the fire-engine - Melancholy drowning of a pleasure party - A fishing boat run down - Fatal coach accident - Other fatalities - Philanthropic movements - Amusements - Celebrating the visit of the Prince of Wales - Horticultural Society established - Progress of the Archery Society - A new venture in journalism, - First .coaches to meet the South-eastern Railway at Tunbridge Wells – Illness of Mr. Hollond - The political situation - Two Martello towers sold - Mismanagement of the London and Brighton Railway and absconding of two St.Leonards officials connected therewith.

Chapter Twenty Eight: Hastings 1842 Page 256

Progress of the Infirmary Commissioners' money difficulties - The Lamentations of Euthymas - Coaches meeting the railway at Tunbridge Wells - Regattas and tub races - The Afghan war (predictions and fulfilments) - Sussex Advertiser office burnt down - Disgraceful touting - Town Council denouncing the Home Secretary's appointment of magistrates - Marriage of Miss Shuttleworth - Deaths of influential inhabitants - Municipal elections – Other deaths in 1842 - The turnpike gate nuisance - Mismanagement of the Hollington road; the clerk accused of misappropriation, and Mr. Tester, the contractor, unpaid - Petition trial for wholesale bribery at the Lewes Election and curious compromise; astounding admissions; Mr. Elphinstone’s expenses £6,000 - The Battery to be added to Marine Parade.

Chapter Twenty Nine: St.Leonards 1843 Page 265

The Commissioners' proceedings - Mr. Burton asked to open the Archery grounds and Subscription Gardens free to visitors - Remarks on foreshore defences both at St.Leonards and Hastings - Parochial officers - Bazaar at he Assembly Rooms and sermons at the churches resulting in £657 for the Infirmary - The Queen off St.Leonards - A frozen sea - Troup's accusation against the Infirmary management (a stormy meeting and a crowded court) - Efforts to obtain railway accommodation and a day-mail - Renewal of touting - A terrific wind - The comet of 1843 first discovered by the writer of this History - The effects of cemetery visitations treated of - coaches first running to meet the railway at Staplehurst - Fatal coach accident - Oddfellows balls and ornate decorations - Festivities and successions of the Eversfield’s - Interpolatory Obituaries - Samuel Woodgate; J.L. Linney; Mr. Springett; Mr. Shoesmith; Mrs. Peters.

Chapter Thirty: Hastings 1843 Page 269

Mr. Brisco's grand procession as High Sheriff - The new prison question - Further proceedings against path obstructers - Disputation over Beach terrace property and defiance to the Council - Completion of road across the Government ground (now Robertson Street) - The lighting of said road a knotty question - Opposition to the Income Tax and Factory Bill - Regatta and Flower shows - Converting the battery into an additional length of parade. Deaths in 1843.

Chapter Thirty One: St. Leonards 1844 Page 272

The Commissioners and their meetings - The Brighton and Hastings Railway to have a station at St. Leonards - Nuisances to be abated - Miscellaneous improvements - Management of fire-engine - More money difficulties - Parochial matters - Railway contention (the two towns in opposition) - Planta accepts the Chiltern Hundreds - Requisition to Mr. Brisco for M.P. - Independent conduct of a St. Leonards voter (an unpardonable sin in political economy, displeasing to partizans) - The trading vessels - The steam boat "Waterman” on the rocks - Wrecks of the "Kent and the Mary Ann" - Drowning of Capt. Granville Elliotts - A carrier fined £100 - Deaths and life sketches of William Lucas-Shadwell, T.C. Bartram and Charles Deudney  Golden Wedding of James Murdoch - Marriage of T.B. Brett - "General Tom Thumb" at St .Leonards - Deaths in 1844 - Interpolatory obituaries (in 1883) of George Potter, Mrs. Beal (a centenarian), Mrs. Thomas (a nonagenarian), and Robert Deudney, J.P. - The St.Leonards Caves - Gilbert's tooth-drawing invention - Surgeon's patient turned doctor (a noteworthy incident).

Chapter Thirty Two: Hastings 1844 Page 275

Meeting at Hastings in support of the Tenterden, Rye, and Hastings railway, in opposition to the St.Leonards meeting, which favoured the BRIGHTON, Lewes and Hastings railway - Resignation of Sir Joseph Planta - Musgrave Brisco and Robert Ross Rowan Moore competing .candidates for the vacant seat - Nomination speeches - Election of Brisco, followed by a grand procession - The "Golden Roll" emended and annotated - Municipal elections - Mr. Moore again at Hastings, with Mr. Richard Cobden.

Chapter Thirty Three: St. Leonards Page 277

The front line buildings in 1845 - Troup versus Ricardo - The faggoted road - Post-office returns - Meteorology of the year - A broken-winded church organ and resignation of the organist - Unfortunate disputations - The Commissioners in 1845 - Parochial officers of St. Leonards and St. Mary Magdalen. Rev. J. Murray's efforts in providing a Christmas dinner for 250 children - The same gentleman assisting at the new Fairlight church - View of the old church - Terpsichorean festivities - The writer as a musician and dancing master - A surprise at the Oddfellows' ball - The two town bands uniting - The "Battle of Hastings” painting and all about it.

Chapter Thirty Four: Hastings 1845 Page 282

The Borough Members: their efforts for local benefits Petitions to shorten Sunday labour in the Post-office - Mr. Brisco's liberality and Liberal Conservatism - Municipal elections - Death and interment Alderman Duke; memoirs of his family ;his burial place at Battle; view of his grave and that of the restored church - royal visits and notable events at Battle - Sir Godfrey Webster's movements at Hastings - Members of the old Hastings band and well merited eulogy on their ability - Numerous instances of longevity - Minor events of 1845.

Chapter Thirty Five: St. Leonards 1846 Page 285

The History of St.Leonards. - Commissioners and parochial officers - Rating the Brighton railway - Improving the West Marina road - New houses for Mr. Burton and Miss Dynely - The “Old England Bank" (with view) - The spring at White Rock - Preparing roads for dedication - Brighton railway opened in Bulverhythe and the event celebrated - Stage coaches ceased running and the same lamented in song - Railway accident near Pevensey - A rush from Shoreham -

Oddfellows anniversary – Life sketch of Signora Berrurier - A new site for the National Schools - Orders to re-prepare 33 of the towers for defence - Lucrative supply of material when first built, by Hastings men.

Chapter Thirty Six: Hastings 1846 Page 288

Accidents on the ill-lighted road at the Priory - Removal of the ash yard for the south eastern railway - Looking back on old conditions - The Priory Farm (with view) - Fishermen's rope-shops destroyed by fire - The East Well (with ancient view of the spring) - £100 for a catch of mackerel on New Year's Day - Free trade and Protectionist meetings - Mr. Scriven's re-occupancy of the Swan Hotel - Death of Major General Sir Howard Elphinstone - The pretty race course - Musical novelties - The weather of 1846 - Family litigation (Protestantism versus Romanism - Groynes and criticisms thereon - The year's fatalities - The game of curling at Beauport - Consecration of Fairlight Church (with view).

Chapter Thirty Seven: St. Leonards 1847 Page 292

Reminiscences evoked by the Queens Diamond Jubilee - New Commissioners - The old and new Bopeep inns - parish officers - The great snowstorms of 1847 - The year's weather in general - The one-man choir at Hollington - The first houses at White Rock and its previous condition (with view) - Verulam place and the Infirmary (with view) - The new National schools - Archery meetings - Railway accidents on the Brighton line and meetings to urge on the construction of the Ashford and Hastings line - Chancery suit, Eversfield v Troup - Interpolatory. Mrs. Hollond, Sir Joseph Planta.

Chapter Thirty Eight: Hastings 1847 Page 300

Death roll of 1846 - Relief for the Irish - Daniel O'Connell at Hastings - Fairs and festivals - Borough Election - Carly and Harvey's election tricks - Memoirs of Carly and his family - Election of Hollond and Brisco - A gorgeous chairing - The "Blue Pill" election squib - Elphinstone’s resignation of Lewes - Hastings prosperous in 1847 - Establishing a savings bank and a proprietary school - A new Town Hall mooted - The local, Bands of both towns - Also a popular nigger band - George Colbran, the veteran gaoler - Numerous sudden deaths - A gay wedding - Cooke's circus and Wombwell's menagerie side by side - Reminiscence of Cooke's establishment in 1823 - Stage-coaches taken off - East Hill House and memoirs of its owners and occupiers from 1761 to 1888 (two pictorial sketches).

Chapter Thirty Nine: St. Leonards 1848 Page 305

Commissioners meetings - Sea Wall again damaged - Costly repairs and underpinning - Tenders for a new groyne - High tide and amusing incident - Hastings endeavouring to force St. Leonards under the Health of Town's Act - Names of fly-proprietors licenced under the new bylaws - The Magdalen parish officers and their transactions - Election of medical officer by the Board of Guardians, and a retrospect of the magnificent pay of parish surgeons in 1757, 1784 and 1834 - A Fever Ward built for £350 - Acrimonious rivalry of Cox, the crier, and Lettine the bill-sticker - Accidents and incidents (including serious hurt to "St. Leonardensis” the present writer) - Three days Flower show, in consequence of wet weather - Founding of Mechanics Institution - The Adelaide Lodge of Oddfellows - Over £40 and £51 after sermons by C.D. Bell and G. D. St. Quintin - Mr. Councillor Murton leaves St.Leonards and his business taken by Mr. (afterwards Councillor) Maggs - Mr. Hempstead (Mr. Murton's assistant) established a prosperous business at 14 Grand parade - Mirage, meteors and other phenomena - Discovery of a mineral spring - French coast seen from Fairlight - view of Fairlight Mill - Description of objects seen by General Roy at Fairlight - namely, 67 churches, 5 castles, 1 abbey 2 promontories, 3 harbours, 3 bays, 2 towers, 13 market towns, 1 lighthouse, 16 barracks or camps, 6 signal stations and 3 military beacons - Additional towers and other objects since Gen. Roy's observations in 1787 - Curious coincidences and fulfilled predictions - A remarkable storm - Meteorological musings - Extracts from a local diary (including "Invitations to Early rising", "Arithmetical Riddles" "The Mariners Grave", "On the death of two children", "Better days", "English Christmas Home" "Long Credit", “Ode to Music", etc.) - Heat and drought - Numerous deaths - The murder of a cook - The Hastings News on Poetry - Municipal elections - Mr. Ransom on Mechanics' Institution.

Chapter Forty: Hastings 1848 Page 317

The new bye-laws for flys adopted - "Flys and flies" - Resumption of coach travelling - Snowstorm in April - Health of Towns Bill discussed - Practical application of Chartism declined by a chartist - Proposed new street - Cox the crier :his house and habits - Macadamising All Saints Street - Names and trades of the Commissioners "Donkey Riding" - Friction between Councillors and Commissioners - Warm discussion on a proposed District Prison Bill - Arrangements for bathing and boating. The East Well to be an ornamental fountain - An address to the Queen and Prince Albert - Various occurrences - Philip Kent's run down - Other maritime casualties - Plucky rescue by James Coppard - Immense catch of fish - Regatta and races - Rearing dinner at Mr. Lucas-Shadwell’s mansion - Popular entertainment by the local "Virginian Brothers" - Public performances of. Brett's St.Leonards Band and Wood and Elliott's Hastings Band - Hastings Mechanics' Institution Soiree - Opposition to the Income Tax - Archaeological Society at Hastings - Rev. Canon Bell and Isaac Todhunter at Hastings - Appointments of John Banks to Parker's School, Frederick Foster to Saunders, and Andrew Crawford to the Proprietary - Discovery of Iguanodon remains at the Gasworks - Numerous sudden deaths - on the Descent of the Castle, Rape and Honour of Hastings - Tenements in Hastings of the Abbey of Fecamp - Whitsuntide festivities - Lines on "Liberty" - 1848 an important landmark of history - Original lines "Shout Out!” - The Chartist demonstration - Military defence of London - Extracts from a local diary – “Why doth oppression stalk the land” - Revolution in Paris - The Irish Rebellion - Interpolatory - Antiquarian relics - View of the ruins at Bulverhythe in 1808.

Chapter Forty One: St. Leonards 1849 Page 327

Mr. Catley's register of the extraordinary rainfall of the preceding year - The tabulated rest of St. Leonardensis, and curious extracts from his diary - The birth of Mr. Burton's daughter in the year of her father's Mayoralty - The event forgotten 37 years later, when Mrs. Bradnam is presented with a silver cradle for giving birth to a child while her husband was Mayor, as "the only instance known to the Council during a mayor's term of office" - Twenty-one similar cases enumerated to dispel the illusion for Burton (the first Mayor elected from St. Leonards) during his official year; attends the annual Bachelor’s Ball; convenes a meeting for getting the County Leamstock Show at Hastings; corrects the Times paper concerning some brown lands; gives a dinner to the Corporation and Borough officials; suffers bereavement by his brother, Dr. Henry Burton; is elected President of the newly formed Mechanics' Institution; is present at its first soiree when the town is 21 years old; is an invited guest at the London Lord Mayor's banquet; is chairman of the St.Leonards Commissioners; displays a generous spirit towards the towns improvement; and is highly complimented on retiring from office for his impartial conduct and valuable services - The drainage of the town the uppermost question - Parochial business of St.Leonards and St. Mary Magdalen - Wreck of the "Perseverance" - Dr. MacCabe' s letter concerning the port Campbell, with copy of a parody on the poet's "Address to the sea" - Lectures and concerts - The Liberals complain of Mr. Hollond not voting for Cobden's motion for Financial Reform - Mr. Hollond's reply - Sundry occurrences, including the death of Mrs. Hannah Beck, aged 98 - Accidental fires - Meteorological phenomena - "A Ramble through St. Leonards" - The French ex-Royals at St.Leonards - Another royal exile - Obituary of the Queen Dowager - Antiquities.

Chapter Forty Two: Hastings 1849 Page 333

Resuscitation of the "Hastings News” and extracts from its sensibly written reader - 23 Commissioners disqualified, one of them afterwards dying a centenarian - Erection of St. Andrew's railway arch on an altered plan - The Flimwell and Hastings Turnpike Bill - A passage of a re-improvement of the Marine parade - The absurdities of the Post-office lamp, and the "Ghost of the Old Commission" thereon - Mr. Wyatt, the path obstructionist unheeded - Resignation of Mr. Catley, the Town Surveyor - Mr. Gant recommended as successor, but Dungate Thwaites elected - A suggestion to raise the Surveyor's salary from £75 to £100, to ensure efficiency declared to be monstrous! Let it be £80 - Gift of the Pelham Place parade by the Earl of Chichester - Experiment of gas-tar on the acquired parade declared to be a failure - Dedication of St. Andrew's terrace, Spring terrace, Russell street and Prospect Place - Mr. Lansdell offers £1,000 towards a parade in front of Breeds place - Improving the outfall of the Bourne - Trouble with railway navvies, and rewards of 12 men for their assistance - Municipal elections - Board of Guardians meetings - Collisions and loss of vessels - Mackerel. caught on New Years Day - The "Fairy" on the rocks - Fishermen drowned - A lark at sea - Maritime bustle - Wreck of the “Lord Hill" - Raising a sunken vessel - The "Ariel" lifeboat - Refusals to be vaccinated - Magistrates not to be had, and a similar absence of presiding Alderman - Presentation to Mr. Harvey - Births, marriages and deaths - Numerous coroner's inquests - short obituaries of surgeon Ranger, Lieut. Hennay, Charles Coleman, Mrs. Glandfield, Mercy White, Hugh Penfold, Mrs. Mackay, Mr. Helland, Henry Everett and Mr. Cooke - Trial and execution of Mrs. Geering of Guestling, for poisoning her husband and two sons – Life sketch of the murderess - Accidents and fatalities on the railway works - Robberies by the navvies - Lectures and entertainments - Public improvements - Orthographical profundities - The last meetings and transactions of the Hastings Commissioners; their powers being absorbed by the Town Council, as the Local Board of Health.

Vol.  3 - End