A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Beer-brewing was still partly in the hands of 

 aliens, a prominent Flemish brewer at Brighton 

 being Derrick Carver, the first Sussex man to 

 give his life for the Protestant faith during the 

 Marian persecutions ; his descendants continued 

 the business at Brighton for two or three 

 generations. A beer-brewer, Thomas Nokes, 

 occurs at Hastings in 1553, others at Rye in 

 1568, 1583, 1589, and i6n, 15 at Southover in 

 1593, an( ^ Ditchling in i6iO. 16 By this time it 

 is probable that, in spite of the poor opinion of 

 beer expressed by that worthy Sussex dietist 

 Andrew Borde, this form of malt liquor had 

 largely supplanted the older ale, and that many 

 of the ' brewers ' who occur in ever-increasing 

 numbers throughout the county were as much 

 ' beer brewers ' as those persons who retained 

 that distinctive title. 



Rye has already been mentioned as well 

 supplied with brewers, 17 and it would seem that 

 they were not always content with the lawful 

 profits of their trade, for in 1575 the mayor 

 wrote to Lord Cobham, warden of the Cinque 

 Ports, that the bakers were complaining of the 

 ruin of their trade, 



by reason of the brewers (who oughte by the lawes of 

 this realme not to be bakers also) have by our sufferance 

 (but the rather for that Robert Jacson is towards your 

 Lordship) used both to bake and brewe of long time, 

 whereby Robert Jacson (God be thankid) is growen to 

 good welthe and the whole company of the bakers 

 utterly impoverished. 16 



Hastings was another place where the industry 

 took an early hold ; a brew-house called ' the 

 Rosares' was held by John Brabon in isSg, 19 

 and the beer made in the town was so excellent 

 that when the Hastings representatives went to 

 Yarmouth as bailiffs of the Cinque Ports, they 

 took care to have a good supply sent to them, 

 and on 12 October, 1608, they recorded, 

 ' especially at this and all other meetings, our 

 beere which we had sent to us gave great 

 content to the Yermouth men.' M Had they 

 inquired into the process of manufacture the 

 content of the drinkers might have been lessened, 

 for next year it was recorded that not only were 

 the new brew-house and malt-house lately erected 

 by John Brett very dangerous for fire, but that 



the Licquor out of the Bourne below the Courthouse, 

 wher w th he breweth and yeateth his malt in them, is 

 very corrupt and unwholesome for man's body. It 

 is ordered therfore that hensforth he shall not sett up 



11 Cal. of Wills at Lewes. 



16 Suss. Rec. Soc. i. 



" In 1 649 six brewers and a maltster were amongst 

 the inhabitants of Rye who signed the ' Engage- 

 ment ' ; Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxix, 1 9-26. 



18 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. pt. iv, 48. 



19 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxiii, in. 

 " Ibid, xix, 200. 



any put gaily to take up water there but the same 

 shalbe taken downe. And he is further injoyned not 

 to use in brewing or yeating any of the Bowrne 

 water betweene the south corner of the George and 

 the sea, upon paine of loos.' 1 



Chichester had not only several breweries, but 

 early obtained more than a local celebrity for its 

 malt, much of which was exported to Ireland 

 from the time of James I onwards. 22 In 1684 

 the parish accounts of St. Peter's, Chichester, 

 show three persons rated for malt-houses, and in 

 1709 there were eight malt-houses in this parish 

 alone. At this latter date the town council 

 passed an order 'that no person do dry malt 

 with burning straw, for the better preserving 

 this city from the dangers of fire.' 23 At the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century another 

 Chichester parish, the Palant, ' had a few houses 

 of the better sort, but in general were very old 

 and consisted much of malt-houses' ;** in 1760 

 ' prodigious quantities of malt ' were still made 

 in Chichester, 25 but shortly after this the industry 

 much decreased, and Spershott, writing about 

 1780, says that in 1725 'there were 32 malt- 

 houses in working, but now not half that 

 number,' 26 while Hay in 1804 speaks of the 

 manufacture as being on the decline ; 31 there is, 

 however, still a certain amount of trade in malt 

 from this town, though it is now of little im- 

 portance. A mention occurs in 1732 of a 

 malt-house on the Goffs at Eastbourne, in which 

 town a brewery, which still exists as the well- 

 known Star Brewery, was started in the seven- 

 teenth century by William Hurst, whose 

 descendants also held for some time a brewery in 

 South Street, which was removed to new build- 

 ings in 1870, but subsequently abandoned. 28 

 Lewes was naturally of some importance in the 

 brewing industry from an early date, and the 

 poll book of 1 8 1 2 gives the names of six brewers 

 in that town. In i849 29 there were 'several 

 large breweries' at Lewes, two at Steyning, 

 three at Rye, 'a large brewery' at Hailsham 

 (probably dating from about 1803, when barracks 

 were erected there), ' two breweries on a large 

 scale ' at Arundel, and several breweries at 

 Hastings. The numbers of persons in the 

 county engaged in the malting and brewing 

 industries in 1891 were, respectively, 132 and 

 495, in 1851 they were 132 and 608, and in 

 1901 only 100 in the former, but 619 in the 

 latter. At the present time there are, apart 

 from branches of firms belonging to other 



" Ibid. 



" Dallaway, Hut. of Rape of Chub, i, 203. 



n Suss. Arch. Coll. xliv, 173. 



14 Ibid, xxix, 225. 



15 Ibid, xliv, 1 699. 

 K Ibid, xxx, 1 50. 



" Hist. ofChich. 330. 



18 Wright, Bygone Eastbourne, 70-1. 



" Lewis, Topog. Diet. Engl. 



262 



