Rye Castle Museum

Ledger Frontispiece

The Ledgers provide a remarkable primary source of information on the people of Rye and of the practicesof a Sexton during the mid period of the 19th Century. 

There are a considerable number of entries of burials in Rye Churchyard each noted with the date, the name of the deceased and how the burial was conducted – with many names familiar to us who live in the town today.  They include James Dengate’s own burial on October 31^st 1833.  

It is clear who was a high status person from the trappings of the burial – some with knells and tolling bells others much simpler.  Each entry details the fees for the burial. There are copious burials of infants but, of the adult population, there are also many for people who lived into their late 80s and even into their 90s, challenging the often- held belief that life expectancy in the 19th Century was short.   

These ledgers will provide genealogists with considerable information about the population of Rye – as well as provide information on tragedies in the area, as there are entries for sailors and fishermen who perished at sea.    

Death/burial of King George IV

Another interesting aspect of the ledgers are the entries for the deaths and burials of major national figures – which clearly required local activity to mark them.  There are, for example, entries for the deaths of George IV and William IV and also for the burial of the Duke of Wellington.  There is also considerable genealogical information about the Dengate family of Rye but the involvement of Dengate’s wife has not been fully established. It is clear however from these Ledgers that she continued in the role of Sexton to the Parish after her husband’s death, providing an unbroken family tradition for almost 30 years.  

The Ledgers have been scanned and put onto a CD which members of the public can  purchase for £10. 

If anyone wishes to contribute to the costs of this Acquisition, or to the Museum’s Acquisition Fund, so that purchases of similar documents or artifacts vital to the history of our Town can be made when the Museum is aware of them, please contact Rye Castle Museum at 3 East Street, Rye or email them on info@ryemuseum.co.uk.  

Receiving the ledgers

Extracts from A.G. Bradley, An Old Gate of England: Rye, Romney Marsh, and the Western Cinque Ports (London: Robert Scott 1918)      

The author possessed a wry sense of humour and wrote  in a delightful style.  His wife’s line drawings give a good idea of the Rye of nearly one hundred years ago.  It’s worth tracking down a copy.

Bryant knew the towns of England well, yet still begins his 77 page section on Rye with:

Rye is unique. There is no doubt about that. . . .         

Ship and Anchor, Rye (Marian E.G. Bradley)

Among the several reasons for this claim: 

You see it is a burgher’s town at a glance. The story is obviously that of its people, and it has nothing suggestive in its quaint streets and homely lttle houses, of Feudalism in any shape or form.  Moreover it is essentially of the south, of the sea, of the sand and of a lower-pitched Engtland. . . . The physical surprise in store for the stranger is partly due to the almost exotic character of the site .  . . . Here we have aninsulated sandstone rock rising sharply out of a green coast strip, that for twenty miles is as flat as a billiard table , and atually below the level of the sea, which breaks behind it upon interminable barriers of single or on low waving ranges of sand dunes.

Clustering upon the aforesaid rock and covering all but its three more or less precipitous sides, one sees the ancient town as a pyramid of red roofs climbing gently to an apex clearly defined by one of the noblest churchs in Sussex. . . .

Other examples of Rye’s  distinctiveness: 

- – - For there are no palatial mansions in Rye . . . . People who anywhere else would probably insist upon the modest minimum of three sitting and six bedrooms will often be found in Rye in picturesque snuggeries of half that accommodation.

- – - I have never met with any other country town that has inspired a local chronicler to write its history in over six hundred pages of small print; Rye has achieved this triumph.   {referring to William Holloway’s History of the Town and Port of Rye, 1847)

Some things in Rye have certainly changed since Bryant’s day however:

Grass is popularly supposed to grow in the streets of Rye,and rumour for once is justified, for the simple reason that in cobbled steets where there is small occasion for wheel traffic, grass always does grow.  Hastings folk have been heard to accuse the Rye Corporation of top-dressing it every spring to keep up the aesthetic reputation of their town. . . .

Rye’s appeal to artists is of particular interest to Bryant:

West Street, Rye (Marian E.G. Bradley)

Rye is, I suppose, the most painted town in England, both inside and out. . . . Artists revel in its quaint old cobbled streets, and rave over its distant effects under the magic lights for which the atmosphere of Romney Marsh . . . gets some general credit.  In the summer season they sit betimes in serried rows in the by-streets and plant their easels unconcernesdly on the pavement of the main thoroughfares.  No one notices them in Rye, even the urchins . . . .

He comments on Henry James’ fondness for jesting about the artists ‘that set up their campstools and easels so thickly along the approach to his front door’  and includes this quotation from James English Hours:

At favoured seasons, there appear within the precinct sundry slouch-hatted gentlemen who study her charms through a small telescope formed by their curved finger and thumb.  Leading a train of English and American lady pupils, they distribute their disciplees at selected points, where the master going his round from hour to hour, remids you of nothing so much as a busy chef with many causepands on the stove and periodically lifting their covers for a sniff and a stir.  There are ancient doorsteps which are used for their convenienve of view and wehre the fond proprietor coing and coming has to pick his way among the paraphernalia, or to take flying leaps over industry and genius.’

There is a great deal more . . . .

Catch up here on Events,  Opening Hours and Additions at our two sites, the Museum Website,  Book News,  Opening Hours,  The Women’s Tower Project and Volunteer Opportunities…..

There’s lots so keep scrolling down!     There are new articles and additions (e.g. photos) or changes to existing ones, so check out the Rye Castle Museum and Local History categories that interest you to see the latest.      The latest post is ‘Rye is unique’ under Said About Rye

 News Flashes and Coming Events

• Opening hours change at the end of October.  See Reminders below. 
• There will be a Volunteers Evening on Tuesday October 26th:  6:30 p.m. at East Street.   This is an event where we celebrate all the work done by volunteers (with refreshments) and invite ideas (many of which get adopted).    Even if you aren’t already a volunteer steward do think about joining us!   Come to get caught up on what’s happening at the Museum this next year and find out how you can get involved–interesting for you,  so helpful to the Museum which runs entirely on the good will of its volunteers.  See the note below under On Being a Volunteer.  
• Read about Rye Museum’s  Young Archaeologist below.
•  The Talks Programme got off to a great start on Tuesday 12th October when Peter Ewart inspired a packed audience  to research our own houses and their occupants and showed us how to do it, step by step,  using his own house as an example. The next talk is on Tuesday, 9th November :  Railways of East Sussex and Kent by Doug Lindsay of the Kent and East Sussex Railway Association.   Highly recommended!  Click here for the full 2010-2011 programme and get out your diary!   
• The next Coffee Morning will be on November 13th, 10:30 – 12:00.  There is free entry to the Museum,  excellent cafetiere, free trade organic coffee, organic and free trade tea, cake and some wonderful stalls.  We are also known for our book sall, our cakes and savourites and intersting bric a brac.   The October Coffee Morning was particularly well attended with a good number of visitors to Rye as well as regulars.  Do come.
• Rye has a new and very professional website www.ryesussex.co.uk which will soon take over the existing  Visit Rye site  as well.   There’s a lovely series of  photos of Rye on the home page.  

Still fiurther ahead:

• 27th November: Craft Fair:  East Street Museum 10:30 – 4 p.m.
  All the tables are now booked for this popular event.   Besides the displays and Christmas gifts for sale there will be mince pies. mulled wine and more. As many know, this is a good place to find that special present for Christmas.
• 4th December: Christmas Coffee Morning:
  East Street Museum 10:30-12:00
  Free entry to the museum (closed in general for the winter) and everything mentined above on offer. Come and bring your friends.
• 11th December:  The Grotto and Father Christmas: East Street Museum
   This year Rye’s Christmas events will be spread over two or three dates to enable Ryers and visitors to take in more of them.  Details coming very shortly.  Whichever the date,  Santa will be there with presents for the children. 
• 14th December: Talks Programme: ‘Chedworth Roman Villa’: East Street Museum 7:30
  Chris Cleere will tell us how the National Trust is preserving and displaying its oldest Country House for the new millenium. A fascinating insight by one who was involved in the project.

     Reminders: 

• The Ypres Tower is now open all day.   The extended opening hours have been so successful we plan to keep the Tower open every day (including lunch hour) during the winter months too, with a slightly shorter day:  10:30 – 3:30 (Last entry 3:00)   If you haven’t visited the Tower lately, do.  Among the new thiings to see is the Tower   Rye Tower Embroidery, an informative (and amusing) history of the castle commissioned as part of the Ypres Tower bid for Lottery money  and created by 20 members of the Rye Stitchers over the last four years   It’s a splendid piece of work worth a special visit/revisit to the Tower.       
• The East Street Museum is open all day on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays until the end of the month.   It will then close for the winter except for pre-booked parties..  Please contact the Museum: 01797 226728, or info@ryemuseum.co.uk   if you wish to bring a group    
• Exploring Rye with Brian Hargreaves  The book  is still selling fast.   It is available at both sites as well as in town.  It includes nearly 100 of Brian’s splendid drawings of Rye buildings and details.  Price:  £5.50.

Rye Museum’s Young Archaeologist

Eirinn

We at the Museum love to encourage young people to become interested  in the history of our/their town.  One of these children is Eirinn Streeton who  has brought quite a number of her discoveries to the Museum for help in identification.  We are thrilled to have her as an Honorary Junior Member of Rye Castle Museum. 

Eirinn is 8 years old and goes to Rye Primary Schoo;l she has always been interested in fossils and searching for things. Last year the family got an allotment on South Undercliff and they all spent a lot of time there, Eirinn, assisted by little sister Daisy (age 3)  dug and sifted through the soil and found clay pipes, clay marbles, lead figures, lots of bits of pottery and glass, and a royal artillery button.  It has become quite a hobby for her and she has a hunger for knowledge about her discoveries. Her family often have discussions on how these items got there in the first place, normally Eirinn has a wacky story as to how. 

It is nice to hear that other people on the allotment are now more aware of the bits and pieces around them. Some even drop their findings off for Eirinn’s collection. 

Contributed by Jo Kirkham

What is at our Museum sites?

 Ypres Tower site

In the dungeon there is a display of Arms and Armour, with helmets to try on, and swords to try and wield.  On the ground floor are cells once used for prisoners: one still reminds visitors of  the stark conditions endured by prisoners but another now displays  Rye pottery and a third has become a Still Room  with herbs and spices from the Middle Ages (complementing  the Medieval herb garden in the old exercise yard).  The splendid new addition of the Rye Tower Embroidery now holds pride of place above the ground floor fireplace.      

On the first floor there are beautifully sewn scenes of Rye: the Millennium Embroidery as well as  a relief map of the surrounding  countryside over the centuries and a map showing the scores of shipwrecks off our coast.    From here you can go onto the lookout, designed for looking out for the enemy!  You can look down onto the Medieval Herb  Garden which you can visit later, and across to the Women’s Tower which we are currently raising funds to repair so it can house more of our exhibits.   Built to keep the women and children prisoners when they were separated from the men in 1837, it is thought this may be the only such prison left in the country.      

What is in the East Street Museum?      

There are  displays on many aspects of Rye’s long and prestigious history:   as a  leading Cinque Port,  its shipbuilding, trading and fishing industries;  politics (there are seals from five reigns),  education,  celebrations,  the town’s celebrated pottery and mosaic ware,   domestic life and pastimes . . .   A popular feature is the town fire engine complete with wooden wheels, leather buckets and hoses used between 1745 and 1865.   There are paintings and photos as well as artefacts.    An enlarged and relocated Captain Pugwash display has just been launched (see above).  Judging from the length of time some of our visitors spend here and the comments in our visitors’ book, our Museum is well worth visiting.      

For more on this site, click on Museum Sites at right.      

On being a Volunteer

Far from being onerous,  stewarding  offers a chance to meet  interesting visitors and become better acquainted yourself with our exhibits and Rye’s history,  so if you would be willing to help out, please contact the office  info@ryemuseum.co.uk or ring 01797-226728.  You may also want to ask about other ways to help, for example by joining the Rye Muses who organise events which help raise funds, or the Education Committee, or the Gardening group or . . . . .  The full list of possibilities is quite long!     

Praise  for our Volunteers:     The Rother Community Times Spring 2010 issue includes a complimentary piece on Volunteering at the Rye Museum.  It praises the number of things the Museum does–with an almost entirely volunteer staff, calls us ‘very flexible and welcoming’ and urges readers to become part of our team.  The full article is available from tina.hall@rothervoluntaryaction.org.uk.  

Women’s Tower Project:  Have you any fundraising ideas?

The Women’s Tower  buiding  is an important part  of Rye’s skyline and we think it  is the only 19th century Women’s Prison in the country.  There are plenty of exhibits in storage waiting to be displayed there!   Most grants require a matching contribution from the local community which is why your ideas and help are so important. 

Here are two good examples of local efforts to help us raise the funds to repair the tower:

• Ryesingers gave a concert Sigh No More Ladies on 27th March at the Methodist Church.  Despite dreadful weather it was well-attended and added nearly £500 to our funds for rereoofing the tower where women prisoners once were held.  
• Students of Rye College,  mostly in Years 8 and 9, wrote dramatic sketches and stories,  made cakes,  learned medieval songs, occupied cells and staged performances  at Ypres Tower on July 3 in order to raise more funds for the Women’s Tower project.   About 25 students gave up their Saturday afternoon for the purpose  — a wonderful heartwarmoing effort showing their commitment to the town — and the entire proceeds from the event have gone into the Womenm’s Tower fund.    

A big thanks to Ryesingers and Rye College and a question:  DO YOU HAVE ANY BRIGHT IDEAS FOR HELPING TO RAISE THE NEARLY  £100 NEEDED TO SAVE THE TOWER? �
Please let us hear from you!    

Our leadership is busy seeking fund-raising help from ‘those who know’ and applying for grants–a difficult and very  time-consuming process especially when most applications require matching funds from the local community .  All ideas  for further events welcome! 

Two existing ways you can help: 

•  There are still bricks and stones waiting to be sponsored.   Do you have a sponsor’s certificate yet?   You may collect as many as you like!     Rye Town Council at its meeting of 26th October voted to contribute £5000 to the Women’s Tower Project and the process has already begun:  English Heritage has approved plans; we have paid for architects’ plans with the RTC grant;  proper recording, preservation and storage of items kept in the Women’s Tower is  nearly completed . . . .     
• Fill a jar with those 20p pieces which keep turning up in your purse or pocket.   Even a fairly small jar will hold about £25.   When it’s full bring it to the Museum.   Quite a few people brought full jars to the last AGM.  It all helps!

 We are most fortunate to have the  services of Linden Thomas,  a  professionally qualified and experienced  conservator,  recently retired to  Rye, to carry out the important work of looking after the items we will want to display in the restored tower (they are now stored elsewhere) and ensuring they are properly documented and cared for.      

If you too would like to be part of this project and have not received a leaflet providing details and a form, do visit either of the Rye Castle Museum sites or contact the Museum  ( 01797-226728 or info@ryemuseum.co) You would have the satisfaction of knowing you had helped to save a special building of our town so it can not only be used by Ryers but also provide yet another attraction for visitors.       

Rye Museum Website   

There are now well over 100 articles and some improvements to design and navigation.      Click on any of the Local History headings for example,  and you will be taken to a page headed by a list of subtopics already available.    The newest will always be on top.   There’s much more to come of  come of course,  so be sure to visit– and revisit.    Sample the lot, or click on a heading  that interests you.     If you have writing/editing/web  talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know!  jlfloydeltc@gmail.com       

We are 100 years away from Edwardian Rye.   One new ‘post’ on the site will give you  an idea of the changes in Rye since then,,  Click here to see it.    

Publications

The list of Museum books, booklets, maps, postcards and DVDs has recently been added to the site.  Click here to see it.   We are not at present able to provide a postal service, but the full range of titles is available at the East Street site and our topsellers at the Ypres Tower.   Note that we have added Captain Pugwash titles to our stock.  Click here for titles and prices.   Scroll down for more Book News.      

Book News

Exploring Rye with Brian Hargreaves  is now available at both museum sites.  Nearly 100 precisioned line drawings of Rye buildings and details!  Price:  £5.50.   

Do you have your copy of  Rye in World War II?  This was the subject of  Jo Kirkham’s Address at the 2009 Remembrance Day Service at St Mary’s Church, Rye.   Following requests from a number of people for a printed version of the address,  an illustrated booklet  is now available at £3.50.       

Copies may  be purchased at the Rye Heritage Cente  or  at either of the Museum sites.   All proceeds will go to the Women’ s  Tower Project so that this part of Ypres Tower, home of the Rye Museum, can be restored and re-roofed  and brought into active use.   

New looks at Rye 

A lovely little book for all Ryers:  John Griffiths’  Shapes, Colours and Materials: a look at buildings in Rye, Rye Conservation Society. £6.99.   Buying through the Museum helps the Museum!        

Do you have these yet? 

These both deal with Rye before 1660–the result of years of research, deliberately complementary,  must-haves for anyone seriously interested in Rye’s history.  Both available from Martello Bookshop–or ask at the Rye Library      

Gillian Draper, Rye: A  History of a Sussex Cinque Port to 1660, Chichester: Phillimore, 2009     

David and Barbara Martin, Rye Rebuilt: Regeneration and Decline Within a Sussex Port Town, 1350-1660. Romney Marsh Research Trust, 2009

by John Burke
       Rye historian and novelist and father of Jenny Hadfield, the present proprietor

THE FIRST JEAKES OF RYE

Of Huguenot origin, the family’s first settler in Rye appears to have been a late 16th-century merchant, William Jeaque (a possible corruption of Jacques). His son Henry set up a bakery in the High Street and married a girl from Peasmarsh. Their son, first recorded as Sammewell but later as Samuel, became a freeman of Rye and its Town Clerk. He bought for a guinea the entire collection of statutes belonging to the borough, and from them produced a scholarly volume, The Charters of the Cinque Ports, Two Ancient Towns and their Members. Throughout his life he remained a staunch Presbyterian – or Dissenter – which was no hindrance during the Cromwellian years, but caused him trouble after the Restoration of Charles II, when the Act of Uniformity denied freedom of worship and preaching – “holding forth” -by Nonconformists. Threatened with prosecution in 1682, Jeake fled to London, where he was joined in hiding by his son and daughter-in-law the following year. The son returned warily to Rye in 1684, but his father did not risk it until James II introduced a more tolerant regime, followed by further relaxation under William and Mary.

SAMUEL JEAKES II

This son, Samuel Jeake II, was equally firm in his Presbyterian beliefs, but also had an incongruous interest in astrology. As a hard-headed merchant in wool, hops, money-lending and shrewd investments, he nevertheless turned to the stars for guidance before deciding to become one of the first subscribers to the newly formed Bank of England. Sustaining no injury after hitting his head against a door, he ascribed this to the relative positions of the planets at the time. Contemplating marriage, he worked out the details of the dowry he expected from the young lady’s widowed mother, but was not confident of the girl’s own response until “the Cluster of Planets . . . seem’d to shew a successful time for such addresses.” As a result, at the age of 29 he married Elizabeth Hartshorne, daughter of the late headmaster of the Grammar School in High Street, when she was 13 years of age. Always prone to depression, ague and other ailments, shortly after the betrothal he was “surprised . . . with excessive Melancholy, which lasted all September and October” during which “there arose great displeasure & difference between me and my intended Mother in Law and Wife.” Not a good omen for wedded bliss ! But by November he had recovered, and for once thanked God rather than a conformation of planets.

Samuel II followed in his father’s footsteps by being made a freeman of Rye in 1690, but the very next day sent his mother-in-law and daughter out of the town because of the scare of a French invasion. He and his wife remained “since my little Boy was this morning taken sick of a feaver, & very bad, so that he could not be carried without danger of his Life.” When no attack was forthcoming, he ascribed this to heavenly intervention, and sketched the horoscope in his diary.

This diary contains day-by-day accounts of his business dealings and local events, each entry preceded by the astrological symbol for the day. Personal matters such as his marital relations and quarrels were camouflaged in a form of shorthand as tricky as Samuel Pepys’s, but solved and transcribed in the 20th century.

Among the children of Samuel and Elizabeth Jeake was another Samuel, derided locally as “a Conjuror.” He was reputed to have built a flying machine which unfortunately failed to fly. Rye’s most revered historian, William Holloway, records in the mid 19th century that he had known men who had seen the remains of the machine in the attic of the Grammar School.

Hartshorn House c1870

THE OLD HOSPITAL

On the north side of Mermaid Street is a half-timbered Tudor building with three overhanging gables, called the Old Hospital because of its service in that capacity during the Napoleonic wars. In earlier times it had been Hartshorne House, given to Samuel Jeake II as part of his dowry on marrying the young Elizabeth Hartshorne, whereupon it became generally known as Jcake’s House – confusing for later historians

Samuel and his father took possession of this property several months before the actual wedding, though the younger man complained repeatedly before and after marriage about mischievous spirits of a rather inferior order groaning and sighing about his bed and playing pranks with his walking sticks.
As trade prospered, he determined to build a wool storehouse on the other side of the street, and consulted the stars regarding the most propitious date.

JEAKE’S HOUSE  Precisely at noon on 13th June 1689,, the foundation of the storehouse, which is now simply called Jeake’s House, was laid, “the first stone by myself under this positure of heaven.” A stone plaque set high in the front wall of the present building shows the astrological aspect of the heavens which he found so crucial.

Samuel and Elizabeth had six children, all of whom died without issue. Towards the end of his own life in 1699 at the age of 47, Samuel II planned to erect a Nonconformist meeting-house next door to his wool store. After his death his widow remarried, and through her daughter Philadelphia their family home, Hartshorne House, descended eventually to the Frewen family, a respected name in Rye. Elizabeth completed the task of building the meetinghouse, and licence for its opening was granted in 1703.

QUAKERS’ HOUSE

In 1704 the Quakers, flourishing in and around Rye, bought the meetinghouse and laid out a burial ground behind it. In 1753 it was bought by the Baptists, in such a derelict state that it had to be virtually demolished and rebuilt in its present form. The baptistry still exists below the floor of the dining room; but guests eating breakfast need not fear a sudden plunge into the water. Jeake’s House itself later became the Baptist schoolroom. Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer, visited during a tour of Sussex, and is believed to have addressed the congregation. In 1909 the Baptists built a new chapel in Cinque Ports Street, and their Mermaid Street buildings were sold off. Jeake’s House became a private residence, while the, meeting-house served for several years as St. Mary’s Men’s Club.

Adjoining the meeting-house, this was also known as the Minister’s House. One incumbent, the Rev. Purdy, had the building consecrated so that he could hold services there after a schism with his congregation. In the 20th century it became a private residence, the property of the painter Perugini, and for a time before and after the Second World War was the home of the great-uncle of the present proprietor, Jenny Hadfield, before its present amalgamation with the Jeake’s House complex.

FAMILIES AND VISITORS

In January 1924 the American poet, novelist and critic Conrad Aiken bought Jeake’s House for £1700 – “So vast, so tall the establishment that we are sure that at the end of a year we shall encounter, here and there, rooms unnoticed before, filled with mice and foul with bats, squealing with rats and roped with webs, littered with bones and stinking of ghosts.” As time went on he changed his mind, referring to it as his “deeply cherished home … lighted by laughter, the kind of light that never goes out.” Certainly the present owner will have no truck with bats, rats or malodorous phantoms.

In 1928 Aiken also bought the Men’s Club and began the task of combining the two which has been further developed today. He was visited by local and American friends, including Dame Laura Knight, E. F. Benson, Thomas Hardy’s widow, T. S. Eliot, and the wayward Malcolm Lowry, with whom he had many protracted drinking sessions.

In more recent vears, Patrick Moore stayed here while lecturing on astrology and astronomy in connection with the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jeake’s House. It is frequently used as a base by visiting members of the Tilling Society, devoted to the works of E. F. Benson, who disguised Rye under the name of Tilling (after the local River Tillingham) in the Mapp and Lucia novels written while he lived in Lamb House, round the corner in West Street.

Jeake's House