30 Brunswick Terrace

30 Brunswick Terrace - Google Streetview in 2020

Having no inkling of the bounty of interesting stories it would provide, I chose 30 Brunswick Terrace to research purely as I had stayed there in 2021 while house hunting. The top flat with its splendid view across to the sea belongs to a friend of ours.

The property lies at the Western end of the Western arm of the Terrace and is typical of Charles Busby architecture.

In 1859, a For Sale advert in the Brighton Gazette described it as a substantial 15 room mansion with cellars and to the rear a 6-stall stable/coach house with its own accommodation.

Brighton Gazette June 9th, 1859

In its early days the Rates Books 1842 - 1850 show the owner as an E.B. Elliott. Towards the end of our research timescale in 1933, there is evidence from Building Applications of alterations to the property. No mention of stable folk has been found although the property had stables attached that have now become the residential No 3 Brunswick Street West.

1842 – 1850: E. B Elliott
Given that his parents lived at Westfield Lodge in Hove and much of the evangelical activity in the town centred on this family who owned other properties locally, it can be assumed this is the Rev Edward Bishop Elliott born 1793 in Paddington. He was one of nine children born to Charles and Eling Venn Elliott.

Edward Bishop Elliott By James Holroyd - National Portrait Gallery

Edward, after graduating in Cambridge in 1816 and working in Nottingham and Wiltshire, became the incumbent at St Mark’s, Kemptown in 1853 and remained there for 22 years.

St Mark’s, Kemptown

He spent his life studying biblical prophecy and is known for his book, Horae Apocalypticae (Hours of the Apocalypse) relating to the end of the world and the events associated with it and much is based on the book of Revelation in the Bible. He held the view of Premillennialism, which is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennium. In this case before 2000!

A Modern edition 2015 of Horae Apocalypticae

The 1841 Census gives Edward, around the same time he was recorded as owner of our No 30, as a clergyman living at 4 Brunswick Place with his wife Harriett aged 35 from Ireland, and four young daughters: Eugenia aged 10, Mary 8, Emily 4 and Anna 3 years. All looked after by their servants Ellen D’Alton aged 15 years, William Fogle 35, Sarah Richards 20 and Eliza Sessions also 20. The family continued living at Brunswick Place but by 1861 they had moved to 11 Lewes Crescent where a son Albert Augustine was recorded then aged 16.

Edward died in 1875 at Lewes Crescent and is buried in the family vault in the St Andrews Old Church yard along with his brother Henry Venn Elliott who had lived at 31 Brunswick Square and sister Charlotte, a well-known poet and writer of hymns.

Venn Elliot Family Vault, St Andrews

1840 – 1848: The Bonham family
Our first recorded resident is Charlotte Elizabeth Bonham (1780 - 1877) who was the daughter of the Rev James Morrice of Betteshanger House, Kent. In 1840 she came to live at No 30 with her four younger children having initially moved from London to 45 Brunswick Square (later changed to no 47), shortly after her husband’s death in 1830. She had been married since 1802 to Henry Bonham MP (1765 - 1830) and they had eight children: Rosabelle Charlotte Isabella (1804 - 1891); Marianne Jane (1807 - 1893); Henry Frederick (1808 - 1856) who became a Colonel in the 10th Royal Hussars and in 1850 married Augusta Musgrave (b 1830 in Brunswick Square) at St Andrew’s, Hove; Edward (1809- 1886) who became a diplomat and who was also married, from No 30, at St Andrew’s in 1843; Harriet Susannah (1811 - 1863); Charles Wright Bonham (1817 - 1910) who joined the Royal Navy and later became an Admiral; Flora Margaret Emma (1819 - 1900) and Julia Adelaide (1821 - 1913). The two youngest sisters eventually died in Hove.

Unfortunately, nothing under Charlotte Bonham, including her servants, was recorded in the 1841 Census. Later the Censuses of 1851, 61 and 71 show Charlotte living at Row Heath Cottage in Chailey. She lived there with Julia and Flora, still unmarried, and seven servants and at times granddaughters. She died at the age of 97.

Of course, Charlotte's husband Henry Bonham had never set foot in No 30 but his story is well worth reading and explains the source of his wealth. He had been a Director of the East India Dock Company, owner of many East Indiamen ships (including the Calcutta ), independent MP and a slave trade abolitionist.

The Calcutta on the right stranded aground on the shoals of Les Palles, 12 April 1809 By Louis-Philippe Crepin (1772-1851)

1850 – 1851: The Johnston family
After a short time of No 30 being recorded as a furnished house, the Johnston family took up residence.

The Census of 1851 records Louisa Johnston, aged 69, as the head, a widow and landed proprietor living there with two single daughters Caroline Hester aged 36 and Frederica Paulina Maria aged 32 and employing seven servants: Ann Humeact born in St Georges, Middlesex, a Lady's Maid aged 36; Eliza Blackburn born Winchester, Hants, a Lady’s Maid aged 38; Elizabeth Rovson born Horton, Shropshire, a Kitchen Maid aged 25; Anne Newby born Wotton Street, Durham, a House Maid aged 17; John Little born Market Weighton, Yorks, a Butler aged 32; William Paul born Brentwood, Essex, an Under Butler aged 39 and Robert Rookes born Tunbridge Wells, Kent, a Footman aged 18. All are single apart from the Butler.

Louisa had been widowed from her husband Sir Alexander Johnston in 1849 and maybe she had moved down to Hove to grieve, escape a hectic London life or even find husbands for her two spinster daughters. The Johnstons owned many properties including 19 and 21 Great Cumberland Place, London to where the family returned and where Lady Johnston died soon after in 1853.

The couple’s other children were Frederick Erskine Johnston, Patrick Francis Johnston, Alexander Robert and Janet Mary Johnston.

Sir Alexander Johnston By John Cochran, after Thomas Phillip

Sir Alexander Johnston (1775 - 1849), Advocate General of Ceylon, Social Reformer, Admiralty Judge and Abolitionist was an extraordinary man whose story, although only tenuously linked to Number 30, is difficult to exclude.

As with most families there are some dark moments. We have a scandal that hit the National headlines for several months, involving trials at the Old Bailey and is linked to Frederica Johnston, the daughter, ex No 30 but then living in London. It is an intriguing read and would certainly tempt a sitcom script writer today.

Arrivals and Departures from No 30
According to the local press we have evidence of many arrivals to and departures from our house. Whether these had been guests or short-term residents, we do not know. The property is listed as mainly furnished rooms in the years 1850,1853 (unfurnished), 1854, 1862, 1864, 1870-1875 and 1877.

The year 1852 was a particularly busy year for the house, a veritable luxurious AirB&B. One famous visitor was the Marchioness of Queensberry and this link gives a brief but interesting backstory and her relationship to John Sholto Douglas the 9th Marquess of Queensberry and Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas who had strong links to Hove and, of course, Oscar Wilde.

1859 – 1861: The Meyers
After another  period of short occupancies our house welcomes the Meyer family. The Census of 1861 gives us Frederick Meyer, an Oil Merchant born in London in 1806 and now aged 55 with his wife Annie Meyer born in Clapham in 1824 and aged only 37. They had one son Frederick Brotherton aged 14, and four daughters: Ada aged 10, Anne Elizabeth aged 9, Florence aged 6 all born in London and Rosa aged 3 born in Hove.

They employed five female servants, all unmarried and perhaps chosen to care for the young female Meyer children: Elizabeth Hern born in Clapham aged 42, Elizabeth Gurney born in London aged 40, Harriet Newson born in Suffolk aged 27, Sarah Waller born in Hertfordshire aged 24 and Martha Powell born in Billingshurst aged 21.The exact nature of their employment is not recorded.

At the previous Census in 1851 the family had lived at The Pavement, Clapham and Frederick’s work was more specifically defined as oil merchant and spermaceti and shaving wax manufacturer. He employed 62 clerks and labourers. From an Old Bailey account, we can deduce that his warehouse was in the High Street, Camberwell from where a bladder of lard was stolen in 1849 and the 19-year-old thief was found guilty of larceny and given 12 months confinement.

In 1871 and 1881 Frederick Snr was recorded as unemployed, most likely meaning retired and living at Ventnor Villas, Hove.

This family had a famous son Frederick Brotherton Meyer (1847 - 1929) whose education began at Brighton College.

Frederick Brotherton Meyer

Frederick was a Baptist pastor and evangelist who was involved in inner city mission work in Britain and America. When he died in 1929 The Telegraph titled him the ‘Archbishop of the Free Church’ and some ‘a Christian Socialist’. After Brighton College, he graduated at the University of London and went on to qualify in Theology. He served as pastor at chapels and churches in Liverpool, York, Leicester and London.

Frederick worked tirelessly on supporting released prisoners and was very proactive in campaigns against drunkenness and prostitution. His travels took him to America many times, the last at the age of 80 and he had become close friends of American evangelists D L Moody and A C Dixon.

Along with his wife he went to South Africa in 1908 and was able to spend several days with Gandhi. It is said that he had some influence in saving 35 conscientious objectors from execution when he visited France, during the First World War, with a Quaker friend Hubert Peet. Frederick wrote 75 books and the latest biography of his life was published in 2007.

But Frederick was not the only religious family member. In a newspaper article in The Kent & Sussex Courier April 1934, the Centenary and history of the Pembury Free Church was recounted. The three older Meyer sisters were noted as having a prominent involvement.

The Kent and East Sussex Courier 27 April 1934

Ada held the office of Church elder for 40 years and also that of organist with Anne and Florence also working and providing musical accompaniments. Other accounts tell of their brother visiting and conducting baptisms at the Church. ‘Annie Meyer from Brighton’ was headlined as a speaker at the Plymouth Young Women's Christian Association meeting in 1895. No record has been found of these sisters being married but Rosa, it would appear, married a Howard Hawkins in 1881.

1874
Some more visitors who seem to have stayed several weeks in 1874 were the Earl of Minto, William Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound (1814-1891) and the Countess. Research proves him as the 3rd Earl who spent 17 years as an MP and also provided an intriguing story about this family and the Minto Stone which has obvious comparisons to the plight of the Elgin marbles.

The Minto Stone at Hawick and before in Java

1878 - 1884: The Wings
The next occupants of No 30 were either very secretive or had little social life. Even their second name initials W and B have been difficult to trace until they were mentioned in a will. They were Thomas Walter Wing born 1803 and his sister Rebecca Bates Wing born 1814, both in Rotherhithe and both were single.

According to the 1881 Census they employed Thomas Holden, the Butler married aged 56, born in Staverton Northants; Hariet Hall, the Cook single, aged 55, born in Mayfield, Sussex, Jane Feist, a Housemaid widowed, aged 63, born in St Pancras, Middlesex, Emily Fuller, a Housemaid single, aged 17, born in Brighton and Ellen Halsted, a Lady’s Maid, aged 21, born in Boxgrove, Sussex.

In the 1881 Census, the record shows Thomas as a Magistrate for Suffolk which seems strange as he then lived in Hove, Sussex at the age of 78. The 1871 Census records them both at 83 Piccadilly, Westminster with two servants and again Thomas as a Suffolk Magistrate but earlier, at the same address in 1861 Thomas, aged 58, is recorded as a retired wholesale grocer.

Thomas died in 1889 aged 86 and had been living in Queens Gardens, Hove. He left this and the Piccadilly property with contents to his sister, with a property in Love Lane, Rotherhithe to his nephew. He seemed a benevolent man leaving money eventually to various charities including the National Lifeboat Institution and some, for use by blind people, to the strangely named Commonalty of the Art or Mystery of Clothworkers and the final residue to his friend Sir Henry William Peek who was a major philanthropist of the time and linked to the wholesale grocery trade. This was the only mention of a link to that trade.

1886 - 1906 The Gullands
William Guiseppe Gulland and his wife Julia Clementina Gulland with their three servants arrived at No 30 in 1886. Amazingly Julia continued to live there for the next 45 years.

William was born in 1841 into a farming family in Newton of Wemyss, Fife. His father James, married to Lucy Perfect, recorded in the Census of 1861 that he employed 38 workers on the large 597-acre farm as well as three domestic servants. William was the eldest son with a younger brother John James and five sisters and was the same age, 20 years, as his cousin Francis who lived with them. Both William and Francis were mercantile clerks and this could be the clue as to how William became one of the greatest collectors of, and world expert in, Chinese porcelain.

For much of his working life William was a Singapore merchant and seemed highly respected. At the age of 36 and from 1877-78, just after his marriage, he became Chairman of Paterson, Simons & Co one of Singapore's earliest and largest trading houses. The Company had played an integral part in the economic development of the colony. From trading in such commodities as copra, rubber and pineapples and importing cotton goods it later acted as an agent for many shipping companies.

Later still the Company was involved in engineering and today there is a company of the same name in Hove indicating a link as to why William found himself retired to the area. The St James’s Gazette of 30 December 1882 announced, under Colonial Appointments, William becoming a member of the legislative council of Singapore and the Straits Settlements. Of course, this backdrop gave William the opportunity to develop his keen interest in studying and collecting mainly Chinese but some Japanese porcelain.

A realistic guess as to when he started to write the two volumes ‘Chinese Porcelain’ would be when he ‘retired’ to live at 30 Brunswick Terrace. These comprehensive books published in 1898 and 1901 were each around 270 pages with 485 illustrations.

Two Volumes, Chinese Porcelain by William Gulland

There have been many editions since. He apologises that the photographs are black and white as the cost of colour production was prohibitive at the time and he was intent on keeping the books affordable to all at only a few shillings. In great detail and in chronological order he describes everything pertaining to Chinese porcelain and they are quite a useful background to the history of China from 960 AD. The books are dedicated to Augustus Franks, a friend and expert in this field at the British Museum.

It appears William also found some time for his local community, being elected to the Hove Board of Improvement Commissioners and Urban Sanitary Authority for the Brunswick Ward.

However, little evidence of the couple's social activity has emerged. William had married Julia Clementina Addis (born 1848 Bermondsey, Surrey) in 1876 in Woolwich. In the 1901 Census he was 59 years old. They had no children. For such a large property only three servants were employed: Elizabeth Harris, cook domestic aged 35, from Greenwich, Kent, Emily Smith, parlour maid aged 34, from Hanborough, Surrey and Caroline Forster, housemaid aged 28, from Henfield, Sussex.

Sadly, William died suddenly on December 6th, 1906 at the age of 65. He is buried in Hove Cemetery. There is also a window that was dedicated to him in 1908 by the Bishop of Woolwich at St James Church, Kidbrooke. As well as the porcelain collections he left £74,101 gross (circa £7,502,149 today) in his will.

In 1905 he had presented the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) with 180 pieces of Chinese porcelain showing the different glazes typical of each factory. The remainder he had bequeathed subject to the life interest of his wife Julia Clementina to be used and enjoyed by her. She gave some to the V&A in 1907 and the rest, some 526 pieces, in 1931 upon her death. After several conversations with the V&A we finally located the wonderful colour photographs and locations of most of this donation.

From Jingdezhen kilns in south-east China, Credit: V&A Museum

William’s Japanese collection was donated to the Brighton Museum.

All these collections must be extremely valuable and it is a credit to William that he left all to the Museums seeming not to be interested in their monetary value but determined to share his knowledge with all. It is pleasing that the V&A are exhibiting much of his collection.

1907 – 1932: Julia Clementina Gulland
Little has been found on Julia herself apart from her will suggesting she may have had interests in charity work as she gave 500 guineas to both the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. Any monetary remainder from her will went to the King Edward’s Hospital Fund. She was also involved in sorting the complexities of her sister's will. Hopefully as requested by William she was also busy using and enjoying the porcelain.

1933 onwards: The Humphreys
After the long 45-year residency of the Gullands, street directories record Walter Humphreys as taking over at No 30 in 1933. Walter Alexander Humphreys Jnr (1878 - 1960), born and died in Hove, worked as a chiropodist by trade but followed the family talent for cricket by playing County cricket for Sussex. Ironically, with the connection to feet, his more famous cricketing father Walter Humphreys Snr had worked as a bootmaker. Another family member was Uncle George Humphreys and both brothers had also been Sussex County cricketers. Walter, like his father, was a right-handed batsman and bowler but both were better known for being ‘Lobsters’ under arm slow/lob bowlers. Walter Jnr played fourteen first class matches. There is much written about the three Humphreys and their scoring records for the fans of cricket.

Walter Humphreys Snr

Looking at Building Control records it becomes clear sadly, that Walter was intending to alter the property probably to make it a viable investment and place to live. An application was made as early as 1933 and in 1938 there was one for a conversion into a self-contained flat on the third floor.

The 1939 Register records Walter and his wife May Blanche Humphreys (born 1882, in Wolverhampton, Warwickshire), living at the address along with others mostly with different surnames suggesting the property was now divided into separate units. Interestingly, there are several married females with private means, not widowed but living there without husbands: Lizzie Q Chant aged 43, Edith Read 55 years, Esther Gilbert 67 years and Esther Abraham 73 years. We can only speculate as to the reason for this situation but they seem too old to have husbands already off to war.

There was still a housekeeper, Winifred Anderson aged 50, and houseboy Henry Little, aged 25, and it is unclear if the residents shared the benefit of these servants. Other working residents were Leslie J Wolff (Male) aged 38, a single Commercial Traveller; Charles Somers 74 years, a Bootmakers accountant; Lewis Lewis aged 66, married and a Travelling Manufacturers agent. Olive Angus aged 71 is widowed and of private means; Lily Lewis 63 years is married, probably to Lewis, and of private means; Elizabeth Cox 57 years, a Single Maid companion and Ella Anderson 62, probably too young to be the mother of Winifred, is widowed and an unpaid domestic. Unfortunately, no places of birth were recorded in the Register.

The property had become known as The Compton Bridge and Residential Club from 1933, then the Compton Club, the Compton New Club and eventually Lola’s Bridge Club. One source gives Walter’s daughter Lola Elise (1915 -1966) running the Club and living with her parents at No 30. Walter had one other daughter Marjorie recorded in the 1911 Census.

The end of the timescale for this research has been reached but the stable block will be visited at a later date. My apologies for finding nothing to report for you, Rev E Thompson resident 1848 - 50 and to you Miss Brakenbury resident 1865 -1868. I hope the present residents of No 30 Brunswick Terrace enjoy reading about their many amazing predecessors.

Research by Anne Smedley (March 2024)

Return to Brunswick Terrace page

For reference as well as the usual Census and Street Directories the following were my main sources

• threedecks.org
• The Royal Museums Greenwich rmg.co.uk
• The Victoria & Albert Museum
• The Keep
• The Old Bailey online
• Bank of England Inflation Calculator