Plan of the Home Estate of John Collier, Esquire. Reproduced by the kind permission of the late Rev. W. C.
Sayer-Milward, from the original at Fairlight Place.
"A It bears the following imprint by the Surveyor : Survey,. Measurement, and Representation of the Home Estate of John Collier, Esquire, situate and being in the Parishes of Saint Clement, All Saints, and Saint Mary of the Castle, appertaining and adjoining to the Town and Port of Hasting in the County of Sussex, with an Ichnographical Plan of the said Town, exhibiting on a West View, and the Eye considerably elevated above the Horizon, all or most of the Remarkables in and about the said Town and upon the said Estate, as Churches, Town Hall, The Swan Inn, the Gun Gardens, the Custom Boathouse, some Gardens of the Bourne, the Chief Streets, cross Lanes, Alleys, etc. The Castle Cliffs, the Bridge, the intended Harbour, the Priory, the two Windmills, White Rock, the Sea Coast, the small Craft in the Roads, etc., The Common Highways, Foot-Paths, etc., with Tables explanatory and suitable Embellishments, etc. This Map in all its parts was made and performed in the years 1749 and 1750 by me, Sam. Cant, Schoolmaster and Surveyor, etc."
John Collier came to Hastings from Eastbourne very early in the eighteenth century. By this plan, made in 1750, it would seem he had, during the half century, acquired a very large proportion of ihe lands in and surrounding the Bourne and the Priory Valleys, the East and West Hills, Halton, Ore and Fairlight ; besides much house property in the old town. Although the "Collier Letters" commence in 1716, the following is an extract from a parchment deed lent by Mr. A. G. Fidler, of Enfield, a property owner in the old town, whose ancestors lived here. The deed is dated 13th March, 1711, wherein Mary Sargant and John Collier, as Executors of the will of John Phipps, of Hastings, Mariner, conveyed a messuage or tenement, Backside and Garden, butting and bounding unto the King's Street, there leading from the Sea Gate to the Minnesse towards the East, etc., to Richard Cosens for .£19 : 00 : 00." This deed is signed by John Collier, and the wax seal bears his Coat of Arms. There is little doubt Mr. Collier was practising here as a Solicitor at this date.
I will attempt to make this plan interesting to readers by identifying the localities and the names with the present day. After the death of Mr. Collier, his estate was divided amongst his five daughters, one of whom married Mr. Edward Milward, another married Mr. Henry Sayer, and from these connections sprang up what is now familiar to the present generation as the "Sayer-Milward Estates." Thus it may be claimed that Mr. John Collier was one of the pioneers of modern Hastings.
