1776 - Appointed Chaplain to the Earl of Harroby.
1803 - Succeeded the Rev. William Coppard to the rectory of Hastings, while still holding that of Newtimber, his patron being Sir Whistler Webster, of Battle.
1804 - Appointed Surrogate for granting of marriage licenses in the Archdeaconry of Lewes.
1807 - Whilst baptising a child on the 25th of January, he discovered it to have died in his arms.
1807 - Witnessed in the month of October, the completion of a privateer vessel of 14 guns; also an unprecedented quantity of herrings on the beach, which sold at 1s. the long hundred.
1809 - Preached a sermon on October 25th, when the Jubilee of George the Third was celebrated, and contributed a guinea to the £400 raised for providing a treat to the poor. Many other persons gave two guineas, several gave five guineas, and some gave ten guineas; but a single guinea was, perhaps, as much as the Rector could afford out of only three livings, and bearing in mind that on the occasion of £10 being given him to distribute a month the poor, he assured the benevolent donor that he knew no one poorer than himself.
1810 - Preached a sermon on the death of Mr. John Thring, the Battle organist and Hastings dancing-master. Also in the same year, on the 10th of August, preached a special sermon on behalf of the Deaf and Dumb charity.
Same year, on August 6th or 7th, attended the consecration, by the Bishop, of a piece of ground, 40 yards square, at Halton, for the burial of soldiers who died at the Hastings barracks.
1811 - Read the burial service at the interment of Edward Milward, who died at the age of 89, and had been alternately Mayor and Deputy-mayor for half a century.
1813 - In the month of March was informed of the birth of his ninth child.
1814 - On the 8th of April, married two of the daughters of Mr. Charles Deudney, of Gensing farm - Jane to Mr. Tucker of London, and Cordelia to Mr. Arckoll, of Herstmonceux.
Same year - Married, at St. Clement's church, on Sunday, May 1st, Sarah Plumley, to Mr. Beal, a marriage that afterwards was made noteworthy by the fact that Mrs. Beal lived until Aug. 5th 1883 (also a Sunday), when she was 100 years and 4 months old.
Same year, on July 9th, preached a thanks-giving sermon for the restoration of peace.
1815 - Preached a sermon, on July 23rd, for the widows and children of those who fell at Waterloo, the offertory amounting to £80.
1816 - On August 31st. married Mr. James Lansdell, a noted builder, to Miss Martha Breeds, daughter of Mr. Thomas Breeds, a Hastings merchant.
1817 - In the 1st week of January, when the weather was very trying, buried Mrs. Sargent, aged 80; Thomas Crouch, 90; and another person, 82. Later in the year, was very ill himself, being at that time 70 years of age.
1817 - Married, on the 13th of February, Edward Milward, Esq. to Sarah, fourth daughter of the Rev. W. Whitear.
Same year, preached a sermon on the death of the Princess of Wales.
1818- Believed to have gone to Chichester on the 23rd of June, to vote for his friend Sir Godfrey Webster, who was returned for the county with a triumphant majority.
1818 - Had announced to him on the 18th of October, the birth of his 10th child; 48 years after the birth of his first child by his first wife. [See GAZETTE, June 25, 1882, for family memoirs.]
1818 - Preached in All Saints' church, on December 2nd, the day of Queen Charlotte's funeral.
1819-20 Experienced two excellent harvests and a period of severe frosts and heavy snows.
1820 - Preached at St. Clement's on the several deaths of George III,. the Duke of Kent and the Duke of York.
1821 - Had overflowing churches during the extraordinarily mild but tempestuous autumn and winter.
1821- Noticed, in some correspondence, the death of F. F. North, Esq., by which his eldest son, Frederick, came into possession of £5,000 a year.
1825 - Was assisted, on January, 16th, by the Hon. and Rev. Dr. Wellesley (brother of the Duke of Wellington), who preached an eloquent sermon; and on March 13th, by the Rev. H. Wynch, whose sermon realised an offertory of £59 for the Hanoverians, suffering by inundations.
1825 - Administered the sacrament to 80 communicants on Good Friday.
1826 - Went to Chichester on Rock-fair day (July 26th), with 1100 others, to "plump" for Sir Godfrey Webster, against Mr. Curteis.
Same year, on April 17th, dined with the Corporation, as usual, after the election of Mayor.
Same year - Preached the annual sermon for the Friendly Society, from Matt. v, 7.
Also 1826 - On June 26th, attended the Archdeacon's visitation and dinner.
Same year - Was assisted, on July 1st, by the Rector of Warbleton, and on August 13th, by the Rev. Dr. Knox, of Tonbridge.
This 1826 was altogether an inportant (sic) year to Mr. Whistler. On the 29th of August we has censured by the Corporation in a printed reply, for having announced to his congregation that although it was his wish to have both churches open at that crowded season, it was discouraged by the Corporation and principal inhabitants, and as the small value of the living for which Queen Anne's bounty was obtained a few years before would not allow him to do it, it must depend on the contributions of the congregation themselves. In the counter statement of the Corporation it was shown that in 1822, £120 was subscribed by the principal inhabitants, irrespective of his own collections, specially for a curate, so that both churches might be opened twice each Sunday, Mr. Whistler himself giving a solemn pledge that the whole of such money should go to the curate. A further subscription was entered into, but as the rector had withheld a portion of the money, the subscribers declined to continue their contributions. After that, several clergymen offered their gratuitous services, which were sanctioned by the Bishop, who was then at Hastings, and these were actually commenced, but after the Bishop's departure, the services were objected to by Mr. Whistler, he contending that one service in each church was sufficient. In this embroglio (sic) it will be seen that the Corporation had not only the best of the contention, but as their published reply was not contradicted, it placed the rector in an unenviable position.
1827 - Was annoyed on the 24th of June by some mischievous wags ringing the St. Clement's bells at two o'clock in the morning.
Same year - Preached the annual Whit-Monday sermon for the Friendly Society and afterwards dined with the club.
Also in 1827, some time in October, buried the old "body-snatchers" (Mr. and Mrs. Hamp, once a London sexton and his wife), who died suddenly at High Wickham, and who, with their helpers, had been a terror to the town and neighbour-bourhood (sic - hyphenated at end then start of column) in consequence of their unholy traffic in the exhumation of the dead.
Also on Christmas Day of the same year, when 80 years old, had 300 communicants, when he was assisted by the Rev. Dr. Wellesley, the Rev. G. G. Stonestreet and the Bishop of Carlisle.
1828 - Wrote to his friends concerning disastrous commercial failures in Hastings, and the commencement of St. Leonards town by the enterprising Mr. Jas. Burton.
Same year - Read the burial service over the remains of Mrs. Anson, aged 98.
1829 - Selected a fine day in August of a most unpropitious year to pay a visit, with his family, to "The New Town," but was not followed by a large crowd of people, as was Mr. Thwaites, on his first visit, ten years later.
Same year - Held divine service on the occasion of the death of the Princess Elizabeth.
1830 - Made several allusions in his epistolary correspondence to the dissolution of Parliament, to the local election in July, to the opposition offered to the Corporation nominees, to the unavailing petition against the members, and to the declaration of the House of Commons that Mr. Planta and Sir H. Fane were truly and duly returned.
1832 - Died on Friday, the 2nd of March, at the age of 85, after active duties as Rector of Newtimber for 57 years and of Hastings conjointly, for 28 years. He had expressed a wish, in 1831, to see the borough thrown open by an extended franchise, and he died on the day that guns were fired from the Castle in consequence of the receipt of false news that the Reform Bill had passed. His remains were preceded to the grave by those of Mrs. North (grandmother of Mr. Frederick North), who died on January 19th, at the age of 80, and by those of Miss Maria Milward, who died in the first week of February, at the age of 77. In the same week, during the general fast on account of the cholera, the deaths occurred of Mrs. Dunn, aged 88; Mrs. Baker 89; Mrs. Lock, 81; Mr. Lock, 71; and Mrs. Diprose, 77.
Although living, as Mr. Whistler did, in times of excitement as well as of importance, and dying, as he did, at an advanced age, he was by no means exceptional in the latter particular; and when it is borne in mind that the Hastings people drank freely of the polluted water of the Bourne, and that sanitation was a word practically unknown, it can only be concluded that even in those days Hastings was an exceptionally healthy place.
When alluding to St. Clement's church in connection with some events of 1896, I mentioned the name of "Old Tom Collins," as the sexton of that church; but I said nothing of his appearance nor of his manners as being in the one case anything but attractive, and in the other as the reverse of amiable. But let that pass, so that I may the more expeditiously relate one of the practical jokes which was played upon that grave functionary, who was undivinely addressed as "Muzzle-the-bear." In a certain part of High street, just below Smith, Hilder and Scrivens's Bank, there lived a fellow of infinite jest, who rejoiced in the nomen of Nicholas Wingfield, but of whom the said Tom Collins used to speak of as "Old Nick." Once, the latter engaged the former to go on an errand to Fairlight Down, for which service he was to receive a small sum of money at starting, and some refreshment on arriving at his destination. The prospects were apparently good, and Old Tom set out with a light heart. He was the bearer of a note to Mr. "Barnacle" (William) White, a well-known and somewhat facetious farmer, grocer, wheeler and inn-keeper. To this note Tom was to wait for a reply - a reply which was verbally given thus:- "Well, Tom, the note says I am to muzzle the bear and send him on." I cannot attempt to pourtray (sic) the amiability of Collins after that, and must leave my readers to imagine it.
Just opposite Mr. Wingfield's (originally Burchatt's and afterwards Burchatt and Wingfield's) was the grocery and china store of Mr. Jonathan Mose, who used to receive a weekly supply of excellent butter from a dairy at Ore. There was nothing uncommon in that as a mere fact, but the novelty was this:- The butter-woman (whose name, I think, was Cramp) used to ride on horse-back, with her husband, pillion fashion, carrying her basket of butter in one hand whilst she held on with the other to a strap that was buckled securely round her husband's waist. He, too, would carry a basket on one arm, containing fruit or other garden-produce; and thus, as Darby and Joan, they would jog along together. Fortunately for them, the Cruelty to Animals Society did not then exist, simply, I suppose, because horses and asses in the second decade of the nineteenth centuury (sic) were too unemotional to feel anything of cruelty. But the gist of the story is this:- Some of Mrs. Mose's customers wanted the butter in half-pound pats, and when asked to comply with that request, the dairy-woman replied that she couldn't think of such a thing. Her mother and grandmother before her time always made it in pound parcels, and she should do the same. Thus acted Mrs. Butter-woman on the principle of "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." She might indeed have sung with heart an voice,(sic) "It was my father's custom, and so it shall be mine."
An economical couple - Severe Punishments - A blow to the Liberals
One more reminiscence before I withdraw my retrospect from this immediate locality. Adjoining the grocery and china store alluded to was a house of "more exalted mien," that was built for a thrifty couple, like Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Gilpin, of credit and renown, and of whose cuisine it was avowed -
