My friend Mr Elless stayed and breakfasted with me and then went away. Myself at church in the morning, the text in Romans 14:7: “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.”
I dined on a piece of beef roasted and potatoes. After dinner Thomas Durrant and I set out for Lewes, I to consult Mr Henry Burtenshaw, attorney at law, about following business (and he for the company). There has been time immemorial given at Halland at the expense of his present Grace the Duke of Newcastle and his ancestors to this parish and Laughton a certain quantity of bread and beer to eight poor persons in this parish and I think to 12 in the parish of Laughton. The quantity of beer to each person in both parishes was 3 gallons every Thursday and Sunday, and a bushel wheat made into bread was distributed every Sunday between the said poor in both parishes, though it was not divided equally, some having a claim as supposed to double the quantity another had, and as such it was distributed. Now, the Duke having lately put in a new steward [Abraham Baley], who is famed for economy and frugality (though I should rather think it deserved the name of niggardliness and was done to gain self-applause),–but be that as it will. He has given both parishes notice that no more shall be distributed after old St Michael.
Now, as the parishes will sustain a loss upon the whole of £50 annually, they seemed determined to see the end of it, and accordingly we have agreed to pay the charge between both parishes according to their respective quotas, and myself to transact the business. Though at first sight it should appear we have an undoubted right to it, as it has been continued without any alteration that I ever could find in the same manner it now is (and has been looked upon as our right) for time immemorial, and I should think we could trace it back upwards of hundred years, yet, as we have nothing to show for it of any deed or no writing, we can have no other claim than a prescriptive right, which, considering the greatness of the person we have to deal with, might prove too great an undertaking for us to be crowned with success. Therefore, I thought proper first to be certain of our right by examining at Doctors’ Commons the wills of the ancestors of the Pelham family, and if we are successful in our attempt, then to contest it to the utmost, and I accordingly spoke to Mr Burtenshaw about searching them.
We called on my brother, but did not stay any considerable time. Spent today as under:
| On our selves | 0.1.2 |
| Horses | 0.0.4 |
| Turnpike | 0.0.4 |
| 0.1.10 |
We came home very sober about 6:20. A very wet afternoon. In the evening sat some time with Thomas Durrant, my servant being not at home.