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- [S865] Family Tree H Piper, F0415.
- [S30] Brian Piper, Piper family tree research undertaken by Brian Piper of Hawkhurst.
QUAY 2
- [S2467] Parish Register for Baptism of John Piper, St Dunstans Church, Mayfield, Sussex, England, 5 January 1823, (786).
- [S165] www.theweald.org.
- [S869] Family research for H Piper 1979/80, F0419.
- [S880] Note from Barry Piper, F0427.
- [S1018] Photocopy of school report 1835, F0556.
- [S2466] Lewes History Group website "Lewes History Group".
John Button’s Academy
In July 1792 John Button (1761-1825) opened his new Academy at 86 High Street, a large house leased from Lord Pelham. He was aged 30. He told the Sussex Weekly Advertiser that he would be teaching a classical knowledge of English through grammar and a critical acquaintance with the best English authors, in both prose and verse. He would also teach ancient and modern history, geography, graceful recitation, writing, arithmetic and book keeping, all as required by his pupils’ career plans. Greek, Latin and French were available at an extra cost for those who required them, but he saw no point in teaching classical languages to boys with no need of them. His fees were in guineas, as usual for a professional man – 4 guineas a year for day boys, 18 guineas for boarders and up to 30 guineas for those from wealthy families requiring special attention and a room of their own.
By 1794 he had commissioned larger premises in a field near St Anne’s church but this project was ill-fated – first the new building was blown down in an autumn gale while under construction, and then when almost complete it was destroyed by a fire. Plan B was to move his Academy to Cliffe High Street, where it was established in 1796 at 33 Cliffe High Street, opposite Cliffe church, that had once been the Swan Inn, and since a girls’ school. The house was rebuilt, with bay windows and an imposing front door, and in 1806 John Button purchased the freehold of the property from the surgeon James Moore, to whom Gideon Mantell was later to be first apprentice and then partner.
As an advertisement for his Academy John Button had his pupils provide a public entertainment by declaiming well known works at the Star Assembly Rooms. The young Gideon Mantell, born in 1790, was a pupil from 1797 to 1802. He participated in these entertainments, reciting a tale from ‘The Iliad’ at the age of 7 and at the age of 12 telling the story of an imaginary trip to Revolutionary Paris to denounce the vile treatment there of English tourists. As a prominent Baptist dissenter and an openly radical Whig, John Button was regarded by the authorities as a suspect character, but his educational approach appealed to enough of his contemporaries for it to prosper. He continued his school until his death – he was buried at Lewes All Saints on 2 May 1825, aged 63.
In 1807 John Button’s eldest son, John Viney Button, was awarded the town’s Steere Exhibition to attend Queens College, Cambridge. In those days only Anglicans could attend the two universities, and after graduating he was ordained an Anglican minister. However, after John Button’s death his Academy was continued for a further 40 years by another son, William Button (1791-1883), who followed his father as a radical Baptist. At his 1865 retirement William Button was succeeded by Thomas Reader White, who kept the school open until 1880, making it one of the longest-lasting educational establishments in Lewes history. The Victorian Academy had a Spartan regime. A young boarder at the Academy in the 1850s recalled that the day started with a splash under the pump in the school yard, followed by a walk up to the top of Mount Caburn and back before breakfast. Delia Button, a daughter of John Button born in 1794 when the family lived in St Michael’s parish, married the wine & spirit merchant (and later brewer) John Harvey at Cliffe church in 1813 – at that time even such life-long dissenters had to marry in an Anglican church. She was John Harvey’s second wife, and the mother of his 13 children.
Sources: Brigid Chapman, ‘The Schools of Lewes’ (2012); Jeremy Goring, ‘Burn Holy Fire’ (2003); Dennis R. Dean, ‘Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs’ (1999); Colin Brent, ‘Georgian Lewes’ (1993); Colin & Judy Brent, ‘Lewes House Histories’ [The Keep, and online at Sussex Archaeological Society ]; FamilySearch
- [S2581] Parish Register for Marriage of John Piper and Mary Marchant, St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, England, 19 December 1857, (London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p92/geo/201).
- [S2580] 1861 England census, Chain Farm, Sundridge, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, RG9/488/164/17/82, head of household: John Piper, (RG9/488/164/17/82).
- [S2473] 1871 England census, Chains Farm, Ide Hill Road, Ide Hill, Kent, England, RG10/923/64/5, head of household: John Piper, (RG10/923/64/5).
- [S2475] Parish Register for Marriage of John N Piper and Eleanor Wynn, St Mary the Virgin, Ide Hill, Sundridge, Kent, England, 14 December 1898.
- [S873] Family research J Piper, F0421.
- [S2583] Parish Register for Marriage of Alfred James Peters and Florence Piper, St Mary's Church, Ide Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, 17 August 1887.
- [S2549] England and Wales Probate Registration Index.
- [S1449] Marriage Southwark, Surrey (St George the Martyr) 21 Feb 1805 Thomas Piper & Charlotte Paige, (London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p92/geo/177 641).
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Our Family History
Est 1822 - 1897 (74 years)
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