John Bredon (1723-1795), lived in building known as the Mint House. He was a shopkeeper, the assessor of the Window Tax, a churchwarden and sometime Bailiff of Pevensey. In the days when the Pevensey Corporation had real local power, the Bailiff was effectively the mayor of Pevensey: he was also the leader of the Jurats, equivalent to the Justices of the Peace. As a churchwarden he had responsibilities for the upkeep of the church; he was also responsible for the overseeing of poor relief and setting the rates.
It was, we would say now, a diverse portfolio which, in the wrong hands, could be very profitable.The churchwardens were Overseers of the Poor, and had their books approved by the local Jurats. These two groups overlapped, and the administration of poor relief and charity in Pevensey was at the time – and for many years to come – a corrupt business, with the Jurats and churchwardens benefitting.
Few people were in a position to object. There was, however, one man who could take on the Jurats and the churchwardens. That was the Earl of Ashburnham, landowner and ironmaster. In the 1760s he employed the landscape gardener Capability Brown to redesign his Sussex grounds, and the results can still be visited today. Ashburnham was perhaps less bothered about the corruption in Pevensey than the fact that he paid rates here.
In 1773 Ashburnham decided to contest the accounts of the Overseers for the period 1766-1772. His objections included the use of public funds to provide expensive feasts for the Jurats, and the excessive charges for minor clerical activities. John Bredon had set his own rates at £3 per year, when they should have been £4. A lady called Elizabeth Jarrett had received an even better rating, £1 instead of £4. Houses which were meant for the poor were being given to non-paupers. Jurats were allowed to borrow money and not pay it back. And, of course, the low rates for Mr Bredon and his favoured crew meant higher rates for Lord Ashburnham. Ashburnham had a good case, but there was a stumbling block.
The Pevensey court met on 14th June 1773 and rejected Ashburnham’s case. This decision was hardly surprising in itself , but astonishingly the Jurats at the case included John Bredon. He insisted that he had not taken part in the court’s final decision, despite being present throughout. Lord Ashburnham was understandably dissatisfied and had the means to raise the case at a higher court.
Lord Mansfield by Jean-Baptiste van Loo
In 1775 the matter was brought before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield (1705-1793). He is best known now for his judgement in the Somersett case of 1772 (that slavery had no basis in common law). In his day Lord Mansfield was the pre-eminent legal authority, and he dealt swiftly with the Pevensey case: “The churchwarden’s acting as a judge vitiates the whole”. Added to which, the decision of the Pevensey court was wrong on legal grounds.
John Bredon emerged from this somewhat poorer but otherwise unscathed.
Alan Starr 2024