Born at 55 Buckingham Road in the summer of 1852, Frederick Ernest Sawyer is now an almost forgotten Brighton resident; but during his life he contributed numerous articles about the history and folklore of Brighton and Sussex.

Fred was the son of George Sawyer who, according to the 1851 census, was a Timber Merchant and had a yard in Upper North Street. At the 1871 census, George was still a Timber Merchant and employed 10 men. Fred had 3 brothers, Walter, Frank, who became a Professor of Music in Leipzig, and Charles, who died in 1884 at the age of 21. Fred was educated at the Brighton Grammar School, which was then located in Buckingham Road before being moved to the Dyke Road/Old Shoreham Road site. On leaving he was articled with the firm of Brighton solicitors, Messers David Black, Freeman, and Freeman Gell, where he remained (for some time as managing clerk) until 1888, when he started a practice of his own in Ship Street.

Although trained as a lawyer, his investigations and comment on the history and traditions of Sussex is where his forgotten work lies. Fred contributed approx 220 questions, answers and comments to Notes and Queries, the first being in 1877 when he answered a question about John Drury, the vicar of Brighton in 1575. Fred contributed over 20 articles to the Sussex Archaeological Collections; again this was a mixture of historical and folkloric articles including such diverse titles as Sussex Folk Lore and Customs Connected with the Seasons, and St Wilfred’s Life in Sussex and the Introduction of Christianity. Papers he read before the Brighton Natural History Society included The Erosion of the Sussex Coast and Earthquakes in Sussex.

In the 1800s it was generally agreed that, when escaping to France in October 1651, Charles II had stayed in the King’s Head Inn, in West Street. Fred’s researches dismissed this association as he proved the inn had not come into existence until about 1750. Fred proved as conclusively as possible that Charles had stayed at The George Inn in Middle Street, before being ferried across the channel by Nicholas Tattersell. Writing in the Sussex Agricultural Express in January 1883, Fred described the nineteenth century custom of ‘the bushel’. On New Year’s Day, a bushel measure of ale was provided by the landlord of the Red Lion Inn at Shoreham, and ladled out into pint glasses by a ‘baler’. I’m sure the twenty-first century hostelries could equal this!

In 1886 Fred married his cousin Mary Ann Weston, and moved the 100 metres or so along Buckingham Place towards Seven Dials to number 31, where in 1889 their son George Frederick was born. On Sunday morning, 8 June 1891 following a bout of Influenza and asthma, Fred died. He was only 39.

Their son George died in 1911, and Mary Ann lived until May 1917, when she died from a heart attack in a taxi when returning home from Queen’s Road. One area of Fred’s work is kept alive today. In January 1884, Fred published the text of the Steyning Tipteerers’ [Mummers’] Play in the Folk-Lore Journal. Each year on Boxing Day, the Chanctonbury Ring Morris Men perform the play.

“Father Christmas: Well, Doctor, what can you cure?
Doctor: I can cure the hipsy, pipsy palsy pains, and the gout
All raging pains both in and out
A broken leg, or a broken arm
And if that man’s neck was broke
I’ll be bound to put it together again.”

Sean Goddard (email: s.p.goddard@sussex.ac.uk)
I would like to acknowledge the help of Louise Gaskins, of Kingsland, Georgia, USA who is a descendant of Fred by marriage.