The Meeting still had its problems, and the following extracts from the minutes of the Women's Meeting reveal that the discipline and breaches of it had changed very little during the preceding century.

In 1802, This meeting, being informed that contrary to the repeated advice of friends, Jane Coates is married to a person not of our society, appoints William Robert Twiner and John Glaisyer senior in conjunction with the women friends, either to visit her or to draw up a testimony of disownment against her as way may open.

At the next meeting: The following testimony of disownment of Jane Williams late Coates was brought to the meeting, which being twice read, was agreed to, and sent to the woman's meeting. William Robert Twiner is desired to hand her a copy thereof to present to her:

Nevertheless we retain a tender regard for her wellbeing, here and hereafter, with desires that she may be favoured to stand open to the true teacher within, Christ Jesus the Light of Life, and sink down in resignation to His will, as clay in the hands of the Potter that He may form and fashion her to His praise and her everlasting peace.

There was a different problem with Mary Osborn of Brighton. She had attended the meeting for more than twenty years, and as one sometimes appointed to attend Monthly Meeting she had no excuse for not knowing the discipline. The meeting was informed that Mary Osborn has been in the practice of intemperance in drinking, and appoints two women friends to visit her thereon and requests the men friends assistance therein.

The result was unfavourable: William Marten and John Glaisyer report that they in company with one of the women friends appointed have visited Mary Osborne and found her so far from that sensible and penitent state that was desirable that they are afraid another visit will not be attended with any good effect. They are therefore requested to draw up a testimony of disownment against her and present it at a future meeting.

Matthew Bourne Likeman was a cause for concern respecting his absconding from his apprenticeship & entering on board a ship of war. John Glaisyer, William Tuppen and William Marten were appointed to keep him under their care.

It must have been a great source of distress to Christopher Spencer that: This meeting, being informed that Christopher Spencer junior has been guilty of great immorality in his conduct so as to bring reproach on our Religious Society, appoints Willm Tuppen and Willm Marten to visit him and report. Next month they reported that they have visited Christopher Spencer Jun and find the report respecting him to be true, namely, that a young woman is with child by him and that, as he did not seem sufficiently contrite for the sin, they thought it would be right for friends to testify their abhorrence of such a crime by disowning him, which being also the judgement of this meeting, we appoint the said William Marten and William Tuppen to draw up a testimony of disownment against him and bring to the next meeting.

It is from diaries like those of William Marten, quoted in a previous chapter, that we learn something of the quieter, spiritual life of the Society. His obituary, in a secular newspaper, was very different from those published by Friends. Prom 1813 onwards The Annual Monitor, was published. originally a pocket book with notes of a few friends who had died in the preceding year it became, in practice, the official obituary for all Friends in Britain. The entry for William Marten simply reads:

		William Marten 58. 6th lst mo. 1823 Lewis.
		He was a minister, and much beloved by his friends and neighbours.

The cryptic entries of the first volumes eventually gave way to long essays. The early ones are remarkable for summarising the work of a lifetime in a few lines, while recording a breath by breath account of the last few hours. This emphasis was inevitable as the Book of Discipline at the time required Friends to be certain that the last words of dying members were carefully recorded. It is a shock to read Quaker theological or devotional works of the time, since they appear to have much more in common with modern fundamentalists than with modern Friends. It may be even harder to accept that the pious, other-worldly attitudes were not a momentary aberration, but were the mainstream of the Society's thought and worship for nearly two centuries. There are no detailed obituaries of members of Lewes Meeting in the early 1800's, but the pathetic testimony to Sarah Lidbetter of Brighton who died in 1831 at the age of nine would accurately reflect their attitudes and beliefs:

Daughter of Bridger and Elizabeth Lidbetter. She was from a very little child fond of reading the Holy Scriptures, and other religious books. She also enjoyed attending our meetings for worship; and very early experienced the comfort and advantage of secret prayer. She was obedient, obliging and affectionate to her parents, of steady carriage and behaviour; and although much hidden, being a child of few words, she was much beloved and respected by all who knew her; and her mother says: ii never remember her to have needed correction; but when at any time she detected herself in error, her sorrow and grief were such as to need all the comfort and consolation I could give.

The day she died, she said: 'Mother, I believe my breath is going; give me a sweet kiss, and send for father and uncle up stairs, that I may bid them farewell. After taking leave of her beloved mother, she dozed until within a few minutes of her close; when, agreeably to her earnest prayer, that whatever pain she might endure, she might be favoured to retain her senses to the last, she was enabled to speak with her latest breath: on awakening and her mother saying: 'My dear, thou art just entering glory,' she with a smile and the enquiry 'Am I?' ceased to breathe.

William Marten's diary records a happier event. The following quotation incorporates some additional information from a letter (probably also the work of William Marten) addressed to John Glaisyer of Brighton, one of the founders of the present firm of Glaisyer and Kemp.

26.vi.1814. Been to Meeting this morning. This day the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia (Alexander 1), his sister the Duchess of Oldenburg, passed through this town on their way to Dover. A great concourse of people assembled. We were at Meeting when the Emperor and his sister went through. He expressed at Portsmouth his predilection in favour of the Society of Friends and felt a strong inclination to visit a family of that persuasion on his way from Petworth to Dover to have friendly conversation for half an hour. The name of J. Glaisyer of Brighton and - [name omitted] of Lewes were given him, but he did not call on either. It is said he attempted it at Brighton but the crowd was so great he could not conveniently get to the house. With regard to Lewes he did not know he had passed through it, the route being intended to go by Newhaven. After he had got a little from the place, he enquired what town it was. When they got to Nathaniel Rickman's the family were standing at the gate, first-day afternoon, to see the Emperor pass. He, seeing they had the appearance of Friends, desired the driver to stop. He alighted, and asked Nathaniel Rickman if they were not of the people called Quakers.

On parting, the Emperor kissed Mary Rickman's hand, and the Duchess kissed her; they shook hands cordially with Nathaniel Rickman, saying - 'Farewell.' He behaved throughout in the most free and affable manner possible.

It appears that Nathaniel and Mary Rickman lived at Amberstone, and were members of Herstmonceux meeting.

Jordans Meeting. Lewes would have been similar.

At this time members of Lewes Meeting began an association with a family which was to become famous. In 1793 Elizabeth Rickman, a cousin of Thomas Rickman the architect, married John Hodgkin (1766-1845) and moved to Pentonville, although they often visited Lewes. John taught classics and mathematics, and became famous as a calligraphist and grammarian. They had two surviving sons, Thomas (1798-1866) and John (1800-1875). Their cousin, Sarah Godlee, was the daughter of John Godlee (1762-1841, a merchant and banker in the Cliffe) and Mary Rickman Godlee. Sarah was a particularly close childhood friend of Thomas and they later fell in love. Their early correspondence, however, concerned the practical details of electrical machines:

Sarah Godlee's love to her cousin Thomas and would be much obliged to him to inform her how many gallons of electrical fluid her sister and father each received at Pentonville when last there - The reason for making this singular request is that Joseph Green, with whom she has been staying in S. Walden, said when she mentioned it that her sister had received nine gallons that he thought it was enough to cause a person's death. She thought she might be mistaken as to the quantity and deferred that matter till she could ask her cousin whom she has no doubt remembers.

The elder members of the family discouraged this relationship as the children grew into adolescence. Thomas was apprenticed to William Allen, a Quaker chemist and member of the Royal Society, but William Allen had become more interested in missionary work for Quakers, and Thomas left him. In 1817 he began a new apprenticeship with his mother's cousins, John Glaisyer and Grover Kemp who were chemists in Brighton and were very influential in Lewes Monthly Meeting. He left to study medicine and eventually became pathologist at Guy's Hospital, where he researched the condition later named after him - Hodgkin's disease.

He was very highly regarded, and for a while his sudden resignation from Guy's Hospital was a mystery. Hodgkin had for many years campaigned for the rights of aboriginal peoples, especially the American Indians. Benjamin Harrison was Treasurer of Guy's and also a Deputy Governor of the Hudson Bay Company. Hodgkin's views on the right treatment of indigenous peoples incurred Harrison's opposition, and Thomas Hodgkin no longer had any future in Guy's, nor in St Thomas's of which Harrison was also a Governor.

Sarah Godlee had married the architect John Rickman, a second cousin, and after his death in 1836 she returned to Lewes. Thomas Hodgkin had been seriously ill, and now in his low state, with disappointment and feeble health darkening his life, he was dearer than ever to the faithful heart of cousin Sarah, and she became dearer than ever to him. She wrote his letters from his dictation: she was his devoted friend and counsellor.

In 1840 he wrote a paper On the Rule which Forbids the Marriage of First Cousins, pointing out that the Bible nowhere forbids this and often implicitly endorses it. He also considered medical arguments against this and concluded that there was no reliable statistical evidence against it. The paper was considered, but the ruling was not changed, and it remained in force until 1883. Although Sarah may have expected Thomas to marry her regardless of the decision, he respected the Society's authority too much, even when he believed it mistaken, and they parted in 1847 after a romance which had lasted 35 years.

Thomas's brother, John, was also interested in physical science, although they had other interests. John Stuart Mill was one of their few boyhood associates. John Hodgkin chose law as his profession, and practised very successfully as a conveyancer and teacher. He had little contact with Lewes after his early teens until he retired there in 1858, by which time he was one of the leading figures in the local meeting and the Society as a whole.

The members of Lewes Meeting in the early 18th century had included many tradesmen and shop-keepers. In 1818 John Rickman (1774-1859), the son of Richard Peters Rickman, bought Wellingham House near Ringmer and retired there. His grandson described him in terms of unimaginative precision and tyranny, and told of a man who had made an appointment to repay a loan of £100 at 12 noon on market day. The man was late, and John Rickman, accompanied by the young John Horne, set off in his gig for home. The debtor caught up with them on Lewes bridge, but John Rickman would have none of him. "I can remember no appointment with anyone on Lewes bridge at five past twelve,' he said, 11 will see thee at twelve o-clock next market day." He then turned to John Horne to work out a week's interest at 5 percent.

The family was no longer involved in brewing - the temperance movement was beginning to make progress among Friends - but the descendants of the earlier John Rickman continued in many lines of business including banking, corn, timber, cement, and coal. At that time Lewes was the second largest port in East Sussex, and the Rickmans and Godlees shared much of the trade. In 1839 the Sussex Express reported that:

An addition to the bustle of the river has lately been created by a number of workmen employed by Messrs. Rickman and Godlee, in the construction of a light but elegant drawbridge from warehouse to warehouse across the river.

In the same year the firm of Rickman and Godlee built their first sea-going ship in a yard just south of Cliffe Bridge, now occupied by Messrs. Chandler. The slip-way was carefully sited facing into the bend of the river. The Lewes Castle was a schooner 60 feet in length, and of 120 tons. Its keel was laid on Queen Victoria's coronation day.

Just west of the bridge stands Dial House. It was originally occupied by the Isteds, but by 1790 it was in the hands of Thomas Rickman (1718-1803) who rebuilt it, extending it to one side and making it almost symmetrical. It passed to Mary Rickman (1770-1851) who married John Godlee (1762-1841). In 1826 she started a school, which her daughters Sarah and Mary Ann continued. In 1828 Sarah Godlee became the second wife of John Rickman (1780-1835). John Godlee's son, Rickman Godlee (1804-1871), eventually Sir Rickman Godlee, became an eminent lawyer and married Mary Lister, the sister of Sir Joseph Lister who pioneered antiseptic surgery. Another son of John Godlee, Burwood (1802-1882), who is described variously as gentleman, banker, land-owner and coal merchant, became one of the most prominent members of Lewes Meeting later in the century.

Later the sisters left Dial House for rooms above the subscription library in Albion Street and the house was occupied by Richard Peters Rickman (1805-1876). In 1831 he married Hannah Ashby whose sister Priscilla was married to Burwood Godlee. When The Friars, the Tudor mansion opposite, was demolished in 1846, they renamed Dial House in its honour. Their son John was painfully shy. He came to Meeting, but he would slip in when everyone else had assembled, take his seat on the very last bench, and slip out again at the first sign of the end of Meeting, to avoid the agony of being spoken to, or being obliged to speak. If ever he heard company at the front door he would go out at the back and walk the two miles up the river bank to Wellingham where he would stay with his aunts until he felt sure that the visitors had gone. One day it was announced that he was to marry Ellen Bellerby who lived as companion to his aunts, and no one could imagine how he had found the courage to propose to her. It was rumoured that he had confided in his aunts, and that they helped him.

His sister, Mary Hannah was very different; sociable, gracious and charming, simple and sincere in manner. The children thought she was beautiful. She was always dressed in silks and velvet. We shall hear more of her parties in a later chapter.