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chapel likewise, were unquestionably the burial-places of the inhabitants, from the fact that on several occasions, during excavations, to wit, for the erection of the Market, the Town Hall, and the late Vicarage, a number of skeletons, skulls, bones and other vestiges of mortality were brought to light.
NICHOLAS TETTERSELL AND THE ESCAPE OF CHARLES II.
In the churchyard of the Parish Church we have a tomb (next the chancel door) to the memory of Captain Nicholas Tettersell, who, for the sum of £60, conveyed Charles II. from Brighton to Fecamp, a town, situate just opposite Brighton, and near Havre, in France, in his little vessel, the "Surprise." The unfortunate King had been defeated at Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651, by the Parliamentarians; had wandered about the country for six weeks, and during the latter portion of the period was concealed in a farm house at Ovingdean,—now in the occupation of W. J. Green, Esq.,—waiting the first opportunity to cross the Channel. This soon offered and was successfully carried out, and the event has been treated on by Mr Harrison Ainsworth, in an historical romance called Ovingdean Orange. After the Restoration in 1671, " The Surprise " was moored opposite Whitehall, and a great number of persons visited and inspected it. In consideration of the important, loyal, and valuable services rendered by Capt. Tettersell to his Monarch, the name of the craft was altered from " The Surprise " to "The Royal Escape." It was entered as a fifth rate in the Navy, and he was made Captain of the same; in the year after, the King granted a reversion of the emoluments of the captaincy to his son, and pay likewise to a servant for each, to be paid by the naval authorities at Deptford, where the c |
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