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182 HISTORY OF EAST GRINSTEAD. |
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London early in 1869, where he died on February 12th of that year. He had been invited to contest Northampton for Parliament, but he preferred to work outside Westminster, and became very intimate with all the great Radical leaders, the Chartists, the Cobdenites and the Friends of Italy, being on the Council of the latter Society. As a speaker and writer he won a worldwide reputation. By reason of his connection with Epps's cocoa, Yewhurst was at one time locally known as Cocoa Castle.
THOMAS CRAMP.
Mr. Thomas Cramp, the founder of the Temperance cause in East Grinstead, was born at Lewes, where his father was a veterinary surgeon, on April 21st, 1810. He spent his boyhood at Bexhill and came to East Grinstead as an apprentice to Mr. Palmer, the bookseller, stationer and " Royal Quill Pen Manufacturer." He married Miss Jane Pretty, the daughter of a Wesleyan minister, on June 25th, 1841. He had begun his total abstinence practice exactly four years earlier — total abstinence from tea and coffee as well as alcoholic liquors, water being his only beverage. The Society he started met with most violent opposition. Its members were stoned in the public streets; Mr. Cramp was suspended from Zion Church and removed from his post of Superintendent of the Sunday School; and his pastor preached a public sermon strongly condemning the newfangled craze. The chapel was crowded and at its close an adjournment was made to one of the local inns and a dozen of wine voted the preacher for his excellent discourse. But he declined the gift. It took many a long day to live down the opposition, and it was not until August 25th, 1845, some eight years later, that the use of the same chapel was first granted for a temperance meeting. But the cause grew and in due course East Grinstead boasted of one of the strongest temperance societies in the county. In 1887 Mr. Cramp's temperance jubilee was publicly celebrated, and on April 21st, 1890, a public meeting was held to congratulate him on attaining |
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