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Hampton Street Years

James & Henry Boniface lived and operated the carriage business from Hampton Street, Brighton, Sussex. They lived in No.1 primarily and then also lived in No.3 as well. Earliest date of occupancy was 1841 at No.1 and the latest is 1890 at No.3. On a hunch I wrote to the occupant of No.1 Hampton street in 1990 and received these two photograph's, current occupant say's it is now the only residence left on the street.

James Boniface began the business as a young man after moving from his birthplace of Woodmancote to Brighton. One can surmise that he may have worked for someone else before deciding to run his own business but no record of this has been found. The earliest date of his occupancy in Brighton is the 1841 census which shows his age as 30 and living at 1 Hampton Street. The census also lists his wife Elizabeth aged 25 and the first mention of Henry listed as an infant. Henry would later follow in his fathers footsteps and continue the business. The 1841 census gave ages rounded off to the nearest 5 year increments, so knowing that James was born on Feb 19, 1811 in Woodmancote as seen in the parish registers from that area and the 1841 census was taken on June 6th 1841, his actual age in 1841 would have been 29. No record of his marriage to Elizabeth has been found in the Woodmancote or Brighton parish registers and nor where Elizabeth originally came from. One can only guess that they may have married the year before Henry was born. Henry began his career as a fly proprietor on Sep 1, 1862 at the age of 20 right after his marriage to his first wife Eliza in August. Source for this is the 'Boniface Notebook' which was began by James as a record of family dates and continued by Henry as a diary as well. The notebook shows buying, selling of horses and some important events in the families lives. Henry records the last "fly job" that his father did as being on April 26th Easter Monday in 1886 and the subsequent sale of his horse, fly and harness for 65 pounds to a David Boniface two days later. David seems to be the son of John Boniface who was Henry's brother. A David Boniface is listed in the 1881 census as being a fly proprietor and aged 24. Another David Boniface was the brother of Henry, either one is a possible. Further research in this area may reveal that the business was in the family so to speak for many more years. However, Henry records that on May 3rd, 5 days later he bought a Davids horse, fly and harness for 39 pounds. Assuming it was the same David one can only wonder what happened to reduce the price so much and the short duration in Davids possesion. Hampton Street was the home to father and son for many years. As mentioned before James was at 1 Hampton Street in 1841. Henry records in the notebook that he took possesion of his fathers house on Feb 27, 1871 and moved into it in March. The 1871 census taken on April 7th lists Henry and his family at 1 Hampton and James and his family at 3 Hampton Street. James lived at No.3 until his death in 1887, the Brighton City Directory shows a Miss Boniface still living at No.3 in 1890, this is likely his daughter Elizabeth who I believe to have never married. She died in 1915 and is likely to have lived at No.3 until then.