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TQ2604 : Baltic Wharf - Shoreham docks
My 3rd great uncle, Edward Lucas, a Quaker, was born and educated in Hitchin. He was indentured in 1819 to Isaac Bass (also a Quaker) at Brighton for seven years “to be instructed in the art of a tallow chandler and grocer”. Edward did not complete his apprenticeship as he found Bass's business practices to be unacceptable.
In the 1820s, his father bought for him the shipping and wharfinger business of Thomas Lidbetter at Southwick, he thus became a merchant, ship-owner and developer of Shoreham Docks.. In 1827 Edward married Benjamina Rickman, daughter of John Rickman of Wellingham House near Lewes. The couple moved to Southwick House at Shoreham. In 1852, for unknown (to me) reasons, Edward sold his interests at Shoreham to Robert Horne Penney ( who later became his son-in-law) and returned to Hitchin to become a partner in the Hitchin Bank.