The History of Harveys

John Harvey Steps Out Of The Mists Of Time

Where did he come from? We know when John Harvey was born, what his first business was (wine and brandy shipper), where and when he died, where he was buried, who he married and a great deal about his children, but his own origins are very vague. He is known to have had family links with Blandford Square in London but that is not to say he was the first Harvey to have come to trade in Lewes. The facts seem to support that a previous generation was actively trading wine in the area.

To speculate a little based on the name 'Harvey', which is by no means a rare surname, particularly among the enterprising or acclaimed. In London and the South East, however, some auspicious characters emerge. In 1619 Sir Sebastian Harvey was elected Lord Mayor of London and witnessed the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh during his Lord Mayor's Show. Within a decade, 1628, a much more famous Doctor William Harvey was publishing his theories regarding the circulation of the blood for which he was later to be celebrated as the father of modern medicine. He was born in Folkestone along the coast from Lewes.

Such famous Harveys existed a century and a half before our John Harvey, and no definitive links exist. A more likely candidate for an ancestor emerges in 1751, the discovery of a silver wine label linked to the business of a John Harvey in London. He is known to have had three sons between 1738 and 1745. Could he have been the grandfather of our wine merchant?

More tempting still is to look westward to Bristol, where a noted wine merchant again called John Harvey (son of a sea Captain called Thomas) established a famous brand of sherry in 1838. This took place after our John Harvey's business had already been established. A cousin perhaps? To date no one knows for certain.

The early known facts in Lewes are:

• Records of 1794 detail the supply of wine and port to customers in the Lewes area.
• By 1811 John Harvey's wine and brandy shipping business is well established "at the foot of Cliffe Bridge" in Lewes.
• He had started brewing as a seasonal sideline activity in Bear yard, opposite the current brewery, by about 1820.
• He shared the Bear Yard brewing plant with another brewer called Thomas Wood but they ran separate businesses alongside each other for two decades.
• John Harvey married Eliza Button and had many more children than the three sons who carried on his business after his death.

With his sons, John Harvey acquired the current Bridge Wharf Site in 1838 for the price of £3,100. It consisted of a coal wharf, timber yard and private dwellings. He added coal merchant to his line of business activities and built an eight quarter brewhouse on the site.