Catalogue description The Old Ballroom House in Eastbourne, purchased by Davies Gilbert jointly with Lord Burlington

The Ballroom House, two other messuages, a coach-house, workshop, buildings, garden and coal-yard near the sea side (W: ditch; SE: road; N: the Hogmarsh; SE: Thomas Grace's boundary wall), partitioned in 1813 from a copyhold tenement of the manor of Eastbourne Nether Inn described in 1764 as a messuage, barn and close of land near the sea, formerly David Jenner, before Maynard and before Bodle, quitrent 2d.

In 1789 the tenement was described as a new erected messuage called the Ballroom House, two messuages occupied by Mrs Grace, two dwelling houses, a large cellar, three stables, a coachhouse and a bathing house, all adjoining or lying between the Ballroom House and the messuage occupied by Mrs Grace.

Henry Burtenshaw mortgaged this and other property to Robert Pilcher in 1764 and to William Crawley, gent, in 1774, before selling it (now with stables and a brewhouse on the site of the barn) to William Webb in 1775. Webb mortgaged the property to James Dippery (3).

On William Webb's death in 1789 the improved property passed by his will to his youngest son Alexander, subject to the use of parts of the buildings by his mother and sister Jane Johns. In 1813 Alexander surrendered part of the tenement (the messuage with bakehouse, shop, stable and buildings) to Thomas Grace and his wife Mary, and the remainder (the Ballroom House and property described as above) to his cousin Abraham Wood of Eastbourne, carpenter, who borrowed £2000 from the vendor on mortgage. The quitrent was apportioned to 1d (3).

In 1824 Wood surrendered the property to his son Abraham Wood of Hastings, grocer, who mortgaged it to John Phillips of Hastings (1-2). In 1833 Wood, then of Maryland Place, Great Dover Road, London, gent, contracted to sell the estate for £1800 to George Henry [Cavendish] Earl of Burlington and Davies Gilbert in equal shares. His aunt Jane Johns of Eastbourne, widow, released her rights under her father's will to certain rooms in the Ballroom House and to the bathinghouse and its profits on 12 February and Wood covenanted to make the surrender an notified his tenant Samuel Reed on 16 February 1833 (4-6).

In March 1833 the new owners granted a long lease to William Boys of Eastbourne, innholder for 61 years, with detailed covenants to erect buildings worth £300 within two years and concerning the use of the site (7). An insurance policy of 1878 named the lessee as Edward Hollingham, brewer, and the property as also called Livingstone House (8). A note inserted amongst the deeds states that the property was sold to Hollingham by the Duke of Devonshire and Carew Davies Gilbert in 1888 (9).