🌳 The Portslade-to-New York Connection: The "Still" Family
While Portslade was famous for its lords and industrialists, it was also the home of the Still family, a lineage of agricultural labourers who lived in the village for generations.
From Sussex to the States
The Portslade Roots: Jasper Still (born 1796) was an agricultural labourer in Portslade Village. He lived with his wife, Sarah, in a cottage right in the heart of the village (likely near Drove Road).
The Emigrant: His youngest son, Ezekiel Still, was born in Portslade on 18 July 1827. In search of a new life, Ezekiel emigrated to America in 1876, eventually settling in the Pacific Northwest near Seattle.
The Central Park Link: The wider Still family tree (specifically the branch that moved to America earlier) includes Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903). While Olmsted was born in Connecticut, his maternal ancestry traces directly back to the same Sussex "Still" lineage that remained in Portslade for centuries.
Why it Matters
When Olmsted was designing Central Park, he famously visited England in 1850. While he is often credited with being inspired by Birkenhead Park in Liverpool, his fascination with the "pastoral" English countryside was deeply personal. He was walking the same types of downland paths that his Still ancestors had walked in Portslade for four hundred years.
A Global Dynasty
The Still family shows that Portslade’s "dynasties" weren't just the ones who lived in the big manors. Their descendants include:
Frederick Law Olmsted: The father of American Landscape Architecture.
John Still: Who became the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1592.
The Canadian Branch: Ezekiel’s brother, Richard (born in Portslade, 1820), eventually followed his children to Manitoba, Canada, at the age of 72!
The Homes of the Still Family
In the early 1800s, when Jasper Still was working as an agricultural labourer, most of the village lived in small, flint-built cottages. Because the early censuses (1841 and 1851) often simply listed addresses as "Portslade Village," pinpointing the exact front door can be a challenge, but local records give us a very clear picture of their neighbourhood.
Robin’s Row: The Labourer’s Reality
The most famous example of the type of home the Stills would have occupied is Robin’s Row (built c.1740). These are the only surviving examples of the "humble form" cottages in the old village.
Conditions: In 1851, the census recorded 38 people living in just five small cottages here!
The Neighbourhood: Jasper and his son Ezekiel lived amongst fellow labourers, shepherds, and brick-makers. Their daily lives revolved around the "big houses" like Portslade House and the Old Manor, where they likely worked the land.
The Greengrocer on Clarence Street
As the family grew and the town modernised, their locations shifted. By 1871, Ezekiel Still had moved slightly south to 16 and 17 Clarence Street.
The Shop: This wasn't just a home; the two properties were "connected internally" to run a greengrocer shop.
A Local Hub: Imagine the Stills serving the local community with vegetables grown in the very fields they once worked as labourers.
📍 Where to walk to "see" their history
If you want to walk in the footsteps of the Still family today, here is where their presence is most felt:
Robin’s Row (off High Street): To see the exact style of flint cottage where the family likely lived during the early 19th century.
Clarence Street: To see where Ezekiel ran his business before he made the life-changing decision to emigrate to America in 1876.
St Nicolas Churchyard: Many of the Still family members who didn't emigrate rest here, alongside their neighbours, the Cooms.
The "Emigrant" Spirit
It is fascinating to think that Ezekiel went from a crowded cottage in a small Sussex village to the vast landscapes of Washington State. It takes a lot of "grit" to move from a greengrocer’s shop in Portslade to the American frontier!
Would you like me to look into the 1871 census for that Clarence Street shop to see which neighbours were living alongside the Stills at the time?
For a broader look at the village's transformation, this video on
provides a visual tour of the very streets and flint cottages where families like the Stills lived and worked. Portslade Old Village
No comments:
Post a Comment