The separation agreement, effectively ending his brief marriage to his landlord's daughter Elizabeth Ollive and signed on 4 June 1774, has been bought by the County Record Office for a total price of £13,420, all funded by external grants.
Thomas Paine is known as ‘the Father of the American Revolution' and his writings in both America and France were key to their revolutions and to advancing the ideals of liberty. He worked in Lewes as an exciseman from 1768 until 1774 – the year in which his business failed, he lost his job and his marriage broke up.
The separation document was discovered thirty years ago in the basement of a shop in Hastings, folded into a copy of a novel by the 18th-century author Tobias Smollett. It was thought that the document was of some interest, and it was framed and hung on the family wall.
When it became clear that the 235 year-old document was to be sold at Bloomsbury Auction in London, Christopher Whittick, Senior Archivist at East Sussex County Council was determined that it should come home to Lewes and started the fundraising necessary to secure it.
With guarantees from the Government Purchase Grant Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries, Lewes Town Council, the Friends of East Sussex Record Office and three private individuals, the Record Office was able to enter the auction with a healthy war-chest, and was successful in buying the document on the day.
Councillor Bob Tidy, Lead Member for Community Services, welcomed the acquisition of this important document. He said: “The County Council's Record Office is tireless in its efforts to save the documentary heritage of East Sussex, and I warmly applaud the hard work which has gone into this campaign. We're also very grateful to the national and local bodies, and to the three private individuals, who have expressed their support by stepping forward to help us.”
Christopher Whittick, Senior Archivist said: “Paine's short stay in Lewes – only six years – was nevertheless a crucial element in the development of his political outlook, as recent research has shown. Documents derived from Paine's time in the town are incredibly scarce and this separation agreement, under which Paine agreed to release any claim on his wife's property – is by far the most important.
“A few months later, Paine was in America, his passage no doubt paid for by the £45 he received from the deal. In a very real sense, this is the piece of paper which propelled a voluble and eloquent English exciseman onto a world stage. His writings are still deployed in the political arena – President Obama quoted frequently and effectively from Paine in his inaugural address.”
People will soon be able to ask to see the document at the Record Office and the County Council also plans to display it at a public event in Lewes in June next year.
To find out more about the County Record Office visit our East Sussex Record Office pages.
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