Charles Sergison, who was one of the commissioners of the Royal Navy for William III’s reign seems to have purchased Cuckfield Park, its house and lands in 1691, and came to reside there during the last decade of the 17th century. Springing from a Westmorland stock, he was entirely a self-made man. At the age of seventeen he obtained a clerkship in one of the Royal dockyards, and from this he rose by his abilities to be a commissioner of the Navy.

He had for a near neighbour and friend Mr Lyddell, who lived at Wakehurst, in Ardingly parish, and who was also a commissioner of the Navy. We find the two friends drawing up in their official capacity a memorandum of an important interview that they had on “Satterday morning the 20th May 1699” with Dutch William. The memorandum states: “Mr Lyddell and I attended the Kings Levy. I moved his Majesty as he satt in his Chaire, that he would give us an opportunity of waiting on him privately, as he had done formally.- His  majesty replied Yes - next week - Tuesday morning”. The laconic replies of the Dutch monarch are amusingly characteristic. The appointment was postponed, but 

“Wednesday, the 24th of May, 1699 wee attended accordingly, and was in a little time admitted privately the back way into his closet. Haveing the copy of this Booke in Marble Paper in my hand, His Majesty comeing out of the Inner Closett, very pleasantly said, Gent - have you got another Booke for me? I answered Yes Sir - Thinking it for your Majesty’s Service to have alwaies by you the State of Your Navy, for as much as your Curiosity, if not your occations may lead you sometimes to look into it and that it should be laid before you twice a year at least, wee have prepared a short view of it for the present, Containing -“ 

And then follow summaries on the four heads of the contents.  This book, an elegantly written pocket volume is still in the possession of the Sergisons and family. It contains the most minute account of the names, tonnage, et cetera of the ships in the Royal Navy at the date, and of other official matters. The memorandum records that his Majesty took the book, and looked it over with a great deal of curiosity and seeming satisfaction. He took notice “that the debts fell mostly upon the head of wages, particularly the Tenth’s of Prizes Hee was curious to be informed of the Collumes of the General list, and particularly what ships were in, and what were out of repair, and spent near a Quarter of an hour in looking over the whole”.

Mr Sergison then made a long address to the king which he gives in full, punctuated by the shrewd, jerky comments of the monarch. He winds up by saying: “But not to detaine your majesty any longer, doubting I have already trespass’d, I begg your Majesty in consideracon of my Health and other Circumstances will give me leave to retire, and heereafter I can be serviceable to your Majesty, I shall be very ready, and at your call”. 

To which he replied in these words or to this effect, “please I cannot part with you, I have more need of you no they never. This commission will want your assistance, I will protect you, and they shall have orders to do the same, and if your health requires your Goeing into the country, I hope you will take a time when you can best be Spared”. To which Mr Sergison made a loyal and dutiful answer. 

As Mr M. A. Lower observes (“S. A. C” xxv page 70), the plain and outspoken speech of Mr Sergison shows him to have been a man of great courage and zeal. His ill-treatment by the other officials, of which he makes complaint to the king, was possibly due to more than one cause, such as their supineness in their several posts, their love of peculation, which we know, from Sergison’s great predecessor and part contemporary, Pepys, to whom he refers in one of his letters, was rampant in his day, and probably a lingering attachment to James II’s person and party.

Many letters and draft documents relating to the Navy and to Mr Sergison are preserved in Cuckfield, and most of them have never been published.

Perhaps the earliest of these is a neatly bound volume, in a fine clerkly hand, entitled “1st  November 1686. A distinct proportion of Eight and Twelve months Sea Stores, for every of his Majesty's Ships, Yachts, Ketches, Sloopes and other Vessells now in Being”. 

Mr Sergison continued to fulfil his duties as a Commissioner of the Royal Navy throughout the reigns of Queen Anne and George I and well into that of George II, dying in 1732. But shame to relate, he was turned out of office in 1719, the possible excuse being hinted at in his epitaph in Cuckfield Church: “Near this place lyeth interred the body of Charles Sergison Esquire of Cuckfield Place, who departed this life November 26, 1732, aged 78. He was initiated into the Civil government of the Royal Navy in the year is 1671, as a clerk in one of his Majesty's yards, and laudably served through several offices till the year 1719, mainly 48 years, 35 of which as a principal officer and commissioner, to the satisfaction of the several kings and queens, and their greatest ministers and all their superiors; about which time the Civil Government of the Navy being put into Military hands, he was esteemed by them not a fit person to serve any longer. He was a Gentleman of great Capacity and Penetration, exact judgement, close application to business, and strict integrity. These virtues completely qualified in for the post, which he is so well filled in so long enjoyed.

In those who served under him merit alone recommended. fidelity and diligence were rewarded, which gave him Respect, Esteem, and Honour. He served his country in several parliaments, where like a true Patriot He consulted only the real interest of the Nation, without any particular views of his own. In private life he observed justice and probity, affable and its relations peaceable to his neighbours, kind and beneficent to his servants and in every station an Honest Man” 

A fine epitaph on a fine man, one may truly say.

There are still preserved at Cuckfield Park many objects of great interest which have been handed down as heirlooms from Mr Charles Sergison’s time.

These include, besides various documents of public and private interest, sixty five folio volumes of minutes of the Navy, and many very large and finely executed models of ships of war, which considering they are two centuries old and more, are in a wonderful state of preservation. With regard to these, Mr Sir Sergison wrote in his will, (1732): “And also I will and appoint that one or two rooms of such house, (Cuckfield Place or Park), should be applyed to the accommodation of my Models and Books, which shall be handsomely placed in them as they are now and Especially I will add a point that my Naval Collection shall be taken care of and placed together as they now stand, and to be and remain there for the use of my heir for the time being”. 

These directions, if not obeyed in the letter, have been observed in the spirit, and the wonderful models give to the rooms the appearance of the Naval Museum. 

Charles Sanderson was MP from new Shoreham, to which he was elected in 1698. A good portrait of him is preserved at Cuckfield Park. He married Anne Crawley, daughter of an official of that name in the Navy office, and she pre-deceased him in 179, leaving no children. The Cuckfield estate, therefore, devolved upon Michael, an elder brother of Charles Sergison. In the nineteenth century, through the failure of male heirs, it passed into the female line, but the old name, needless to say, has been retained.

PHILIP M. JOHNSON