Arthur Bigge and his daughter Julia

Born on 18 May 1818 at Long Horsley in Northumberland, Arthur Bigge was the seventh son of Charles William Bigge of Linden House, Northumberland.

Educated at University College, Oxford (BA, 1840; MA, 1843), he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1844. From 1855 to 1884 he was the stipendiary magistrate at Brighton.

On 24 September 1857 at Newick he married Elizabeth Anne Sclater, eldest daughter of James H. Sclater of Newick Park, Sussex.

He appears on the 1861 census, a ‘Police Magistrate (Barrister)’ living at 15 Montpelier Villas in Brighton with his wife and their three servants.

On the night of the 1871 census, Arthur and Elizabeth, together with their 9-year-old daughter Julia Bessie Bigge, were visiting Elizabeth’s brother James Henry Sclater at Newick Park House. Arthur gave ‘Police Magistrate at Brighton’ as his profession.

Elizabeth Anne Bigge died on 4 January 1882 at 23 Cambridge Road, Hove.

According to the Pall Mall Gazette (5 May 1884), ‘Mr Arthur Bigge, who has sat as stipendiary magistrate for Brighton for thirty years, has retired.’

On 9 April 1885 at Honington Church in Warwickshire Arthur Bigge married, secondly, ‘Laura, third daughter of the late Rev. E. J. Townsend’ (Leamington Spa Courier, 11 April 1885).

He died, aged 67, on 28 August 1885 at 23 Cambridge Road, Hove, and was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard at Newick beside his first wife. He left an estate valued at £4512.

He is seen here with his daughter Julia. Born at Brighton in 1862, in 1891 she was living at Newick Park, the home of her maternal uncle James Henry Sclater. She never married. She died on 21 January 1928 at Les Pelouses, Mentone, in the South of France. She left an estate valued at £7308.

Photographed by Hennah and Kent of Brighton.