John Lellyett died in 1794 leaving his home to his son William, who lived there until his death in 1834, aged 72. In the unsuccessful auction of 1835 the house was described as a genteel Freehold Residence and offices with extensive walled Garden, well-stocked with fruit trees, situate in the East street of Havant, late in the occupation of William Lellyett deceased, comprising every convenience, and well situated for business or retirement. Also the Messuage or Tenement, Yard and Premises adjoining, in the occupation of Mr Pottle, bootmaker, tenant-at-will. In the 1841 census William’s son Charles Lellyett, a ‘brandy merchant’, was living in the main house with his wife.
William Lellyett’s granddaughter, Ada Mary Augusta Norton Wilkinson, inherited the property in 1888 when her mother died. Following an unsuccessful auction, Henry Martin Green of Longcroft and Green persuaded Miss Wilkinson to convey the property to him in return for a £50 annuity, secured by a policy of assurance. The survivor, be it Green or Wilkinson, would inherit the property.
This enabled Green fraudulently to sell the two houses in early 1889 to Albert Stallard of the adjacent Magnolia House, and to abscond with the money. Miss Wilkinson lost her case in the High Court and Stallard demolished the two properties. Two semi-detached houses, designed by Stallard’s cousin, Alfred Edwin Stallard, who built the White Hart, were erected on the site between 1889 and 1894. These are now nos 23 and 25 East Street.
Havant Civic Society 