Martha Gunn was the most famous of the Brighton ‘dippers’, who operated bathing machines on the beach for swimmers in the late C18th. As the popularity of therapeutic sea bathing grew, a whole new profession developed amongst the town’s fishermen and their families – bathing visitors for a living. By 1790 there were about 20 dippers and bathers – the male equivalent – at Brighton beach, and they continued in business until about the 1850s. Martha became ‘the queen of the dippers’, and played a pivotal role in Brighton’s transformation into a successful resort and city.
Martha was from a well known local fishing family, the Killicks. She married Stephen Gunn in 1758; they had 8 children and many of their descendants still live in Brighton. There is a Gunns florist on Sydney Street, North Laine. Stephen’s sister Abigail married John ’Smoaker’ Miles, the most famous bather at the time.
The dipper had to be strong enough to push the machine in and out of the water, and help the bathers immerse themselves. Martha was a robust and vigourous woman, with great entrepreneurial spirit, who took a leading role in managing the town’s bathing machines. Her image appeared in many popular engravings, including a satirical print of 1796 ‘A French invasion or Brighton in a Bustle’ by John Colley Nixon, in which she appeared at the head of a crowd repelling the invading French. She also appears on a toby jug of 1840.
Martha achieved considerable celebrity locally and beyond during her long career, which lasted for several decades from around 1750. With the profits from her bathing business, she was able to buy a number of bathing machines – providing employment for other locals – and a house for her family in Little East Street. Reputedly she became a favourite with the Prince of Wales, and had free access to the Pavilion kitchens.
Her impressive portrait, painted in 1796 by John Russell, hangs in Brighton Museum. She is buried by the south-east corner of St Nicholas Church, where the inscription on her gravestone reads ‘Peculiarly distinguished as a bather in this town nearly 70 years’.
