An Account Of Smuggling In The 18th Century And Later, In The Counties Of Hampshire And Wiltshire
By Russell Oakley and Victor Manley.
(a proposed publication not materialised – 1924)
During the French Wars, and for some years after the conclusion of peace, smuggling was an industry of great importance. Ramifications of the trade were very wide and far-reaching, all classes of society were implicated in the matter of running contraband, and for a period of nearly one hundred years it was a profession which involved considerable risks, but at the same time the profits were so large that many people, in every other respect law-abiding citizens, had something to do with either smuggling or smuggled goods.
The whole of the coast line from Hurst Castle to Poole was a huge port of entry for contraband. Every creek and gully along the coast was used some time or other for this purpose, and the whole of the country west of Christchurch to Poole, where now stands Bournemouth, Boscombe, Southbourne and Parkstone, was at that time wild and desolate heathland intersected with a few rough cart-tracks leading up from the shore, crossing the heath until they reached the main road, leading either into the New Forest, or the inland towns of Dorsetshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire.
In addition to the seafaring smugglers and crews of vessels who continually made the journeys to and from France with cargoes of wines, spirits, tobacco and any other goods which should pay duty, there was the poor labouring class, to whom this occupation paid very well at a time when it was very difficult to exist. Then the middle classes and business people readily bought, either for their own use or to sell again, these goods, and sold them at a very large profit; while the rich leisured classes were always ready to buy the goods at prices much lower than the same articles could be purchased had they arrived in the country in the ordinary way.
Successive Governments did their best to legislate against the smugglers, and there was plenty of scope for the lawyers in this direction. In Addington’s Penal Statutes, 1807, there are eighty-four different laws passed to prevent smuggling, and all are much more drastic than the recent Defence of the Realm Regulations.
Any King’s ship after hoisting the proper pennant when within chase of a suspected vessel might shoot at or into the same and the Commander might be indemnified from penalty or action at law if any person was killed or injured by such shooting. If the vessel with contraband was captured, the law provided that she should be entirely confiscated with all cargo, guns, gear and furniture, half to the King and half to him who informs or sues. This law caused free trading master mariners to take great risks in navigation when chased, preferring to take the chances of a most perilous channel in shore rather than be captured. Commanders of King’s ships also did not hesitate.
A crude coloured print, published 1790, was a favourite work of art displayed in most public houses and inns along the coast. This print depicted a sloop of war and a smuggler’s cutter close in shore. On the cliffs, as spectators, stand a number of country people in various positions of anxiety, taking advice from a portly gentleman apparently intended to be a squire or parson.
The law also provided for transactions on land, for if any persons to the number of two or more were found travelling together in disguise with any horse or carriage laden with more than six pounds of tea or five gallons of foreign spirits without permit they might be arrested by any Officer of Excise or his assistants, carried before any J.P. and committed to the County Jail without bail to await the next quarter sessions to be tried. It was obligatory for all dealers in coffee, tea or chocolate to have painted legibly over the door of the shop their name and dealer in these commodities. If not done, a fine on conviction of £200, while to buy such goods from any person other than a dealer the penalty was a fine of £100.
Temperance or prohibition of legislation had not arrived, for curiously enough dealers in spirits, if they failed to put up the notice or bought from the smugglers they were fined only £50. In spite of these drastic laws, for a period of not less than fifty years from about 1775, free trading was the mainstay of all industry and trade in Lymington, Christchurch, Poole and the New Forest district – the natural advantages of an indented coast line, close contiguity to the sparsely populated areas of Bourne Heath and the Forest, the impossibility of the few Riding Officers appointed, exercising proper control, high tariffs which made a successful venture (as contraband running was termed) a good paying proposition, were all factors in its prosperity; but the most important was the public opinion of the time.
This is reflected by Adam Smith, who wrote:- “A smuggler is a person who, though no doubt blameable for violating the laws of the country, is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and would have been in every respect an excellent citizen had not his country made that a crime which never meant to be so.”
But in spite of the philosophic opinion of Adam Smith, many of the fraternity were capable of violating in the most brutal manner all laws, and no record of smuggling would be complete without an account of the breaking open of the King’s Custom House at Poole in 1748.
In September 1747, John Diamond, otherwise Dymar, agreed with a number of men to go over to Guernsey, to smuggle tea. The venture, as it was termed, was carefully planned, the money found to purchase a large quantity of tea, which was loaded up and started for home. It is probable that it was intended to land on the Sussex coast, but on their return in a cutter they were chased and compelled to alter their course in the direction of the western shore of Bournemouth Bay. However, the vessel was overtaken and captured with the tea by one Captain Johnson, the crew escaping to the mainland in a boat. Captain Johnson towed his capture to the port of Poole and lodged the tea in the Custom House there. In the meanwhile the gang were so exasperated at their failure and loss that during the next few weeks they agreed with others to break open the warehouse and take the tea away. Accordingly about the middle of October they started from the Charlton Forest, journeyed across the New Forest, adding to their numbers as they converged into this district, until they numbered about sixty persons, all well armed. Thirty of the gang were posted at different places around to act as scouts, others in the night time between the 6th and 7th of October being concealed in and about Bourne Heath. During the night about thirty of them rode into Poole, broke open the Custom House and took away all the tea, about thirty-seven hundredweight, valued at £500. Their confidence and audacity was such that although lying off Poole was a sloop of war, all arrangements were carried through according to plan. In the morning they leisurely made off, taking the north east road from Poole to Fordingbridge, thence to the northern part of the New Forest for the division of the plunder and dispersal.
The regular patrol of the Christchurch Riding Officers extended inland as far as Kinson and Redhill and then swung southward across the hills of Parkstone into Poole. By taking the road noted the gang would not meet any of the Excise patrol. The news had traveled fast, and by the time the cavalcade reached the narrow streets of Fordingbridge, hundreds of people were out and about to “see the gentlemen go by”. Here the unexpected happened. Daniel Chater, a shoemaker of Fordingbridge, was one of the spectators and had formerly worked in a harvest field with John Diamond, one of the smugglers.
Diamond, in response to a greeting from Chater, leant over the saddle of his horse, shook hands with his old workmate and handed him a bag of tea; a costly gift which village gossip remembered for a long time.
The importance of forcible entry into the King’s Custom House caused a great sensation and a Royal Proclamation was issued offering a reward for the apprehension of any person concerned in the breaking open of the Custom House. Diamond was a few weeks afterwards arrested on suspicion, and the occurrence at Fordingbridge having come to the knowledge of the Collector of Customs at Southampton, arrangements were made to send Chater with William Galley, a Riding Officer, bearing a letter to Major Batten, a Justice of the Peace for the County of Sussex, in order that Chater might be examined as to whether he could identify Diamond.
Accordingly on Sunday, the 14th of February 1748, they set out on horseback for Chichester, passing through Havant; there they were informed, Major Batten was at East Marsden, and were directed to go by Stansted, near Rowland’s Castle. Pursuing their journey they called at the New Inn, Leigh, and asked the nearest way, and at noon arrived at the White Hart at Rowland’s Castle.
Now Mrs. Elizabeth Payne, the landlady, had two sons, both smugglers, who followed the occupation of blacksmiths in the same village. How her suspicions were aroused there is no record, but something occurred to cause her to send a message to William Jackson and William Carter who lived near by.
In the meantime, both Galley and Chater wished to be going and called for their horses, but Mrs. Payne, to detain them, said the man who had the key of the stable was out. Presently others of the gang turned up until they numbered fourteen. General conversation and heavy drinking by all present ensued until it was too late for the Riding Officer and Chater to continue their journey, and they retired to bed. From the evidence at the trial it appeared that a search was made amongst their belongings and the letter to Major Batten discovered.
It is impossible to give further details of what happened. For several days the unfortunate men were tortured in every imaginable way, Galley was cruelly and continually flogged with whips, and his body was found buried in an upright position in the sands at Rake with the hands over the eyes, so that it is supposed he was not dead when buried. Chater fared no better; after being illused for several days he was, while still living, thrown down a well and the mouth of the well filled in with heavy bulks of timber and debris.
Chater’s horse escaped from the smugglers and found his way home with blood on the saddle; an Excise Officer’s great-coat was found in the road by a country labourer and identified as having been issued to Galley, and with these evidences of foul play and the disappearance of the men, the Commissioners of Custom offered a reward of £500 for information, which was soon forthcoming. One by one the whole gang were arrested and taken care of in Newgate Prison, until a Special Commission to hold an assize on purpose to try them, was granted by His Majesty.
The trial lasted for some days and the whole of the prisoners were condemned to be hanged and their bodies hung in chains, except Jackson, who died in prison.
A crime of this character and that known as the Milton Tragedy, horrified public opinion so much, even in those brutal times, that from then the gradual extermination of the trade commenced. The Milton murder and a desperate encounter between a large gang of smugglers at Milford Green and a party of the Lancashire Militia quartered at Lymington which resulted in several being killed, cause the Government to give more attention to this part of Hampshire, and a party of cavalry was then stationed at Christchurch for the purpose of giving aid to the Riding Officers of Excise.
The Milton Tragedy
Bursey, an Excise Officer of Christchurch, was stationed at Wilton and was well known in the town and district.
On a dark winter night, after Bursey had retired to bed, he was aroused by a loud rapping at the door. On looking through the bedroom window, two men could be faintly seen through the gloom of the midnight. He enquired their business, and one of them informed him that he had discovered a large quantity of smuggled goods in a barn near by, to which he and his companion would lead Mr. Bursey, if he would reward them with a stipulated sum. This condition was not usual. The law provided for the reward of an informer and he was entitled to a sum equivalent to half the value of the consignment. A bargain was made and the unsuspicious officer hastily clothed himself and descended unarmed and opened the door.
What actually happened, the records of the time, described minutely, and cannot be repeated. His dead body was found next morning lying across the threshold of his own house, having sustained frightful injuries about his head.
These callous brutalities were doubtless the exception rather than the rule, and on the other side as examples to support the view of Adam Smith, may be given that of Johnson, the Hampshire Smuggler.
Johnson escaped from Newgate Prison in 1798 and offered his services to the Government as pilot to the British Navy off Holland, which duty he carried out so well, and to the great satisfaction of the Government that he received a free pardon and a pension. His patriotism had no limit, for later he is heard of again, being mentioned in despatches for meritorious service in 1816 off Brest, during operations against the French.
Such examples added a glamour to the calling of a smuggler, which directly appealed to the adventurous spirits of the time, and this, allied to a sympathetic feeling when matters went wrong, did much to foster in the minds of the public an attitude that the smuggling fraternity were benefactors. This is well expressed in the autobiographical epitaph of Robert Trotman.
In Kinson Churchyard, which lies to the north-west of Christchurch and came within the patrol of the Christchurch Supervisor, lies buried Robert Trotman, who was shot in an encounter with Excise Officers, in the spring of 1765. His epitaph reads as follows:
“To the memory of Robert Trotman, late of Rowd, in the county of Wilts, who was barbarously murdered on the shore near Poole, the 24th March 1765.
A little tea, one leaf I did not steal,
For guiltless bloodshed I to God appeal,
Put tea in one scale, human blood in t’other,
And think what ’tis to slay a harmless brother.”
Kinson Church was a favourite rendezvous for the smugglers, and the sacred building itself was used by them as a hiding-place for tubs of brandy. On the top of the tower to this day can be seen the grooves made for running the ropes along, when hauling up tubs or bales of goods, which were stacked on the top of the tower. Probably Robert Trotman spent many strenuous hours on the top of this tower without the remotest idea he would eventually rest in the churchyard underneath a carved stone describing his end. In this churchyard also, a tomb is still pointed out as one of the hiding places for goods.
Near Stanpit Marshes (Christchurch, Hants.) is a public house called “The Ship in Distress’; in bygone days this was kept by a landlady of the name of Sellars, who was the protecting angel of the local smugglers. Her reputation is long lived and the name exists today in the harbour by the name of Mothers Sellars Channel. A cargo of contraband floated up this channel and got across to Mother Sellars’ house, was usually safe, as she was in touch with so many farmers in the forest district, as far away as Lyndhurst, and she made business arrangements for quietly removing the goods.
W.H.G. Kingston, the famous writer of boys’ stories, fifty years ago wrote a book in which Mother Sellars figured prominently, entitled ‘Billy Coombes’s Last Fight’ and tells the story of the smugglers of Christchurch. Mrs. Sellars is there depicted as a jealous and injured woman who betrays Billy Coombes to the revenue officers. There is no local record however, to prove that Mrs. Sellars was anything else but very loyal to the band of Christchurch smugglers who relied upon her help.
After the cargo was removed from the water, to move the goods inland from the hiding place to the premises of the actual purchaser, was attended with considerable risk, and all kinds of methods were adopted to evade detection.
The most original was the mock funeral method. An innkeeper who, as a side line, used to let out mourning coaches, and a large hearse adorned with the customary plumes and trappings. For a long time these conveyances were hired by the trading smugglers for removing contraband goods inland. When in the streets the cortege moved with slow and solemn pace until the open country was reached, when a smart trot was indulged in, often finishing up with a hard gallop. This method was never found out by the authorities; no one at the time had the slightest suspicion of the real nature of the freight, and everybody in that superstitious period gave these vehicles a wide berth, especially at night. It must have been a fearsome sight to see along a country road at night, at a gallop, a ponderous hearse and sable trappings and a huge coffin.
This no doubt is the interpretation of the phantom funeral seen at Bugley (Warminster). Folklore tells of a spectral funeral at Bugley, which belief was utilised by the smugglers to carry their goods on a funeral hearse for many miles, going slowly by day and galloping at night. Also the Deverill ghostly wool-packs were used to frighten people indoors at night whilst goods were being distributed, apparently. And the tale of the Wiltshire Moonrakers shows how folk outwitted the excise officers by feigning an absurd operation.
A natural operation of the law of supply and demand by the successful evasions of the law was that prices, in comparison with the present day, were very much lower.
The price usually paid for many years to the smugglers for the finest French Brandy was four shillings a quart. Even this low price allowed a very large margin of profit. For a tub of spirits contained three and a half gallons and cost in France ten to twelve shillings. This spirit was so much over proof that in the process of breaking down, water to the extent of two gallons per tub might be used and the article would then be fine and of good quality.
After paying the cost of transport, wages of lookout men and shore runners, it was acknowledged by the smugglers that if they saved one cargo out of three and did not lose the boat, there was a good profit.
From the original Journal (now in possession of Mr. Russell Oakley) of a Supervisor, much interesting information was obtained of the work he and his Riding Officers accomplished.
The duties of himself and staff were strenuous, faithfully recorded in precise and old-fashioned phraseology. As an example of a day’s work, January 9th 1803 is given:-
“Started at Christchurch at 5 o’clock in the morning for Southampton. The wind was S.W. with rain. Set out with Mr. Preston and Jones to attend the Collector and Comptroller in consequence of the charge from them preferred against Mr. Preston and Jones, by Mr. Williams and Henry Wallace Excise Officer, who gave their depositions on oath . . . . arrived at my residence January 10th, 2 o’clock in the morning, wind then S.E. and raining.”
Other entries in the Journal were more exciting, and a report was received and followed up with great results on February 19th. “Surveyed the west coast to the Flag Staff from thence to Parkstone, examined Mr. Wise (one of the Riding Officers) who informed me the smugglers had been looking out at Alum but not working. On my return surveyed Kingston, the Heath, Littledown, and Boscombe, found the smugglers looking out, returned, and acquainted my officers.”
Evidently during those few days a smuggling vessel was expected and a run was intended, not only were there smugglers looking out but all preparations and plans had been made for the business, a fact that the acute Supervisor was well aware of, for the sequel rapidly turns up, for on February 23rd he was called on at Christchurch by a Mr. Thomas Lambert, a boatman, who informed him a boat had come in at Boscombe and landed her goods. His account of the denouement is brief and businesslike.
“Set out with my officers and a party. On the Heath near Boscombe seized two wagons and one cart with 250 casks of foreign spirits and tobacco and one case of playing cards. Returned to Christchurch and again set out with soldiers to the Bay at Boscombe. On my coming up from the beach met Mr. Williams, and informed him that the boat was seized and that I was going to send the soldiers with the goods to Poole.”
Another successful episode is reported under date of October 15th:
“Called on Messrs. Preston, Jones and Wise, informing me the smugglers were working on Bourne Heath. Set out with my officers, Mr. Wise, and a party of the 20th Regiment of Light Dragoons to Bourne. At Bourne, and in the Heath, found and seized 63 casks of foreign spirits and one case of tobacco. In company of the officers and party at Bourne met Mr. Buck, land-waiter, and his boat’s crew, and from thence with Mr. Wise, Bacon and Newman, to Poole, with seizure, secured it at His Majesty’s Warehouse and corresponded with the Comptroller, surveyed the coast home. With Mr. Bacon and Newman in the Heath near Kingston found and seized two cases of Cordials, one case of Spirits and a small parcel of tobacco, and in company of my officers secured it at my residence, Christchurch.”
The foregoing extracts from this authentic record serve to prove that the traditions of the exploits of the smugglers were founded upon facts, and statements that have come down to the present day as to the importance of the industry are in no way exaggerated.
There are many other interesting entries in this Journal which might be recounted, but we may take leave of this record by adding that Hinton, where the search party journeyed is a village on the main Bournemouth to Southampton road. The Cat and Fiddle Inn, Hinton, situated on the borders of the New Forest, and the last place of call for many miles, was in the 18th century a resort for highwaymen, and smugglers. The inn parlour of this house is described in “The Moonrakers’, a story of the Smugglers in the New Forest by E.E. Cooper and it was the last meeting place of Roden the Rider with the head of the gang of smugglers known as “The Shepherd”.
A favourite hiding place for tubs of brandy at Hinton was under large heaps of stones placed by the roadside for road mending. It had been known for a cart laden with kegs of brandy to come up from Chewton Glen, drop them by the roadside where men were waiting to cover them up with a loose heap of stones and journey back to Christchurch with the job completed in a few hours. Early in the morning a farm wagon or other vehicle would journey along the same road, and if no suspicious watchers were about, remove the stones, and take them on to a destination further inland.
Footnote by Manley: I am indebted to Mr. Russell Oakley for the extracts from his Guide to Christchurch which deals with the traffic from that place up the Wylye Valley to Warminster. The details were compiled from waste paper intended to be burnt.
