to which the smugglers betook themselves in time of war, viz., the
conveyance of letters and correspondence to the enemy.[59] Thomas Owen,
on January 3, 1703, reported the capture of William Snipp at Lydd, and
John Burwash and George Fuller--described in Mr. Baker’s letter of 6th
of the same month as “part of the old gang of those who were ‘owlers’
in the late war”--as openly in communication with French sloops which
came to the coast, and hoped that the law would take hold of their
carrying correspondence with the sloops, “else there would be more
wool transported than there has been for many years;” whilst Mr. Baker
declared that “the practice, if permitted, would very much encourage
and contribute to the exportation of wool, and also the running or
smuggling of French goods.”[60]
This system of carrying on correspondence with France, in time of
war, lasted down to and through the last war, during which the daily
newspapers and correspondence were regularly carried to Buonaparte, by
a family then resident at Bexhill.
From the following report, made by Mr. Baker in December, 1703, it
appears that the new law had by that time abated, though it had not
quite stopped, the “owling” trade along these coasts, but that import
smuggling still flourished:--
“May it please your Honours,[61]--In obedience to your Honours,
commanding me to consider how the charge of the ryding-officers
appointed for the guard of the coasts of Kent and Sussex may, in some
measure, be reduced without prejudice to her Majestie’s service,
in preventing the exporting of wool, &c., from these coasts. Upon
consideration thereof, and from observations I have made of the state
of that and the smuggling trade, as they have been carryed on since
the present warr, I have observed and do beleive that the neck of the
‘owling’ trade, as well as the spirit of the ‘owlers,’ is in a great
measure broke, particularly in Romney Marsh; where I have, in several
of my late reports and papers laid before your Honours, observed
unto you, that in the latter end of the last warr, and the beginning
of the last peace, wool used to be shipped off from thence and from
other parts of that county by great numbers of packes weekly, there
are not now many visible signs of any quantities being transported.
But for fine goods, as they call them (viz., silks, lace, &c.), I am
well assured that trade goes on through both counties, though not in
such vast quantities as have been formerly brought in--I mean in those
days when (as a gentleman of estate in one of the counties has, within
this twelve months, told me) he had been att once, besides at other
times, at the loading of a wagon with silks, lace, &c., till six oxen
could hardly move it out of the place: I doe not think that the trade
is now so carried on as ’twas then. Therefore, upon consideration of
the whole matter, since your Honours are of opinion that it is for
her Majestie’s service to lessen the charge, I humbly propose:--That
whereas there are now, for the security of those coasts, fifty officers
appointed from the Isle of Sheppy, in Kent, to Ensworth, in Hampshire,
which is coastwise more than two hundred miles, att 60_li._ per
annum, with an allowance to each of them of 30_li._ per annum
for a servant and horse, to assist them upon their duty in the night,
the whole amounting to about 4500_li._ per annum, including the
old sallary of the port-officers, &c., my opinion, upon consideration
as aforesaid, is, if your Honours shall approve thereof, that the
said allowance of 30_li._ to each of them, for a servant and one
horse as aforesaid, may be taken off, which will completely reduce
one-third part of the whole, and leave it then at about 3000_li._
per annum; and for some kind of supply in their nightly duty, instead
of their servants, and that the course of that may not be broken,
especially in Romney Marsh, where the mischief has most prevailed,
I further propose that the dragoons now quartered in Kent, and, by
her Majestie’s order of the 11th August last, to be detached into
severall parts of the Marsh, to assist the officers in the exportacon
of wool, &c., as from time to time I shall direct (as per said order
may appeare), may, if your Honours shall so please, be made useful in
this service, pursuant to the Order in Councell by his late Majestie,
bearing date the 23rd June, 1698, wherein it was ordered that, for the
encouragement of the said souldiers and the landlords of the houses
that quarter them there (being an allowance of twopence per diem to
each dragoon upon such service, and to the officers in proportion, the
whole not exceeding 200_li._ per annum, to be paid by me--which
was for about two years constantly paid them myself), being revived, I
can soe dispose those souldiers that the nightly duty of the officers
shall not be interrupted, and every one of them shall always have one
or more of them in the night upon duty; I mean all those in the Marsh,
that is from Folkestone inclusive to East Guldeford the same; and this
being soe ordered, your Honours do reduce the charge from what it now
is full 1300_li._ per annum. The same use may be made of them
upon the coast of Sussex (if it be thought for the service, as in my
opinion it would very much be), as well in other respects as those
afore-mentioned. To all this, if your Honours can obtain the guard of
cruizers, as they are appointed by the 7th and 8th of the late King,
for those coasts from the North Foreland to the Isle of Wight, and
shall be pleased to remove your weak and superanuated officers, as
soon as you can provide otherwise for them, and for the future resolve
to admit none into the service; but that the officers (according to
proper and apt instructions to be prepared for them) be kept to a
strict and diligent discipline in the performance of their duties.
These methods being taken, I am humbly of opinion both coasts may be
ventured with a single guard, soe as aforesaid, during the warr, or for
one year’s tryall, &c.
“HEN. BAKER.
“December, 1703.”
* * * * *
The new force was utterly inadequate to the suppression of the trade.
In the next forty-five years the daring of the smugglers grew with the
impunity with which they were enabled to act. Large gangs, of twenty,
forty, fifty, and even one hundred, rode, armed with guns, bludgeons,
and clubs, throughout the country, setting every one at defiance, and
awing all the quiet inhabitants. They established warehouses and vaults
in many districts, for the reception of their goods, and built large
houses at Seacock’s Heath, in Etchingham (built by the well-known
smuggler, Arthur Gray, and called “Gray’s Folly”), at Pix Hall and
the Four Throws, Hawkhurst,[62] at Goudhurst, and elsewhere, with the
profits of their trade.
We have in the treasury papers[63] many particulars of the daring and
desperate acts of these companies or gangs of men in both parts of
Sussex, during the first half of the last century, principally in the
smuggling of tea.
In an engagement between the custom-house officers and upwards of sixty
armed men, at Ferring, on June 21st, 1720, William Gouldsmith, the
custom-house officer, had his horse shot under him.[64]
In June, 1733, the officers of the customs at Newhaven attempted to
seize ten horses laden with tea, at Cuckmere; but they were opposed by
about thirty men, armed with pistols and blunderbusses, who fired on
the officers, took them prisoners, and confined them whilst the goods
were carried off.[65]
In August of the same year, the riding officers observed upwards of
twenty smugglers at Greenhay, most of them on horseback, armed with
clubs, and their horses laden with tea, which the officers endeavoured
to seize, but the smugglers fell upon them, and with clubs knocked one
of the officers off his horse, wounded him, and confined him for an
hour, whilst the gang carried off the goods.
On December 6, 1735, some officers of Newhaven, assisted by dragoons,
met with a large gang of smugglers, well armed, who surrounded the
officers, and confined them for about an hour and a half. The smugglers
were afterwards met by three other officers and six dragoons, whom the
smugglers attacked, but the officers got the better, pursued them, and
seized five smugglers, armed with pistols, swords, and cutlasses, and
twelve horses.
In July, 1735, some of the officers of the port of Arundel watched on
the coast, expecting goods to be run out of a smuggling vessel, but
being discovered by upwards of twenty smugglers armed with pistols and
blunderbusses, the officers were confined till two or three boatloads
of goods had been landed and conveyed away on horses; and in the same
month, some other officers having received information that a parcel of
brandy was to be run at Kingston, and going in pursuit of it, met with
ten smugglers, one of whom presented a pistol in order to rescue the
goods; but the officers getting the better of the smugglers, seized the
brandy and carried it to the custom-house.
In the natural course of events these affrays must end in bloodshed;
and in March, 1737, a fatal engagement took place at Bulverhithe, with
one of the then numerous gangs of Sussex smugglers, an account of which
is given in a letter, dated March 10, from a person writing under the
assumed name of Goring, to the Commissioners of Customs:--[66]
“May it please (your) Honours,--It is not unknown to your Lordships of
the late battle between the smuglers and officers at Bulverhide; and
in relation to that business, if your Honours please to advise in the
newspapers, that this is expected off, I will send a list of the names
of the persons that were at that business, and the places’ names where
they are usually and mostly resident. Cat[67] (Morten’s man) fired
first, Morten was the second that fired; the soldiers fired and killed
Collison,[68] wounded Pizon, who is since dead; William Weston was
wounded, but like to recover. Young Mr. Brown was not there, but his
men and horses were; from your Honours’
“Dutifull and Most faithfull servant,
“GORING.”
“There was no foreign persons at this business, but all were Sussex
men, and may easily be spoke with.
“This (is) the seventh time Morten’s people have workt this winter,
and have not lost any thing but one half hundred (of tea) they gave to
a dragoon and one officer they met with the first of this winter; and
the Hoo company have lost no goods, although they constantly work, and
at home too, since they lost the seven hundredweight. When once the
smuglers are drove from home they will soon be all taken. Note, that
some say it was Gurr that fired first. You must well secure Cat, or
else your Honours will soon lose the man; the best way will be to send
for him up to London, for he knows the whole company, and hath been
Morten’s servant two years. There were several young chaps with the
smuglers, whom, when taken, will soon discover the whole company. The
number was twenty-six men. Mark’s horse, Morten’s, and Hoad’s, were
killed, and they lost not half their goods. They have sent for more
goods, and twenty-nine horses set out from Groomsbridge this day, about
four in the afternoon, and all the men well armed with long guns....
There are some smuglers worth a good sum of money, and they pay for
taking.... The Hoo company might have been all ruined when they lost
their goods; the officers and soldiers knew them all, but they were not
prosecuted.... Morten and Boura sold, last winter, someways, 3,000 lb.
weight a week.”
In fact, the smugglers overawed most of the riding officers, and bribed
many others, so that the peaceable inhabitants of the villages were
completely at the mercy of these lawless bands.
On June 13, 1744, the officers of the customs at Eastbourne, having
intelligence of a gang of smugglers, went, with five dragoons mounted,
to the seashore, near Pevensey; but one hundred smugglers rode up, and
after disarming the officers, fired about forty shots at them, cut them
with the swords in a dangerous manner, loaded the goods on above one
hundred horses, and made towards London.[69]
In “Seasonable Advice to all Smugglers of French Cambricks and French
Lawns, with a brief State from the Honourable Commissioners of His
Majesty’s Customs of Smuggling, in the year 1745,”[70] it is said that
before the Committee of the House of Commons, which sat in 1745 to
inquire into the causes of the most infamous practice of smuggling, it
was in evidence:--“From Chichester it is represented that in January,
1745, nine smuggling cutters sailed from Rye, in that month, for
Guernsey, in order to take in large quantities of goods, to be run on
the coast; and they had intelligence that one of the cutters had landed
her cargo.” The remedy suggested was the annexing the Isle of Man to
the Crown of England, by purchase, and the employment of 2,060 sea
officers and men, in sixty vessels, to be stationed on different parts
of the coast.
The most formidable gang, however, that had hitherto existed, and
that which luckily furnished the climax to these scenes of crime, was
known throughout our own county and Kent as the “Hawkhurst Gang.” In
the year 1747[71] the smugglers in those parts were grown so numerous
and so formidable by their daring and repeated attacks on the persons
and properties of the inhabitants, and the cruelties exercised on some
who had opposed their extravagancies, that the people of Goudhurst
found themselves under the necessity either of deserting their houses,
and leaving their property wholly at the mercy of these marauders,
or of uniting to oppose by force their lawless inroads. The latter
alternative was at length embraced; a paper, expressive of their
abhorrence of the conduct of the smugglers, and their determination
to oppose them, was drawn up and subscribed to by a considerable
number of persons, who assumed the appellation of “The Goudhurst
Band of Militia,” at the head of whom was a young man of the name of
Sturt, a native of Goudhurst, who had recently received his discharge
from a regiment of foot, under the command of General Harrison,
and by whose persuasions they had been principally induced to this
resolution. Intelligence of this confederacy soon reached the ears of
the smugglers, who contrived to waylay one of the militia, and, by
means of torture and confinement, extorted from him a full disclosure
of the plans and intentions of his colleagues. After swearing this man
not to take up arms against them, they let him go, desiring him to
inform the confederates that they (the smugglers) would, on a certain
day named, attack the town, murder every one therein, and burn it to
the ground. Sturt, on receiving this information, convened his little
band, and, having pointed out the danger of their situation without
exertion and unanimity, engaged them in immediate preparation for the
day of battle. While some were sent in quest of firearms, others were
employed in casting balls, making cartridges, and taking every means
for resistance and defence which time and opportunity afforded. At the
time appointed, the smugglers, headed by Thomas Kingsmill, made their
appearance before the entrenchments of the militia,[72] and after some
horrid threats and imprecations by their leader, a general discharge of
firearms was given by the smugglers, and returned immediately by the
militia, by which one of the smugglers fell; but it was not till two
more had lost their lives, and many had been wounded, that they quitted
the field of battle; they were pursued by the militia and some of them
taken and executed.[73]
Thomas Kingsmill escaped for a time, and became the leader of the
desperate attack made in October, 1747, by thirty smugglers on the
custom-house at Poole. This man was a native of Goudhurst, and had been
a husbandman; but, having joined the smugglers, he was distinguished
and daring enough to become captain of the gang--an honour of which he
was so proud that he sought every opportunity of exhibiting specimens
of his courage, and putting himself foremost in every service of danger.
Perrin, another of the gang, was a native of Chichester, where he had
served his time as a carpenter, and had successfully practised his
trade, as a master, for some years, till a stroke of the palsy had
deprived him of the use of his right hand; he then became connected
with the smugglers, and used to sail to France as purchaser of goods
for them. In this capacity he, in September, 1747, bought a large
quantity of brandy, tea and rum,[74] which was loaded on board a
cutter (“The Three Brothers”), with the view of running it on the coast
of Sussex; but intelligence reached the revenue officers, and Captain
Johnson, of the revenue cutter at Poole, on September 22, caught sight
of the loaded cutter, took her, and carried her and her cargo into
Poole--Perrin and the crew escaping in the boat.
On Sunday, Oct. 4, the whole body of smugglers assembled in the
Charlton Forest to consult on the possibility of recovering the goods,
when Perrin proposed that they should go in a body, armed, and break
open the Poole Custom-house; this was agreed to, and a bond was signed
to support each other. The next day they met at Rowland’s Castle,
armed with swords and firearms; at the Forest of Bere, adjoining
Horndean, Kingsmill and the Hawkhurst gang met them; they concealed
themselves in the wood till the evening of the following day, and then
proceeded to Poole, which they reached at eleven at night. A report
from two who were sent to reconnoitre, stating that a sloop of war lay
opposite the quay, so that her guns could be pointed against the door
of the custom-house, led some of the gang to falter; but Kingsmill and
Fairall (a native of Horsendown Green, Kent, of no business, inured
to smuggling from infancy, and remarkable for his brutal courage[75])
addressed them, saying: “If you will not do it, we will do it
ourselves.” Then a fresh report was made, that, owing to the ebb-tide,
the sloop could not bring her guns to bear. Animated with this
intelligence, they all rode to the sea coast; Perrin and another of the
gang took care of the horses, whilst the main body went down to the
custom-house, taking with them a boy they chanced to meet, to prevent
his alarming the inhabitants. The door was forced open with hatchets
and other instruments, the smuggled tea was carried off on the horses
to Fordingbridge; the band, after having travelled all night, there
stopped for a time, but continued their journey to Brook, where the tea
booty was divided in the proportion of five bags of twenty-seven pounds
each per man.
A reward was offered for their apprehension, but it was months
before any were taken. A man named Diamond was captured, and lodged
in Chichester gaol, when a portion of the gang committed murders in
West Sussex to prevent evidence being given against their fellows.
The victims were William Galley the elder, a custom-house officer at
Southampton; and Daniel Chater, a shoemaker of Fordingbridge. The
murderers were Benjamin Tapner, a native of Aldrington,[76] who had
worked as a bricklayer; John Cobby, an illiterate son of a Sussex
labourer; John Hammond, a labouring man, born at South Berstead;
William Jackson and William Carter, natives of Hampshire; Richard Mills
the elder, a native of Trotton, where he had been a horse-dealer,
but, failing in business, had commenced smuggling, and become one of
the most hardened of the gang; and Richard Mills the younger, who
lived at Stedham, and had been with his father in business. It seems
that, on February 14, 1748, Galley and Chater were on their road to
Major Battine’s, at Stanstead, to have Chater’s evidence taken, when
they were induced to stop at the White Hart, at Rowland’s Castle,
the landlady of which, being afraid that they were going to hurt the
smugglers, sent for Jackson and Carter, and communicated her suspicions
to them; others of the gang came in, and Carter soon got from Chater
the real business. The men were then made nearly drunk, and put to bed;
from which they were awoken to be tied to one horse, with their legs
under the belly, and to be whipped till they fell twice, with their
heads under. They were then taken to a well in Lady Holt Park, where
Galley was taken from the horse and threatened to be thrown into the
well; this, however, the smugglers did not do, but, putting him again
upon the horse, whipped him to death on the Downs, and then dug a hole
and buried him. Chater was then chained in a turf-house, from which,
after being maimed in his nose and eyes by a knife, he was taken in
the dead of the night to Harris’s Well, and Tapner, having fastened a
noose round Chater’s neck, bid him get over the pales of the well; they
tied one end of the rope to the pales, and pushed him into the well;
the rope, however, was short, and he, being some time without becoming
strangled, they then untied him and threw him head foremost into the
well; and, to stop his groans, threw upon him the rails and gate-posts
round the well, and large stones. Galley’s body was found by Mr. Stone
whilst hunting; and six miles off, in the well, the body of Chater.
The murderers were tried at a special assize for smugglers, holden
at Chichester, before three judges--Sir Michael Forster, Knight, Sir
Thomas Birch, Knight, and Mr. Baron Edward Clive--January 16, 1749.
The sermon, which has been printed,[77] being preached by Sir William
Ashburnham, then Dean, but afterwards Bishop of Chichester, from
_Job_ xxix., 14–16. The first three were convicted as principals,
and the others as accessories before the fact to the murder of Chater;
and Jackson and Carter for the murder of Galley. Jackson died in prison
the night he was condemned. The others were hung on January 18--the two
Mills’s not in chains; but Carter was hung in chains, near Rackley;
Tapner, on Rook’s Hill, near Chichester; and Cobby and Hammond, on
Selsey Isle, on the heath where they sometimes landed their smuggled
goods, and where they could be seen a great distance east and west.
John Mills, another son of Richard Mills and one of the gang, who,
with some of his associates saw the judges travelling over Hind Heath,
on their way to the special assize at Chichester, and proposed to
rob them;[78] but his companions refused to concur with him. Soon
after his father’s execution, he met with Richard Hawkins, put him on
horseback and carried him to the Dog and Partridge on Slindon Common,
where Mills and his companions accused him of having stolen two bags
of tea; and on his denying it, flogged and kicked him to death, and
then, carrying his body twelve miles, tied stones to it and sunk it in
a pond in Parham Park. Mills was entrapped to the house of an outlawed
smuggler named William Pring, at Beckenham, and there betrayed. He was
tried and convicted at the assizes holden at East Grinstead, and there
hung on Aug. 12, 1749, being conducted to the place of execution by a
guard of soldiers, as a rescue was feared from the smugglers; and after
execution, he was hung in chains on Slindon Common. Others of the gang
were tried at the same assizes as highwaymen, and executed.
At length two of the smugglers, who had been evidence against the men
hanged at Chichester, gave information as to the place of meeting of
Kingsmill, Fairall, Perrin and Glover; they were arrested for the
breaking open of the custom-house at Poole, tried at Newgate, and
convicted,[79] Glover being recommended by the jury to the royal mercy.
Fairall behaved most insolently on the trial, and threatened one of
the witnesses; Glover exhibited penitence; but Kingsmill and Perrin
insisted that they had not been guilty of any robbery, because they
only took the goods that once belonged to them. Perrin’s body was
directed to be given to his friends, and he was lamenting the fate of
his associates, when Fairall said: “We shall be hanging up in the sweet
air, when you are rotting in your grave;” and the night before his
execution, Fairall kept smoking with his friends till he was ordered
by his keeper to go to his cell, when he exclaimed: “Why in such a
hurry, cannot you let me stay a little longer with my friends? I shall
not be able to drink with them to-morrow night.” Kingsmill was only
twenty-eight and Fairall only twenty-five years of age, at the time of
their trial.