Smuggling

Key Dates in the Smuggling Story

The Key Dates of the Smuggling Story
1690 French victory in a battle off Beachy Head
1698 Act against owling creates a landguard of Riding Officers. Rigid controls on buying and selling wool within fifteen miles of the coast
1702-12 War of the Spanish Succession
1706 Act of Union between England and Scotland
1715 Rebellion in Scotland under the Old Pretender
1717 Smuggling Act. Smugglers who refused to plead liable to transportation
1718 Hovering Act. Vessels under fifty tons liable to seizure if found loitering within six miles of coast, and liable to seizure if laden with tea, brandy, silk etc
1721 Smuggling Act. Convicted smugglers to be transported for seven years. Boats with more than four oars liable to confiscation and destruction
1724 Robert Walpole adds tea to items liable to Excise duty and creates bonded warehouses
1725 Robert Walpole increases the Excise on malt
1729 Increased duties on cheap spirit
1733 Robert Walpole tries unsuccessfully to extend Excise duty to tobacco
1736 Enquiry under Sir John Cope takes evidence on smuggling. Smuggling Act increases penalties; severe fines for bribing officers, death for wounding or taking up arms against officers, transportation (if armed) for resisting arrest. Also an Act of Indemnity; a smuggler, even if in gaol, could have a free pardon if he confessed all and gave names of his associates
1739 War of Jenkin's Ear (with Spain and related to smuggling in the West Indies)
1740-48 War of Austrian Succession (a serious drain on the Exchequer)
1744 Threat of invasion from France
1745 Rebellion under Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender. Parliamentary Inquiry into the tea trade. Tea duty cut by Henry Pelham. Further penalties for those found loitering within six miles of the coast
1746 Battle of Culloden and final defeat of Jacobite cause. Smuggling Act established the severest penalties, initially for a seven year period. Death for running contraband, assembling to run goods or harbouring smugglers. Smugglers convicted of killing officers were to be gibbeted. Collective fines on whole county for unresolved offences (one hundred pounds for an officer killed by smugglers, forty pounds for one wounded). Names of known smugglers published in the London Gazette; these men to surrender within forty days or be judges guilty. Five hundred pounds reward for anyone turning in a gazetted smuggler
1749 A Special Assize at Chichester to try the murderers of Galley and Chater. The breakup of the major gangs of Kent and Sussex
1751 Further controls on the trade of gin and tobacco
1756-63 Seven Years War, involving fighting in India, Africa, North America and Europe
1759 Tea duty raised again
1765 Isle of Man brought within Customs control
1767 First attempt to establish a Customs House in Jersey
1775-83 War of American Independence
1779 Smuggling Act, amending measures of 1746 Act and adding penalties for goods carried in vessels over two hundred tons. Boats with more than four oars forbidden. Penalties for gaolers allowing smugglers to escape
1782 Act of Oblivion. Smugglers could redeem their crimes by finding men to serve in army and navy. One landsman and one seaman could compound a five hundred pound penalty, and two of each could redeem all penalties, however great
1783 Report of the Commission of Excise on smuggling
1784 The Younger Pitt, as Prime Minister, cuts tea duty from 127% to 12% but increases Window Tax. Further modification to Smuggling and Hovering Acts. Prohibition on building certain types of boats
1793-1815 War with France, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, interrupted by short interval of Peace March 1802 to May1803
1795 Chain of signal stations link the south east coast to London
1797 Naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore
1805 Customs control extended to the Channel Isles
1806 Start of construction of Martello towers and Royal Military Canal
1809 New Preventive Waterguard created
1815 First rocket lifesaving apparatus tried out
1816 Control of Revenue cutters transferred to Admiralty
1817 Coast Blockade initially established between North and South Forelands
1818 Coast Blockade extended to cover coast from Sheerness to Seaford
1822 National Coast Guard established on other coasts; further extension of Coast Blockade into West Sussex
1826 Further modifications to Smuggling Acts
1828 Customs control extended to Scilly Isles
1830 Rural unrest in Kent and Sussex culminates in the Swing Riots
1831 Coastguard service replaces Coast Blockade in Kent and Sussex
1835 First steamer employed in the Preventive service
1839 Commission of Inquiry into the Coastguard service
1844 Select Committee Report on the Tobacco Trade
1845 Sir Robert Peel removes duties on a wide range of items
1846 Repeal of Corn Laws
1850 Last export duty (on coal in foreign ships) abolished
1853 Gladstone reforms the Customs service