Category Archives: Smuggling

Old burial ground, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, England

Gravestone at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex commemorating David Watts of the Coast guard d. 1832 shot by smugglers

Location

Old burial ground, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, England

Transcript

'In memory of David Watts of the Coastguard. He was shot and almost instantly expired on the 21 Feb. 1832, aged 45 yrs'

Details

Type: Headstone

People

Watts, David
Age: 45
Date of Death: 21/2/1832
Cause of Death: Murdered
Rank / Occupation: Coastguard
Organisation: HM Coastguard

Extra

Notes: TNA HO 52/20/9 report of the incident by the Mayor of Hastings. Probably the churchyard of St Peter's Bexhill.
Bibliography: William Webb 'Coastguard: an official history of HM Coastguard' (London, 1976) p. 28.
Recorder: E.R. Stage 1982

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St Saviour's Church, St Saviour's, Guernsey, Channel Islands

Gravestone at St Saviour’s Church, St Saviour’s, Guernsey commemorating eleven passengers lost in the wreck of the ‘Pitt’ in 1819

Location

St Saviour's Church, St Saviour's, Guernsey, Channel Islands

Transcript

'IHS Here lieth the remains of eleven individuals lost on the Rocks between L'Eree and Richmount [Richmond] on the 26th Nov. 1819 on board the Pitt Cutter from Jersey to Falmouth. Viz Darby Horrigan. Bridget Doyle, Margaret Garde, Mary McCue, Ann Corkran, Rosanne ONeil, Belle Dawson, Catherine Burrows, Mary Fitzpatrick, Mary Horrigan, Pappy Burns, May the Lord have mercy on their souls'

Details

Type: Gravestone
Position: Churchyard
Materials: Black slate
Vessel: Pitt

People

Burns, Pappy
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Burrows, Cathrine
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Corkran, Ann
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Dawson, Belle
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Doyle, Bridget
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Fitzpatrick, Mary
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Garde, Margaret
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Horrigan, Mary
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
Horrigan, Darby
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
McCue, Mary
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:
O'Neil, Rosanne
Age:
Date of Death: 26/11/1819
Cause of Death: Vessel Loss
Rank / Occupation: Passenger
Organisation:

Extra

Notes: The 'Pitt' was carrying a cargo of cattle and fifteen passengers. The drowned women passengers were found to be carrying smuggled silk under their outer clothing.
Bibliography: Glynis Cooper 'Foul deeds and Suspicious deaths in Jersey' p. 73 (Barnsley, 2008)
Recorder: La Societé Guernesiaise 1981

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St Gregory's Church, Seaton, Devon, England

Memorial in St Gregory’s Church, Seaton, Devon commemorating William Henry Paulson midshipman, RN d. 1817

Location

St Gregory's Church, Seaton, Devon, England

Transcript

'... who with 8 seamen all Volunteers perished in a gale of wind off Sidmouth whilst cruising in a galley for the prevention of smuggling on the 13th of June 1817 in the 23rd year of his age'

Details

Vessel: HMS 'Queen Charlotte'

People

Paulson, William Henry
Age: 22
Date of Death: 13/6/1817
Cause of Death: Vessel Lost
Rank / Occupation: Midshipman
Organisation: Royal Navy

Extra

Notes: At the time of death was commanding a gallery with eight volunteer men ‘for the prevention of smuggling’.

Bibliography: Lisa Newcombe 'Smuggling in Cornwall and Devon'.
Recorder: E.R. Stage

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St Andrew's church, Kinson, Bournemouth, England

Headstone at St Andrew’s church, Kinson, Bournemouth, commemorating Robert Trotman d. 1765

Location

St Andrew's church, Kinson, Bournemouth, England

Transcript

'To the Memory of ROBERT TROTMAN / Late of Rond [Round] in the County / of Wilts who was barbarously Murdered on the Shore near / Poole the 24 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 thy harmless Brother'

Details

Type: Headstone
Position: Graveyard north side of tower
Materials: Stone

People

Trotman, Robert
Age:
Date of Death: 24/3/1765
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Smuggler
Organisation:

Extra

Notes: Five miles inland from Poole at the then tiny and remote village of Kinson, across Canford Heath,within the Dorset boundary, was in those times a district particularly well affected towards the 'Free-traders'. Robert Trotman lost his life in an encounter with Revenue Officers.

Trotman was believed to have worked for notorious smuggler Sir Isaac Gulliver. He died in the crossfire of an ambush while loading tea in 1765.


Bibliography: Charles George Harper 'The Dorset Coast' (London, 1905) pp.32-4.

Jill Sainsbury, Smugglers in Kinson.
Recorder: F. Turland 1984 Poole Maritime Trust

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All Saints Church, Hastings, East Sussex, England

Gravestone at All Saints Church, Hastings commemorating smuggler Joseph Swain d. 1821

Location

All Saints Church, Hastings, East Sussex, England

Transcript

‘This Stone / Sacred to the memory of / JOSEPH SWAIN Fisherman / was created at the expense of / the members of the friendly Society of Hastings / in commiseration of his cruel and untimely / death and as a record of the pblic indignation / at the needless and sanguinary violence of / which he was the unoffending Victim. He / was shot by Geo. England, one of the / Sailors employ’d in the Coast blockade / Service in open day on the 13th March 1821 and almost instantly expir’d in the / twenty / -ninth year of his age, leaving a Widow and / five small children to lament his loss.’

Details

Type: Gravestone
Position: Churchyard

People

Swain, Joseph
Age: 29
Date of Death: 13/3/1821
Cause of Death: Unknown/None
Rank / Occupation: Fishern
Organisation:

Extra

Notes: Shot on the beach by an officer of the coast blockade instituted to stop smuggling.

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