“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 60li. per annum, with an allowance to each of them of 30li. per annum for a servant and horse, to assist them upon their duty in the night, the whole amounting to about 4500li. 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 30li. 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 3000li. 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 200li. 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 1300li. 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.