England Customs and Excise Records - International Institute

History of Customs and Excise
H.M. Customs were responsible for collecting duties payable on certain imported goods at ports and for preventing smuggling; they were not always successful. The Board of Excise collected duties on certain home-produced goods from 1643 and remained in farm until 1683 when Commissioners were appointed. Customs and Excise were not actually amalgamated until 1909 with the creation of the Board of Customs and Excise.

Customs duties are nothing new—the earliest known record of customs payments is a Saxon charter of 742 (Lodey) but it wasn’t until 1203 that King John centralized the collection of revenues and appointed officers to undertake the different tasks. The early history of the Customs and the duties of the different types of officers have been well described by Lodey. There was a farming system in operation until 1671 when the Board of Customs was developed to regulate it better. The port duties of the customs included:


 * Enforcing shipping regulations by searching ships and collecting appropriate duties.


 * Preventing political rebels and other criminals from entering or leaving the country.


 * Quarantining ships.


 * Wreck salvage.


 * Collecting light dues for Trinity House (for lighthouses and lightships).

These was carried out by:


 * Land(ing) Surveyors who supervised the Land(ing) Waiters dealing with imported cargoes.


 * Coast Waiters who dealt with coastal shipments.


 * Tide Surveyors supervised Tide Waiters or Tidesmen or Searchers who went aboard vessels to scrutinize the cargo.


 * Boatmen who were employed to row officers out to vessels.


 * Collectors collected the duty monies and safeguarded it until they sent it to London with an official Customer or, later, took it themselves.


 * A Comptroller was appointed to prevent fraud; he kept independent accounts that were also sent to the Exchequer in London.

The Revenue Vessels were intended to be the first line of defence against smuggling, by halting the passage of illicit goods at sea. Prevention of smuggling on land was attempted by a system of Riding Surveyors who were each responsible for about 20 miles of coast up to five miles inland, and reported to their collector. They supervised Riding Officers who each patrolled at least 4 miles of coast. The Preventive Water Guard was established in 1809 to provide a link between the revenue cutters and the riding officers, and to counteract the escalation of smuggling during the Napoleonic Wars a Coast Blockade was formed in Kent and Sussex, those counties closest to the continent. Protection from the often violent smugglers was provided by Dragoons from 1703, but nevertheless many Customs and Excise Officers were wounded or murdered in the course of their duty. Pensions for widows of officers killed by smugglers were only instituted in 1784.

Real improvements in prevention came:


 * On land in 1811 when the Land Guard of Riding Officers were renamed the Mounted Guard, with recruits coming from cavalry regiments from 1832 and the coast divided into three sections.


 * By sea in 1822 when the Revenue Vessels joined with the Preventive Water Guard to form the Coastguard under the control of the Customs.


 * Through technological advances such as the telegraph system, enclosed docks and bonded warehouses.


 * As the movement towards free trade lessened the incentive to smuggle (Lodey).

Records of Customs and Excise
Most of the records are at TNA and they have three useful leaflets, D9 (Port Books 1565-1799), D38 (Customs, Excise, Tax Collectors and Civil Servants) and M 44 (Coastguard); Bevan (Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Record Office), and Watts and Watts (My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman. How Can I Find Out More About Him?) are the other references to use for records. Local newspapers, and even national journals such as the London Gazette, reported incidents of encounters between Revenue Men and smugglers, so these are good sources for family history stories. There is a good tourist market for accounts of the illicit trade, examples for southern England include books by Coxe (A Book about Smuggling in the West Country 1700-1850), Morley (Smuggling in Hampshire and Dorset. 1700- 1850) and Waugh (Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840). I am sorry to relate that two of my Dashwoods were guilty of conspiracy with smugglers. In 1628 my relative Robert Dashwood was removed from the post of Collector of Customs at Watchet, Somerset for being in league with the smugglers. The ‘trade’ was so rife there that Dashwood usually sat drinking with the smuggling ships’ captains while gangs of men unloaded the ships. Over in Dorset in the later 1700s the Ridout gang bought immunity from prosecution by leaving tubs of brandy at night on the doorstep of Thomas Dashwood a solicitor and J.P. of Sturminster Newton.

Customs Records
There is much detailed information about customs officers careers as well as ages and places of birth in a variety of records held at TNA, such as:


 * Establishment Books (Pay Lists) in CUST 18 for 1675-1813 and CUST 19 for 1814-1829 which are arranged by place.


 * Minute Books 1734-1885 in CUST 28 give details of postings of officers, including commendations or reprimands, but no family details.


 * Staff Lists 1671-1922 (incomplete) in CUST 39.


 * Other Pay Lists and Staff Lists are in TNA 30 and T 42, and other Salary Lists for 1682-1826 are in CUST 20.


 * Superannuation Registers 1803-1922 in CUST 39 are pension records that contain some family details. Dates covered for Ireland are 1785-1851.


 * Officers’ Applications for Pensions can be found in T1 with indexes in T2. Naturally the widow’s pension applications contain the most family detail.


 * Correspondence Files of Outports, that is ports other than London, in CUST 50 also contain references to officers.


 * Warrants for Appointments of Customs Officers 1714-1797 are in C 208 and indexed in C 202.


 * Irish Board of Customs Register of Appointments 1761-1823 are in CUST 20, and other records in CUST 39.


 * Irish Staff Lists for 1684-1826, including some Excise men are in CUST 20 as well.


 * Scottish Staff Lists are in a separate series in T 43 covering 1714-1829.


 * Port Books since the 13th century record duty payable on cargoes; they are arranged by port and year and show the ship’s voyages and masters as well. Those for 1565-1798 are in class E 190, but those for London 1696-1795 are lost.

For officers active during the period 1875-1930 there is an indexed directory Ham’s Customs Year Book.

Excise Records
Excise records are excellent and you can trace a man’s career from enlistment to death. Records similar to those for Customs Officers exist for Excise Men in a number of TNA classes, such as:


 *  Minute Books 1695-1867 in CUST 47 list Excise men’s postings; there are several volumes for each year but each is indexed. They are similar to the ones for Customs.


 * Entry Papers are in CUST 116 for 1820-1870 and contain, firstly, a letter of recommendation giving name, age, birthplace, marital status, and a character reference, and secondly, a letter from his training officer regarding proficiency in writing, spelling and arithmetic; they are indexed.


 * Pay Lists for the English Excise 1705-1835 in T 44, and the Scottish Excise 1708-1832 in T 45.


 * Pension Records 1856-1922 are in CUST 39 and are similar to those for Customs.


 * Irish Excise Men 1824-1833 and Irish Revenue Police 1830-1957 are covered by CUST 110-111.

For officers active during the period 1875-1930 there is an indexed directory Ham’s Inland Revenue Year Book. Bright (Charles King—Excise Officer. Cockney Ancestor (East of London FHS) #71 page 31-34.) and Howarth (John Siddall: Excise Officer. Family Tree Magazine Vol 5 #1, page 32-33.) have written about the lives of individual Excise men. It is worth noting that local excise collectors can be noted in parish registers as Officer of the Excise or Revenue Officer. It is worth searching out Customs and Excise Museums in the relevant port, there’s an excellent one in Exeter where my ancestor’s brother worked.

England was still having a problem dealing with the religion issue after the restoration of the monarchy and in 1673, in order to ensure that all civil and military officers were committed to the Church of England, every such person had to obtain a Sacramental Certificate. The Test Act (Camp 1999) required that this certificate be obtained from a clergyman with the signatures of two churchwardens and two witnesses and lodged with the Clerk of the Quarter Sessions (Chapman 1999). County archives have these records now and they are an alternate and confirmatory source of information. The example in below concern a Customs Officer in my family, but the law applied to most of the service officers mentioned in this course. I was able to get photocopies of three sacrament certificates for Zachary Dashwood, my 8th great grand uncle, for 9 June 1673 at St. Martin, 11 July 1680 at St. Sidwell, and 13 July 1689 at Holy Trinity, all in the city of Exeter, Devon.

Sacrament Certificate for Customs Officer 1673

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