Smuggling in Regency times was rife in the rugged and isolated ‘bay towns’ of what was the North Riding of Yorkshire. Although the skill and daring of those involved in the trade can be admired, there was a dark and far-reaching side to their activities.
In my books there is a recurring element of smuggling showing how it could have affected the lives of those within the region and, inadvertently, helped Napoleon in his war against our own nation.
Being an island, smuggling had been prevalent for many years within the coastal communities nationwide. With a much smaller population than today, most of the inhabitants of these places would be either involved, or at least aware, of contraband being stored or moved through their communities.
This extract from Rudyard Kipling’s’ poem A Smuggler’s Song captured it beautifully:
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet,
Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.
The reasons the trade existed were complex but huge import taxes applied to certain consumables made brandy, tobacco, tea, silk and many other desired goods far too expensive for most people, instantly creating opportunity to fill a demand illegally.
Napoleon Bonaparte had no wish to lose the income France received from this illicit trade. So, he ordered the French Channel ports be kept open for business. This also created wealth for the organiser of the smuggling gangs’ pockets, some of which were part of the British landed gentry. Their subordinates lower down the chain of command were often unaware of the identity of the ‘top man’ who could only be known by a select few.
This trade was open to being used for further nefarious purposes, as free traders earned even more money by selling government secrets. This shared intelligence could cover troop deployments/movements/logistics, coastal patrols and the names and responsibilities of important people. This information had its value in coin, which Napoleon desperately needed to fuel his war effort. It was aiding treason.
Government agents tried to uncover such traitors. In Phoebe’s Challenge Rev. Matthew Fenton provides information to uncover the local gangs. In The Friends and Foes series, Lord Farrington is a semi-retired Intelligence Officer who has been given the task of unearthing a traitor in Betrayal, but his role is concerned with insurgence and threats to the government at home too. This is a time of hardship and much perceived threats, externally from France and her allies and internally from those deeply affected by the loss of livelihood and the industrialisation, which was bringing huge wealth to a new ‘middle-class’ and displaced communities from the countryside to town and mills.
Revolution on our shores was a fear.
Lord Farrington discusses the situation with Dr. Samuel Speers, in Betrayal…
“I already know they are involved in the business of financing the trade in contraband. But what else? Lord Bagby has influential friends who he meets in his clubs – does he pass on information to our enemies as well as coin? Is he a traitor through and through? These facts I must seek out.”
Samuel looked up, quite shocked. “You think they are traitors. Many people locally dabble in smuggling to eke out their meagre livings…”
Farrington leaned forward. “Stop my friend if you wish to remain so. Smugglers give coin to Napoleon’s war effort – they help our enemy and our men die. I do not debate the taxes set, but the way they fund our enemies for selfish gain. Do not be so naïve. I shall bring down the Bagby’s and this man Jed Webb who eludes our Riding Officers.”
Villagers could earn some coin to supplement their meagre incomes by hiding contraband in amazingly inventive places or help to convey goods on arrival from larger vessels at sea in their own fishing boats to hide them on land. Tubmen were men paid to convey the goods from delivery to their next destination. They needed to be strong, often landsmen, who knew the area and walked the trods and snickets that linked the bay towns and crossed the open moors.
The northeast coast leant itself perfectly to this. Many of these coastal villages have long, flat beaches of fine sand, where the local ‘cobles’, the shallow draught fishing boats could be easily drawn up and the villagers knew how to avoid the scars, the vicious fingers of rocks that extended from the shore. Fishing was the main source of employment on the coast. Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay are well known for their smuggling links but the coast between Saltburn and Redcar was almost as notorious towards the end of the eighteenth century. The bay towns in my books of Ebton and Allunby are fictitious villages based on the sweeping bay of Saltburn to Coatham, where I grew up and hold a strong affection for.
Three organisations were created to try and stop this trade. The Revenue Cruisers, the Riding Officers and the Preventive Water Guard.
Revenue Cruisers patrolled offshore in ships that with full sail could often overtake smaller vessels once located. The problem they faced was locating ships amongst the many who sailed along the German Ocean, and also the honesty of the crews who were on occasion known to work with some of the smugglers in exchange for a cut of the goods, made discerning their whereabouts even harder.
Riding Officers were based around the coast, living near the suspected communities and riding the coast to try and prevent the collusion between land and sea. A nearly impossible task.
The Preventive Waterguard was established in 1809. They had houses around the coast – Watch Houses, and smaller boat crews which would patrol their stretch of coastland.
Between all three branches the tide was slowly turning in the governments favour. In 1822 they were incorporated into one force, The Coast Guard, charged with stopping the import of these highly taxed goods. They employed ex sailors, strong, tough and knowledgeable who needed employment after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
This led to a gradual decline of demand and consequently causing the amount of smuggling that was committed throughout the first half of the nineteenth century to dwindle.
Before this happened though the battles fought to catch the smugglers and traitors lay the seed of many a good tale, some yet to be told.
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Best wishes
Valerie
The Yorkshire Saga standalone series published by Sapere Books
Cornish sagas, or Bernard Cornwell’s action and adventure series about the rifleman who rose from the ranks, Richard Sharpe.
When I began writing I thought about the ‘write about what you know’ advice and started exploring my home area. The North Yorkshire Moors and the bay towns from Whitby to Saltburn provided a dramatic backdrop for many of my stories.
valerie holmes, author 