My travels have recently taken me to Romney Marsh, a
fascinating part of the world down on the south coast. Low-lying and sparsely
populated, it covers around 100 square miles, mostly in Kent but stretching
over into Sussex as well.
Romney Marsh – “where the roads wind like streams through
pasture and the sky is always three-quarters of the landscape” (according to
John Betjeman, and who am I to disagree with him?) – is a large, flat,
low-lying and almost empty area with several isolated churches (indicating
abandoned or ‘lost’ villages) which was long regarded as both a potential weak
point in the event of an invasion from continental Europe – of which more in
later posts – and a paradise for smugglers.
Smuggling began in the Middle Ages, and it began with wool,
a commodity that formed the backbone of the medieval English economy; it was
said that in Europe, the best quality wool came from England. English wool was
therefore highly prized by weavers on the continent, and during the reign of
Edward I exports of wool were therefore taxed – which is where the smugglers
got started, for it was the customs system as introduced in the late thirteenth
century that created smuggling. Wool was smuggled out of England via small
harbours and beaches, especially on the south-eastern coast which is the
closest part of England to mainland Europe. On Romney Marsh – prime sheep-grazing country to the
extent that there is still a breed of sheep called the Romney – the smugglers
flourished. They became known as ‘owlers’ due to the owl-like noises they used
to communicate at night, which was when most of their activities took place, and
so the smuggling of wool became known as ‘owling’.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, high export duties and a
somewhat ineffective system of control meant that the owlers went more or less
unchallenged. A century later, the smuggling of wool out of England was declared
to be punishable by death – but did not deter the smugglers, who if anything
acquired a more ruthless character, arming themselves to prevent arrest. The customs or revenue men, known as riding officers, were both too few and too
poorly-equipped to stop them, though, and Romney Marsh and the various Cinque Ports,
along with their accompanying ‘limbs’, got a reputation for lawlessness as a
result. This can be seen in the events of 1669, when a man called William
Carter, who had set himself up as a smuggler-catcher and managed to get a warrant
from Charles II to that effect, arrested the captain of a ship for wool-smuggling and got the magistrate in Folkestone to commit him for trial.
However, on arriving in Folkestone with his prisoner, Carter was pelted with
stones by the women of the town, who’d been encouraged by the captain’s wife;
in the face of such an onslaught, the smuggler-catcher had little option but to
let his prisoner go.
Even corrupt officials got involved. This is illustrated
by an event that took place in Hythe (one of the five original Cinque Ports) in
1692, when riding officers seized 16 bags of wool in a barn belonging to Julius
Deeds, the Mayor of Hythe. Deeds sent his servant, Thomas Birch (who was also a
parish constable), to retrieve the wool. He got arrested, and at the subsequent
trial the defence tried to argue that the riding officers had acted illegally
on the grounds that they had not been accompanied by a parish constable. The
prosecution replied that the constable who should have been accompanying them
was – you’ve guessed it – Birch himself! Despite overwhelming evidence of his
guilt, the jury accepted the defence’s argument that the wool had been due to
be sent to another part of England rather than abroad, and acquitted him. Such instances were not
uncommon.
By 1698, the government had resorted to forbidding anyone
who lived within 15 miles of the sea in Kent or Sussex from buying wool. In addition to that, all sheep-farmers living within ten miles of the sea in said counties had to
account for all of their fleeces for up to three days after shearing. Riding officers
were appointed in greater numbers and could call on armed cavalry – dragoons –
to help them against the smugglers. Owling persisted, but by the 1720s it was
in decline.
But that did not mean an end to smuggling on Romney
Marsh.
To be continued…
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