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From: "Kathy Atwood" <>
Subject: [CON] Cornish pirates
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 10:50:37 -0500


BlankFrom the book THE CORNISH SMUGGLING INDUSTRY by Paul White:

"In 1783, George Bishop estimated that throughout England 160,000 people and
of fifth of the nation's horses were engaged in smuggling. Some 300 vessels
were engaged full-time in smuggling as well as the numerous fishing boats,
coasters, and merchantmen which engaged in it on an irregular basis.
Perhaps a quarter of the whole export/import trade of the country was
conducted illegally, and for some commodities, tea in particular, two
thirdswas probably illegal. A quarter of that smuggled tea and half the
smugggled brandy, entered by way of Devon and Cornwall. . . .

"Within Cornwall, 'legal' tea, spirits or fineries were almost unknown. It
would be fair to assume that almost the entire adult population of Cornwall
was involved in 'fair trade' as consumers, and the bulk of them know a lot
more about it than that. Support for the trade was normal among all
classes, even the revenue officers, foten coming from smuggling families
themselves, are unlikely to have thought the trade immoral. It was
conducted as a normal business, and if there were occasional skirmishes, and
even deaths, those were the fault of the villainous and unreasonable
government in far-off London."

It is a fascinating book, I recommend it to anyone interested in this aspect
of Cornish history. I had a special interest in that from two lines of my
family, the story is that we were smugglers 'way back when. Apparently they
ran from Scotland, to Isle of Man, then Cornwall, running sugar and rum.
Also, there were three brothers surnamed Crothers who were privateers during
the Napoleonic Wars, then when peace 'broke out', the continued in 'the
trade'. Allegedly, one member of the family made a deathbed confession of
killing an excise man on the Redruth road. Virtually all the Crothers in
Cornwall in the late 1700s and 1800s were from one progenitor--John Crothers
of the HMS Drake who was, according to the family tradition, Scottish, and
who married a 'local' girl, Elizabeth Puckinghorne of Redruth.
Interestingly, the Crothers [orig. Carruthers] were a family known in
Dumfriesshire, Scotland to be among the Border Reivers, a wild and woolly
bunch of raiders who ran the territory of the English/Scottish border. Here
are two notations found of John:

1775 John CROTHERS and Ricahard WILKIN of Illogan found at sea 13
anchors floating under Carvannell, containing"spirituous liquors" which
they presented to the Lord of the Manor.

1776 John CROTHERS and others - found wreak which they delievered to
Joseph WHITAKER for the Lord of the Manor.

In 1807, his son John drowned with two others while salvaging a ship off
Portreath.

This was written by Rudyard Kipling:

A Smuggler's Song

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 asks no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Running round the woodlump, if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brushwood back again - and they'll be gone next day!

Five and twenty ponies...........

If you see the stable door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm - don't you ask no more!

Five and twenty ponies...........

If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid", and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!

Five and twenty ponies...........

If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance,
You'll be given a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of pretty lace, and a velvet hood -
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!

Five and twenty ponies...........

Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie -
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!


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