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Coastal Defence

Being an island the shores of Great Britain require a lot of protection. Here we will look at the work of coastguards, customs officers and lighthouse keepers found in the family.

Coastguards

The coastguard service is now part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and is responsible for maritime search and rescue but their origins were related to revenue and customs. Here is a short time line for their beginnings.

1698 ‘The guard of the coasts of Kent and Sussex’ formed under Board of Customs.
Comprising of Riding Officers to prevent movement inland of smuggled goods.
Revenue Cruisers largely confined to Kent, Sussex and East Anglia coasts and Thames estuary.
By end of eighteenth century expanded to all England and Wales. Another fleet covered Scotland.
Board of Excise had its own Riding Officers covering whole country.

1809 Preventative Water Guard established to prevent smugglers who managed to get passed the Revenue Cruisers, check on the Revenue Cruisers and to give assistance to shipwrecks.

1811 Treasury took charge of Preventative Water Guard. Revenue Cruisers took over by Admiralty.

1822 Coastguard formed from Preventative Water Guard,  Revenue Cruisers and Riding Officers under the Board of Customs.

1829 The first Coastguard instructions dealt with their preventative duties and also stipulated that they were responsible for saving live and taking charge of wrecks to protect property.

1831 Coastguard became reserve force for the navy with officers appointed and boat men  recruited into the service from among paid navy personnel.

1856 Coastguard transferred to the Admiralty.

References:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/coastguard.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Coastguard
http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=Coastguard_History

Family Connections.

Charles HACON [12329]  joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman, signing an engagement for 10 years on HMS Russell on 15 May 1855. He extended the engagement to complete his time for pension on 15 May 1865. In 1857 he was nominated from HMS Nile and appointed to the Coastguard at 2 Battery Dungeness. He married Harriet Frances GEORGE in the Elham district, Kent in the 2nd quarter of 1858.

We have found Charles in 1861 as a newly wed at the Coastguard Station in Dungeness. There were 7 families in total at the station; a chief boatman in charge, 2 boatmen and 2 commission boatmen, all Coastguard Royal Navy and one other like Charles had no occupation or rank given.

In 1871 he was a commisioned boatman at the Coastguard station of Seasalter Marsh where there was a chief boatman in charge, 2 commissioned boatmen and 3 Coastguard men. The previous schedule was “The Jolly Sailor” beer house where the publican was a farmer and shell fish merchant. Immediately prior to this were 9 schedules for the Coastguard Station at Seasalter Cliff where there was a chief officer, chief boatman, 4 boatmen a commissioned boatman and 1 Coastguard. There appeared to be a lot of smuggling on this part of the north Kent coast with two Coastguard Stations close together. Charles was head of the household with Harriet his wife and 5 children.

By 1881 he had been promoted to Chief Boatman in Charge and was living in the Coastguard buildings in Orford. Charles and Harriet now had 6 children with them. There were seven Coastguards at Coastguard buildings. When he retired from the service he stayed in Orford. In 1891 he was in Bakers Lane with his wife and 2 of his children and in 1901 he was in Church Street with his wife but none of his children. They did have a young married couple boarding with them. He died in 1905.

George OUTEN [425]  joined the Royal Navy as an able bodied seaman, signing an engagement for 7 years on HMS Highflyer on 1 July 1853. In 1861 he was captain of the fore top, a petty officer in charge of the platform at the top of the fore mast on HMS Ganges. The ship was in the mid Atlantic on her last voyage returning home as the last sailing flag ship. Between 1857 and 1861 she was the flagship of Pacific Squadron (Rear Admiral Sir Robert Lambert Baynes). In 1861 Ganges was returning to Spithead, having sailed over 60,100 miles in a three year commission and was paid off at Sheerness.

George was nominated for service in the Coastguard and appointed to Portsmouth Harbour. In the second quarter of 1861 he married Hannah HAGERTY in Portsea district. In 1871 he was a Coastguard chief boatman living at 3 Coast Guard St, Eastney, Portsea with his wife Hannah and daughter. By 1881 he was a Coastguard chief officer in Portsea Coastguard Station. Hannah died towards the end of 1881 and he married the widow Rebecca HONEYSETT nee DIMENT in the 3rd quarter of 1882 in Portsea district.

By 1891 he had retired and was living with his wife Rebecca at 3 Florence Terrace, Trevor Rd, Portsea. With them was Eliza HEARD a single trained monthly nurse discribed as a niece to the head of the family. In 1901 he and his wife were at 48 Trevor Rd, Portsea. He died in 1911 before the census was taken.

Customs Officers

Apart from collecting revenue from trade goods, they had to look out for plague aboard ships and act as receivers of wrecks. Bizarrely, as whales were “fishes royal” and belonged to the Crown should they stray into territorial waters, they had to keep an eye out for them too. The staff consisted of a collector, the top official, who was responsible for sending the money collected to the Exchequer in London; below him was a controller, who acted as an accountant and a searcher, who examined goods and assembled duty. Landing waiters supervised unloading, coast waiters checked coastal shipping and tide waiters boarding incoming ships. There were also clerks and warehousemen. A tide waiter was sometimes called tidesman and a tide surveyor was a customs officer who identified ships and cargoes and the preventive officer was in charge of boarding crew.

An outdoor officer was at the basic grade of customs officer, this became an assistant examining officer from 1891. An examining officer was known as a landing waiter until 1861 he was a customs officer who examined imported goods.


Customs Officers

Apart from collecting revenue from trade goods, they had to look out for plague aboard ships and act as receivers of wrecks. Bizarrely, as whales were “fishes royal” and belonged to the Crown should they stray into territorial waters, they had to keep an eye out for them too. The staff consisted of a collector, the top official, who was responsible for sending the money collected to the Exchequer in London; below him was a controller, who acted as an accountant and a searcher, who examined goods and assembled duty. Landing waiters supervised unloading, coast waiters checked coastal shipping and tide waiters boarding incoming ships. There were also clerks and warehousemen. A tide waiter was sometimes called tidesman and a tide surveyor was a customs officer who identified ships and cargoes and the preventive officer was in charge of boarding crew.

An outdoor officer was at the basic grade of customs officer, this became an assistant examining officer from 1891. An examining officer was known as a landing waiter until 1861 he was a customs officer who examined imported goods.

Family Connections.

James FOLLAND [11093] was a 1st class tidewaiter for H M Customs in 1851. He was living in Toxteth Park with wife Mary Jane and 5 children. From the birthplaces of the children we know he had been in Ireland, Amagh 1824-1826 and Antrim 1829-1830 before settling in Liverpool from about 1833. By 1861 he had retired but was still living in Toxteth Park with Mary Jane, four of his children and two grandchildren. He died in 1869. His son William Spencer FOLLAND did not become a customs officer but went to sea and became a master mariner.

John Moulton KELLY [10632] was an Outdoor Officer in the H.M.Customs at Appledore in 1871. He was living in Irsha Street with his wife Jane and their son William. In 1881 he was still in Irsha Street but was an Acting Examining Officer of Customs. Living with John were his wife and six sons and a daughter, his sister Ellen who was a nurse and his brothrer William Henry who was a boatman in Customs. His daughter Ellen was born in Amble, Northumberland and by 1891 he was a Principle Officer of Customs at Seaharour in County Durham. His sister Ellen was still with them but now discribed as a general servant. We have not found him on the 1901 census but in 1911 he is living in Cardiff with his wife Jane and two daughters and was then a retired superintendent of Customs. John died in Cardiff in 1923.

William Henry KELLY [10616]  the brother of John Moulton KELLY was living with his parents in Irsha Street in 1871. He was a mariner like his brothers Thomas and Robert. Their father was a master mariner. In 1881 he was a Customs boatman with his brother in Appledore in1881.  William died 1890 in Toxteth having married his second cousin Harriet KELLY in Appledore and had a daughter in Bow. His Widow and daughter continued to live in Toxteth after his death.

White’s Directory of 1878-79 states of Appledore ... ”It is the first harbour of importance within the bar of the broad estuary of the two rivers, and is subordinate to the port of Bideford. The principal trade is coasting and fishing, while a larger and small dry dock, and several ship building yards, a rope manufactory, together with its landing quays for discharge of vessels, give employment to many of its inhabitants and promote its general prosperity ...”

Lighthouse keepers

Henry NOTT [17211]  joined Trinity House in 1861 although his wife was described on the 1861 census as Ship Carpenter’s wife she and their baby daughter were in Devonport. Henry’s first placement was as Asistant Keeper 1861-1863 on the Smalls.

The present lighthouse was built under the supervision of Trinity House Chief Engineer, James Douglass. Its design was based on Smeaton’s Eddystone tower and it took just two years to build being completed in 1861, so Henry was one of the first to serve there. It replaced the earlier house where the tragic episode of the keeper who died on the remote station. 21 miles off St David’s head in the Irish sea. In case he be accused of murdering his companion The surviving man put the body in a make shift coffin outside the house see A Rock and a Hard Place: Storms, Death and Madness at the Smalls Lighthouse’. The incident lead to having three men on duty at all times.

Henry was one of the first to serve in the new building. His daughter Alice’s birth was registered in 1863 in Neyland Pembrokeshire. Between 1863-1872 he served at Dovercourt where he is listed on the 1871 census with his wife and 4 children.

There were two houses in Harwich at the time of Henry’s service but little has been found about them. However Mr W C Good of Dovercourt recalled working for Trinity house in the early 1900s . He says he worked as relieving officer on both lighthouses so perhaps Henry also worked on both stations.

Three sons were born during Henry’s period in Harwich. From 1872 to 1879 he was at St Catherines, Niton Undercliffe on the Isle of Wight.

A Walter de Godyton had erected a chapel at St Catherines in 1323 and left an endowment for a priest to say Masses for his family and to show a warning light to shipping. His will was carried out until 1530 when the chapel was allowed to fall to the ruins that can still be seen.

The tower where Henry served was built in 1832 but although an elegant building it was found that the light was too high and often hidden in mist. In 1875 the lantern was lowered 13 meters by altering the top two tiers. Well after Henry’s time a second tower was built in front to house a fog horn, this was built to match the lighthouse and together they became affectionately called “The cow and Calf”.

Henry’s son Frank Havill NOTT was born at Niton, Isle of Wight  in 1873. Although not found on th 1881 census (his wife and children were in Plymouth) it is known that Henry was serving on the Eddystone lighthouse as a Principal Keeper between 1879-1882.

On 2 December 1755 the top of the lantern of the old light house caught fire leaving the coast unlit after 52 years. Trinity House placed a light vessel to guard the position until a permanent light could be built. Cornish tin miners were employed on the construction of the “new” lighthouse each being given a medal proving their contribution to the work and allowing exemption from Naval Service. The completed tower was operational on 16 October 1759 and remained in service until 1882 when it was replaced by the Douglas tower. So Henry was one of the last men to serve on the famous Smeaton tower. The top part was moved to Plymouth Hoe where it is now a monument to its talented Yorkshire designer John Smeaton. It is a popular venue for visitors.

He was then posted to St Bees where he served from 1882 to 1888. His wife Sarah Ann nee MATHEWS died here in 1888.

St Bees was the last lighthouse in Britain to be fuelled by coal. The old tower burnt down in 1822 and was replaced by one designed by Joseph Nelson.

Henry served at Tynemouth between 1888 and 1894. In 1891 he is recorded as the principle lighthouse keeper with four of his children living at home. His last posting was in 1894 to North Foreland.

In 1890 four years before Henry was posted to this lighthouse a separate lantern house was built at the top of the existing tower. Far after Henry’s time the lighthouse became the last to be converted to automatic operation.

Henry retired sometime between 1894 and 1901 when he was living in Broadstairs Kent he died in 1913.

George James NOTT [17257] the son of Henry was the lighthouse keeper on Caldy Island in 1891 with William EBBEN another lighthouse Keeper. Henry’s brother Edwin married William’s sister Elizabeth.

Edwin White NOTT [17214] the brother of Henry entered the lighthouse service in July 1869 and was assistant keeper on Flat Holm 1870 - 1879. On the 1871 census there are two inhabited houses on the island; one inhabited by the lighthouse keeper, his wife, Edwin and his wife, the other by two agricultural labourers, a domestic servant and a fisherman. He moved to Lowestoft where he was still an assistant keeper 1879 - 1891.  In 1881 he was at the Low Lighthouse, Ness Point, with his wife and 3 children, sharing a house with another keeper and his family. Edwin and his wife and 2 of their children were in St Margarets Rd in 1891 where he is described as a Assistant Light House Keeper [Harb], probably meaning he looking after the harbour light. Between 1891 and 1894 he was principal keeper on Les Hanois off the island of Guernsey. By 1901 he was back in Lowestoft were as principal keeper he filled in a ship’s enumeration form for the lighthouse station. His wife and two daughters were with him. He died in 1928.

William EBBEN [17262] brother in law of Edwin White NOTT was an assistant keeper at Orford, Suffolk. He and his wife were enumerated there in 1861. In 1871 he was keeper at the Hurst Light in Hampshire with wife and 4 children. His daugher Elizabeth Row was born on Caldy Island in 1878 but the names of the lighthouse keepers on Caldy Island were not recorded. William was still a keeper on Caldy in 1891. His daughter Matilda and George Nott were with him. His wife and daughter Elizabeth were in Enfield, Middlesex with his widowed mother.

Caldy Island. Built near the Priory on the Island in 1829, the Lighthouse has two houses attached where the lighthouse men and their families lived.

In 1901 William was an annuitant from Trinity House living with his wife, 2 daughters and a married son and his wife and daughter in Enfield. He died in 1923.

References:
The GenUKI website has lists of lighthouses and lighthouse keepers taken from Trinity House Service List and Census Returns at http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Lighthouses/index.html

See also

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