Hawkhurst Gang

The Hawkhurst Gang was a criminal organization involved in smuggling throughout southeast England from 1735 until 1749. One of the more infamous gangs of the early 18th century, their influence extended from Dorset, where they successfully raided the customs house at Poole, to the Kent coast. Defeated in a battle with the Goudhurst militia in 1747, two of their leaders, Arthur Gray and Thomas Kingsmill, were executed in 1748 and 1749 respectively.

Early years

Named after the village of Hawkhurst, the gang was first mentioned as the "Holkhourst Genge" in 1735. Based at the Oak and Ivy Inn in Hawkhurst, they often frequented the nearby "Mermaid Inn" in the town of Rye, where they would sit with their weapons on the table. Many local legends and folklore are based on the alleged network of tunnels built by the gang from the Oak and Ivy leading to Tubs Lake, the "Royal Oak" in the village square, the "Four Throws" and to the site of the present day Tudor Court Hotel (in 1822, one of the caves used by the gang was discovered in Sopers Lane, Hawkhurst in which a dozen empty liquor bottles were found). While natural caves ,along with hidden cellars and remote barns, were used for storage it is unlikely that long tunnels would have been needed at that period when large armed gangs operated openly, often riding through the larger towns in daylight.

Dominance through terror

In 1740 revenue officer Thomas Carswell and a party of dragoons found about 15 cwt (750 Kg) of smuggled tea in a barn at Etchingham and were taking it to Hastings in a cart. James Stanford of the Hawkhurst Gang rode round the area and collected about thirty men with horses and weapons. After drinking brandy to bolster their courage they attacked the revenue party at Silver Hill between Hurst Green and Robertsbridge, shooting Carswell dead and capturing the soldiers. [Mary Waugh, "Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840" 2003 ISBN 0 905392 48 5 p73] One of the smugglers, George Chapman, was later executed and gibbeted in his home village of Hurst Green.

On one occasion when the gang was drinking at the "Mermaid Inn" in Rye some twenty of them visited the nearby "Red Lion", firing their guns in the air. A young bystander, James Marshall, who took too keen an interest in them was taken away and never seen again.

The gang generally operated freely in the area, as when in 1744 they unloaded a considerable amount of contraband from three large cutters at Pevensey, from which the smuggled goods were carried inland by around 500 pack horses.

Sometime in the early 1740s Jeremiah Curtis, who had been part of a violent gang in the Hastings area , joined forces with the Hawkhurst Gang, and was one of its most brutal members. It was Curtis who led the whipping and beating to death of Richard Hawkins, a farm labourer from Walberton who they suspected of stealing two bags of the gang's tea. Hawkins was taken to the "Dog and Partridge" inn at Slindon to be interrogated. When he died of his injuries his body was sunk in the pond at Parham Park, where it was found in the spring of 1748.

The Poole raid

In October 1747, members of the gang led a successful raid against a government customs house in Poole, Dorset which was holding over two tons of tea, thirty-nine casks of brandy and rum, and a small bag of coffee captured from the smuggler's ship, "Three-Brothers", in September. The shipment from Guernsey, worth about £500, had been organised by the Hawkhurst Gang, working with a group from east Hampshire and was intended to be landed at Christchurch Bay, but was captured by a revenue vessel and taken to pool, after the crew had escaped in a small boat. At a meeting in Charlton Forest Richard Perrin from Chichester, who had gone to Guernsey to buy the goods, made an agreement with the local men to recover the contraband. Thirty armed men, including Thomas Kingsmill and about seven other Hawkhurst men rode to Poole, stopping to rest in the New Forest. Arriving in Poole they found that the customs house under the guns of a naval sloop. The more local men were for abandoning the attempt, but the Hawkhurst men said they would continue alone, and it was then agreed that they would all continue. It was soon realised that as the tide fell the ships guns would no longer be in sight of the customs house. The gang broke into the customs house around 2 am, on October 8, escaping on horseback with two tons of tea. They left the brandy, rum and coffee at the customs house, presumably because of lack of sufficient transport. The smugglers were not opposed at any stage of the journey. The Customs Service offered a large reward of £500 for their capture. [Mary Waugh, "Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840" 2003 ISBN 0 905392 48 5 p141/2]

Several months after the raid, a member of the gang known as Diamond was captured and gaoled at Chichester. He had been recognised by a Fordingbridge resident, a shoemaker named Daniel Chater, who was given a small bag of tea by Diamond. Chater may not have intended to betray Diamond, but word of his knowledge got around. He was later called as a witness by the customs service, but he and an elderly revenue officer, William Galley, got lost while travelling to the remote downland village of East Marden to identify Diamond to a Justice of the Peace, Major Battine. They stopped at the "White Hart Inn" at Rowlands Castle, a smugglers pub, where the landlady fetched smugglers William Jackson and William Carter to investigate them. They were given drink until they fell asleep and their documents were discovered, then beaten and tied on horses by members of the local gang, then taken north to the "Red Lion Inn" at Rake. After burying the customs officer alive in a nearby fox earth they kept Chater chained to a shed at Trotton for several days before deciding to kill him. They threw Chater down a well at Lady Holt Park and dropped stones on top of him. [Mary Waugh, "Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840" 2003 ISBN 0 905392 48 5 p143]

Downfall

Although smuggling gangs were generally supported by the local population, as they provided much needed and well paid work, the murderous brutality of the gang had turned the residents against them. At Goudhurst the people formed the Goudhurst Band Of Militia, led by "General" George Sturt, a former army corporal. Enraged by this defiance Thomas Kingsmill, a native of the town, threatened to burn the town and kill the residents, setting an appointed time, the 21st of April 1747. When the gang attacked on the appointed day the militia were well enough trained to shoot dead Kingsmill's brother George in the first volley of a battle fought around the church. Two more smugglers died before the gang withdrew. [Mary Waugh, "Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840" 2003 ISBN 0 905392 48 5 p75] The gang were not only smugglers but robbers and extortionists. Their leader Arthur Gray was arrested and executed for highway robbery in 1748, with leadership passing to Thomas Kingsmill. When in August 1748 thirteen smugglers including Kingsmill and Curtis robbed the home of the landlord of the "George Inn" at Petersfield the owner was too frightened to report his losses until after the men had been arrested.

With the cruel deaths of Galley and Chater, among others, causing national outrage the names of known smugglers were published in the London Gazette, giving them forty days to surrender or face an automatic death sentence, and offering a £500 reward for their capture. Jeremiah Curtis escaped to France before he could be brought to justice.

References

External links

* [http://www.villagenet.co.uk/history/1735-hawkhurstgang.html Smugglers - The Hawkhurst Gang, 1735 to 1749]