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The Customs Service

The English, and from 1707 British, revenue department for duties on goods carried by sea, governed by the Board of Customs re-established at London in 1671 and staffed by collectors, comptrollers, surveyors, searchers and waiters in the home ports and, from the 1670s, in the American and West Indian colonies, the Commissioners being empowered to appoint plantation officers directly by the Plantation Trade Act of 1696.

From1671Also writtenthe Customs; the Board of Customs; the Commissioners of the Customs; His Majesty's Customs; the Custom House; the customs establishment

The Customs Service was the English, and from 1707 the British, revenue department for duties on goods carried by sea. A permanent Board of Customs dates from 1671, when six commissioners were appointed to manage the duties of England and Wales, ending the farm that had run since 1662. The Board sat at the Custom House in London under the Treasury. Under it stood collectors, comptrollers, surveyors, searchers and waiters in every chief port at home and, from the 1670s, in the plantations. The customs officer seized; the vice-admiralty judge condemned.1

The Act of 1696

The colonial machinery rests on 7 and 8 Will. III c. 22, "An Act for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade". Governors swore to see its clauses "punctually and bona fide observed" on pain of removal. Naval officers appointed by governors gave security to the Commissioners in England. Plantation revenue officers received the English officers' powers of visiting, searching and seizing, and the English officers' penalties "for any Corruptions Frauds Connivances or Concealements". One third of every forfeiture went to whoever sued.2

The officers overseas

Letters patent of 15 October 1681 gave Edward Randolph the office of Collector, Surveyor and Searcher of the Customs in New England, "vnder the management of our Commissioners of our Customes in this our Kingdome of England". The Act of 1696 let the Treasury and the Commissioners appoint officers in plantation ports outright, even where the Crown did not govern. The Council of Trade and Plantations minuted on 20 October 1698 that "In all the Proprietory Governments the Collectors were appointed by the Custom-house in England."3

Where piracy entered the business

Piracy entered the department's business where pirated goods became imported goods. In September 1699 a ship and East India goods were seized at Boston from William Symes, master of the Fidelia of London; the deputy collector deposed on 21 October that Symes had said the ship brought twenty-two bales. Bellomont suspected the goods came from the Quedagh Merchant, which Kidd left at Hispaniola, and complained that the Custom House officers "were not nimble enough or we had got all the goods". The provenance was never proved.4

Where enforcement failed

In the proprietary colonies the department was beaten in the open. In October 1699 Robert Quary reported prohibited goods seized by the King's collector in Pennsylvania taken by force out of the King's store by order of the colony's own government, and pirates on bail who "threaten the lives of the King's Collectors and with force and arms rescue their goods from them". At Newport in 1719 the collector Kay seized claret in daylight under the governor's warrant; the town rose on his party, and a warrant issued for his own arrest.5

Two officers

On 26 May 1719 Alexander Spotswood complained of the North Carolina officer Tobias Knight, who held a combination of places, as having had "too much correspondence" with Blackbeard's crew. The accusation is documented; complicity is not proved. William Rhett was surveyor and comptroller of the customs in Carolina.6

What the department left

Suppression of piracy was not customs work. Neither the Act of 1698, 11 Will. III c. 7, nor the Act of 1721, 8 Geo. I c. 24, gives the customs any part; the 1721 forfeiture ran through the High Court of Admiralty. What the department left instead is paper: the Exchequer port books, E 190, 1,553 bundles for 1565 to 1798; the Inspector General's accounts, CUST 2, ten volumes for 1696 to 1702; the ledgers of imports and exports, CUST 3, eighty-two volumes for 1696 to 1780.

What the sources cannot yet give is the department's own establishment. No office-holder list for the Board's commissioners between 1690 and 1725 has been located, the size of the Board after the original six is unsettled, and no total for the number of customs officers has been established.

What the evidence does not settle

Composition of the Board of Customs

  • Board of Customs' size after 1671 is unestablishedUnverified

Brenton's commission dates

  • Jahleel Brenton's commission dates as collector unfixed

Identity of collector Brookes

  • Calendar's Brookes may be identified as Chidley Brooke

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. A permanent Board of Customs dates from the appointment in 1671 of six commissioners to manage the customs duties in England and Wales, ending the farm that had run since 1662; the Board sat at the Custom House in the City of London under the Treasury, and its port establishment of collectors, comptrollers, surveyors, searchers and waiters served the chief ports of England and Wales and, from the 1670s, the American and West Indian plantations, the customs officer seizing goods that the vice-admiralty judge then condemned. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archival catalogue and administrative history: Records of the Boards of Customs, Excise, and Customs and Excise, and HM Revenue and Customs, The National Archives, Kew, CUST, administrative history, for the 1643 ordinance, the farm of 1662 to 1671, the appointment of six commissioners in 1671, the separate Board of Excise from 1683 and the department's role in enforcing the trade laws; Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Port Books, The National Archives, E 190, series description, for the ranks and duties of the port officers
  2. The Act 7 and 8 Will. III c. 22, "An Act for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade", of the session of 1695 to 1696, required colonial governors to swear before 25 March 1697 to see its clauses "punctually and bona fide observed" on pain of removal and a forfeiture of one thousand pounds, required naval officers appointed by governors to give security to the Commissioners of the Customs in England, gave plantation revenue officers the same powers of visiting, searching and seizing that English officers held under the Act of Frauds of 13 and 14 Car. II c. 11 together with the same penalties "for any Corruptions Frauds Connivances or Concealements", and divided the penalties under the Act in three, one third to the Crown, one third to the governor of the colony and one third to the person who sued. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute text: William III, 1695-6: An Act for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade, chapter XXII, 7 and 8 Will. III c. 22, Statutes of the Realm vol. 7, 1695-1701, pp. 103-107, ed. John Raithby, via British History Online; sections III, IV, V and VI
  3. Letters patent of 15 October 1681 granted Edward Randolph the office of Collector, Surveyor and Searcher of the Customs in the colonies of New England at one hundred pounds a year and expressly "vnder the management of our Commissioners of our Customes in this our Kingdome of England"; the Act of 1696 then empowered the Treasury and the Commissioners of the Customs in England to appoint customs officers in plantation ports directly, and on 20 October 1698 the Council of Trade and Plantations minuted the evidence of the collector for New England that "In all the Proprietory Governments the Collectors were appointed by the Custom-house in England." Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Letters patent in scholarly edition, statute text and calendared state papers: Edward Randolph's Commission as Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher of Customs in the Colonies of New England, 15 October 1681, in Massachusetts Royal Commissions 1681-1774, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts vol. 2, original cited as Public Record Office, Patent Roll, 33 Charles II, Part 7, No. 15; 7 and 8 Will. III c. 22, section X, Statutes of the Realm vol. 7, pp. 103-107; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies vol. 16, 1697-1698, ed. J. W. Fortescue, journal of the Council of Trade and Plantations, 20 October 1698
  4. In September 1699 a ship and a parcel of East India goods were seized at Boston from William Symes, master of the Fidelia of London, the inventory of the seized goods being taken on 24 September and the deputy collector deposing on 21 October that Symes had said the ship brought twenty-two bales of East India goods; the Earl of Bellomont suspected a connection with the Quedagh Merchant which Kidd had left at Hispaniola and complained that the officers of the Custom House "were not nimble enough or we had got all the goods", the whole parcel being worth above two thousand pounds, but the pirate provenance of the goods was never proved. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies vol. 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, ed. Cecil Headlam, Bellomont's letter of 24 October 1699 with enclosures, including the inventory of 24 September 1699 and the deposition of William Payne, deputy collector at Boston, of 21 October 1699
  5. Customs enforcement in the proprietary colonies was defeated by rescue, riot and colonial law: Robert Quary reported on 20 October 1699 that prohibited goods seized by the King's collector in Pennsylvania had been taken by force out of the King's store by order of the government of that colony and that pirates admitted to bail "threaten the lives of the King's Collectors and with force and arms rescue their goods from them", and Caleb Heathcote reported from Newport on 7 September 1719 that Kay, the collector there, having seized several hogsheads of claret illegally imported in the daytime with the governor's warrant and the high sheriff in attendance, was set upon by the townspeople, John Wanton thereupon issuing a warrant for the collector's own apprehension. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies vol. 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, ed. Cecil Headlam, Quary to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 20 October 1699, with enclosures; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies vol. 31, 1719-1720, ed. Cecil Headlam, Heathcote to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Newport, 7 September 1719
  6. On 26 May 1719 Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood complained of the North Carolina officer Tobias Knight holding a combination of places as having had "too much correspondence" with Blackbeard's crew, so that the accusation is documented and complicity is not proved; William Rhett was surveyor and comptroller of the customs in Carolina. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies vol. 31, 1719 to 1720, ed. Cecil Headlam, Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 26 May 1719, and the volume's entries for Rhett as surveyor and comptroller of the customs in Carolina