Report on March 2010 Quarterly Meeting

 

    ISAAC GULLIVER – PIRATE EXTRAORDINAIRE!

 

I have always associated Cornwall with smuggling, probably from reading Daphne du Maurier’s “Jamaica Inn”, and I never really thought about what happened to the contraband once it landed on those rocky shores - or in the case of the Poole beaches, on less dangerous ones.

 

At our last Open Meeting in March, we were to learn a lot more about Dorset’s famous smuggler, Isaac Gulliver, and the network used for distributing the contraband.  Malcolm Angel, part-owner of Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne, gave a fascinating talk about our local smuggler who was born in Semington, Wiltshire around 1744.  Malcolm’s enthusiasm for his subject was sparked off by the fact that in spite of several owners, there has been a Gulliver’s Bookshop in the same building in Wimborne for many, many years.  Gulliver’s father was also called Isaac and this must have made the research quite tricky.

 

The Thorny Down/Martin areas on the Wilts/Hants border were a hub of pirate activity which Gulliver organised from his home in Sixpenny Handley.  The crossroads at nearby Tidpit were a notorious centre for the dispersal of goods.  Any tea and brandy found hidden in bushes at Thorny Down were brought to Blandford to be put into the bonded warehouses at Whitecliff Mill Street.  Those smugglers caught during their nightly missions often feigned madness by saying that they were “raking up the moon” – hence the name “Moonrakers”.  These smugglers were not brigands, and had a somewhat Robin Hood ethos in the way that they carried out their smuggling. Their only aim was to avoid paying excise duty!  The network was widespread for those times encompassing amongst other places, St Andrew’s Church, Kinson (known as the Smugglers’ Church!) and Chettle House. People also became involved, for example, the Stertes who owned Long Crichel House, plus a Vicar and a Magistrate!

 

Britain was at war with France at the time and smuggling was the only way of getting brandy.  Gulliver had a fleet of boats which he used to sail from Poole to France, using the Channel Islands as a centre for decanting brandy from the large casks in which it was stored into smaller easier-to-handle barrels.

 

Isaac married one Elizabeth Beale in Sixpenny Handley when he was 23 and they lived in the public house where she was born, and from here he ran his earlier network.  They moved eventually to Wimborne where he was regarded as an honest and respected citizen.  There were two daughters who married into wealthy banking families – one of these being the founders of the National Provincial Bank!

 

If you would like to read more about this legendary figure, then Malcolm Angel’s book “In search of Isaac Gulliver – Legendary Dorset Smuggler”, would make an ideal gift.

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ann Robinson