Copyright © Iain Kennedy 7th-9th February 2008
Updated 9th February with Kennedy customs
officers, see further down page!
I recently
examined an interesting document at the National Archives which details all the
ports in Scotland in 1743 along with all the customs and excise staff. I was
searching for two Kennedys, Lewis Kennedy of the Culzean family who was
supposed to have held the role of Customs Officer at Irvine until his death in
1743. The other later Kennedy doing this work was a Matthew Kennedy who after
marrying in Guernsey, had a child at Fort Charlotte near Lerwick in the
Shetland Isles, before moving to Ayr to have two more children then vanishing.
He flourished in the 1850s and I have been advised by the National Archives
that post 1829 all Customs records are held at Kew, even if they worked in
Scotland.
Before the age of
the train these ports would be used more than we might think for travelling
inside Britain. For example the Earl of Cassillis used to travel to and fro
between his London residence and Culzean Castle by taking a ship to Leith (near
Edinburgh) then travelling overland to Ayrshire.
I have listed all
the ports, and the staff at all the Ayrshire and Galloway ports.
GD1/54/10 'Charges of Customs Salt
and Excise in Scotland with the names of the Officers 1743'
Ports:
Leith
Dunbar
Prestonpans
Borrowstoness
Queensferry
Alloa
Kirkcaldy
Anstruthers
Dundee
Perth
Montrose
Aberdeen
Inverness
Caithness
Orkney
Lochroom
Fort William
Zetland
Glasgow
Port Glasgow
Irvine -
Lawrence Nugent, Collector; James Cunninghame, Comptroller; Thomas Boyd,
Surveyor; also listed landward searchers (2), tidesmen (10), salt officers (2)
and watchmen (1). Lewis Kennedy presumably had died or at least retired by 1743
then.
Combraes
Air - John
Fairlie, Roger Ker and Richard Adserton
Stranraer -
Edward Bruce, Charles Innes, Alex Cuningham, William Macdowal
Wigtoun –
William Hamilton, David Agnew, John Smith
Whithorn - Henry
Mcculloch
Campbeltown -
Thomas Fraser
Dumfries - John
Young
Kirkcudbright -
John Dalziel
Prince William
Princess
Caroline
Princess Ann
Air -
Robert Molison
Aberdeen -
James Lidderdale
North
Argyle - James Tun
South
Argyle - Daniel Campbell
Caithness
- Patrick Drummond
Dumfries -
Archibald Gordon
Fife -
James Stark
Glasgow -
John Blackstock
Haddington
- William Carse
Linlithgow
- John Wood
Perth -
Alexander Wedderburn
Inverness
- Thomas Wedderburn
Teviotdale
- James Murray
NAS document
RH4/6/1-2 viewable at West Register House details in somewhat cryptic fashion
customs officers in Scotland up to 1830. The source relies heavily on
abbreviations which can appear baffling, for now I have just typed up what I
found. If necessary I will return to it if I can’t figure out a particular
source. Nine Kennedys are listed, the earliest being a Henry Kennedy working
from 1708 onwards. Frustatingly Lewis Kennedy is not in the list. I checked his
Irvine successor Lawrence Nugent (fl. 1743) but he wasn’t listed either; the
Irvine customs and excise records look like they don’t start until post 1800.