Smugger Inns can be dangerous places!
Did Stanton Blacklocks, innkeeper at the George in Lydd, have any choice in his customers that night in March 1721?
Jacob Walter and Thomas Biggs had been apprehended landing contraband brandy at Dungeness. Rather than risk the arduous journey to Canterbury with their prisoners that night, the half dozen revenue officers took them to the George and commandeered an upstairs room in which to detain them.
But word quickly spread that ‘freetraders’ were captured and held in that sleepy village on the marshes. Soon a large group of comrades, headed by Gabriel Tomkins then leader of the Mayfield Gang, had assembled in the street below.
Innkeeper Blacklocks describes what happened next:
"They was in a chamber, 6 officers with them, 20 firelocks loaded with powder and ball. At 5 o'clock on Sunday night 9 men well mounted and as well armed with pistols, swords, coopers adzes, wood bills and forks, comes up to ye house, dismounts from their horses and runs upstairs, firing all ye way. They wounded 3 officers and got between the officers and their arms and carried away Walter and Biggs; if these 9 men had not carried them off, a 100 more was hard by ready to make another attack. Jacob Walter was later recaptured by a commander in the Queens' Dragoons. The outcome of Thomas Biggs is unknown."
It was not unusual at that time for smugglers to seize back either confiscated contraband or captured colleagues, but the sheer scale of the assault on the George – later dubbed the Battle of Lydd – is breathtaking. A detail neglected by mine host was that one smuggler injured in the action was Gabriel Tomkins himself. He took a musket ball to the shoulder and carried the scar throughout his time as a member of the Hawkhurst gang, until his execution in 1750.
Don’t miss the 2nd SMUGGLERS SUPPER
in The Queens Inn, right in the centre of Hawkhurst.
There, on the Very 1st of May 2012, will be ample victuals
with Gang’s tales galore: all supporters welcome.
Book today with Kent Barker on 01580 240637
or email johnadawes@yahoo.co.uk for information.
