The churchyards of the Sussex coast and its neighbourhood still bear witness to the fatal affrays between excisemen and smugglers that marked those times; and even far inland may be found epitaphs on those who fell, breathing curses and Divine vengeance on the persons who brought them to an untimely end. Thus at Tandridge, Surrey, near Godstone, may be seen a tall tombstone beside the south porch of the church, to one Thomas Todman, aged thirty-one years, who was shot dead in a smuggling affray in 1781. Here follow the lamentable verses, oddities of grammar, spelling, and punctuation duly preserved:
Thou Shall do no Murder, nor Shalt thou Steal are the Commands Jehovah did Reveal but thou O Wretch, Without fear or dread of Thy Tremendous Maker Shot me dead Amidst my strength my sins forgive As I through Boundless Mercy hope to live.
The prudery of some conscientious objector to the word “wretch” has caused it to be almost obliterated.
At Patcham, near Brighton, the weatherworn epitaph on the north side of the church to Daniel Scales may still with difficulty be deciphered:
Sacred to the memory of DANIEL SCALES who was unfortunately shot on Thursday evening, November 7th 1796
Alas! swift flew the fatal lead, Which piercèd through the young man’s head He instant fell, resigned his breath, And closed his languid eyes in death. All you who do this stone draw near, Oh! pray let fall the pitying tear. From this sad instance may we all, Prepare to meet Jehovah’s call.
Daniel Scales was one of a desperate smuggling gang, who had had many narrow escapes, but was at last shot through the head.
Again, at Westfield, Sussex, not far from Rye, may be found an old stone, rapidly going to decay, bearing some lines to the memory of a smuggler named Moon:
“In Memory of John Moon, who was deprived of life by a base man, on the 20th of June 1809, in the 28th year of his age.
’Tis mine to-day to moulder in the earth. . . .”
Among the many tragical incidents of the smuggling era was the affray aboard a fishing-smack off Hastings in March 1821, in which a fisherman named Joseph Swain, supposed by the blockading officers of the preventive force to be a smuggler, was killed. Fishing-boats and their crews were, as a matter of course, searched by these officials; but the boat boarded by them on this occasion belonged to Swain, who denied having any contraband goods aboard and refused to permit the search. So strenuous a refusal as Swain offered would seem, in those times, of itself sufficient evidence of the presence of smuggled articles, and the boarders persisted. A sailor among them, George England by name, pressed forward to the attack, and Swain seized his cutlass and tore it out of his hand; whereupon England drew a pistol and fired at Swain, who instantly fell dead.