1759 to 1835
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The King of Smugglers
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to
other pages are in dark
blue.
Headlines of John
Andrew’s life are in brown.
References and
citations are in turquoise.
Context and local
history are in purple.
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's
feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in
the street;
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the
Gentlemen go by!
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark.
Brandy for the Parson,
Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling,
While the Gentlemen go by.
The Smuggler’s Song, Rudyard Kipling, 1906
1759
John Andrew, the son
of James Andrew (1726 to 1797) and Jean Kemloe (1721
to 1814) was born in or about 1759 in Foudoun,
Kincardineshire, Scotland.
John Andrew’s
Scottish family were wealthy.
1778
John Andrew
achieved the degree of Master Mason of Kilwinnie
Lodge, Montrose.
1779
Sometime before
1780, John Andrew moved to Yorkshire.
1780
By 1780, John
Andrew became the landlord of the Ship Inn, in the village of Old Saltburn when
he married the niece of Will Harrison, the Ship Inn’s landlord. When John
Andrew arrived in Saltburn, the Ship was not the only pub in the small hamlet,
other pubs included the Seagull and the Nimrod. Until 1881, the
pub also doubled up as a mortuary for the village, and later the expanded town.
The bodies of those who had drowned and washed up on the beach were stored in
the pub pending a post-mortem
The
Victorian town of Saltburn by
the Sea did not yet exist, and Old Saltburn was a small fishing village.
John Andrew, aged
21, married Anne Harrison (1756 to 1827) on 26 July 1780 at Skelton. Both John and Anne were of Skelton
Parish by that time. The witnesses to the marriage were John Searle and Thomas
King. (Skelton PR).
Their daughter
Mary Andrew (1781 to 1835) was born soon afterwards and baptised at Skelton on
13 May 1781.
1783
Their daughter
Jane Andrew (1783 to 1861) was born on 7 November 1783 (Skelton PR).
1785
John Andrew, with
his family wealth, and his landlordship of Old’
Saltburn’s Inn, became a respected member of the community.
The White House
above the Ship Inn (October 2021, RMF) The Old Saltburn coastline
(October 2021, RMF)
He entered into a
partnership with a local brewer and co-ordinated the local smuggling trade from
the Ship Inn and the White House.
There was an
underground passage between the White House and the Ship Inn with its entrance
below the stable of a horse that kicked out at anyone it did not know. This
secret passage is said to have led from halfway up Huntcliff
to the Ship Inn, and then continued through to the White House on top of the
cliff.
His grand daughter later christened him 'King of the Smugglers'
and he came close to being arrested on a number of occasions.
The saying Andrew’s
cow has calved was part of the Saltburn smugglers’ code. When this code
word was spread, it meant that a smugglers’ boat was offshore and ready to be
unloaded. The community would then assist in unloading the illegal contraband,
which would be transported to safe hiding places using pack horses. John
Andrew’s tactics included hiding some of the goods in a chamber under one of
his stable stalls. He placed a vicious mare in that stall, ensuring that anyone
attempting to find his stash would be met with a swift kick.
He managed to
combine being one of the area’s most prolific criminals with a position in the
branch of the local militia (the Cleveland Volunteers) which was occasionally
called upon to help the customs officers in their pursuit of the smugglers.
John Farndale (FAR00217) later
wrote: Some years ago Old Saltburn imported lime, lime stones, and coal, and
also exported oak timber, prop wood, corf rods, alum
and corn. It had a coal yard and lime kilns, and there was a large alum house
near Cat Neb. My grandfather,
who was a Kiltonian, employed many men at this alum house, and many a merry
tale I have heard him tell of smugglers and their daring adventures and hair
breadth escapes. The lime kilns and coal yard were kept by old Mr William
Cooper, whose sloop, “The Two Brothers”, was continually employed in the
coasting trade. Behind the alum house, Thomas Hutchinson, Esq.,
late of Brotton House, made an easy carriage road from Saltburn to that place,
which road will always be a lasting monument to his memory.
In former days, there were frequently seen
lying before Old Saltburn three luggers at a time, all laden with contraband
goods, and the song of the crews used to be:- “If we should to the Scottish
coast hie, We’ll make Captain Ogleby, the king’s
cutter, fly”
The government, however, being determined to
put a stop to this nefarious traffic, a party of coast guards, with their cullasses, swords, spy glasses, and dark lanterns, were
sent to the Blue House, at Old Saltburn. This came like a thunderbolt upon the
astonished Saltburnians. They made, however, two more
efforts to continue the trade – one proved successful, the other not.
The last lugger but one bound to Saltburn was
chased by the King’s cutter, and running aground at Marske, she was taken by
the coast guard, and all the crew were made prisoners, and put into the lock
up. While the coast guard were busy enjoying their prize, all the prisoners
escaped except one, who was found in Hazlegrip, and
whom the King’s officers sadly cut up. Lord Dundas, of Marske Hall, threatened
to bring them to justice if the man died.
The last luggar that
appeared on the coast was successful in delivering her cargo. Two of the crew,
fierce lion-looking fellows, landed, and they succeeded in capturing two of the
coast guard, whom they marched to the other wide of Cat Nab, where they stood
guard over them till the vessel got delivered. While these jolly smugglers had
the two men in custody, they sent to the lugger for a keg of real Geneva, and
at the point of the sword they compelled the poor fellows to drink of that which
was not the King’s portion. After releasing their prisoners, and then telling
them to go home, the smugglers returned to their vessel, setting sail, they
left the beach with light hearts and a fair breeze.
Since the merry days alluded to the glory of
Old Saltburn has departed – its smuggling days have passed away – its gin
vaults have disappeared – and the gay roysterers who
were wont to make Cat Neb and the adjacent rocks resound with laughter, now
rest in peace beneath the green hillocks in the retired grave yards of Brotton
and Skelton.
… Of late years many buildings of Old Saltburn have fallen
beneath the ruthless hand of Time, and all that remain now are two or three
humble looking cottages, with a respectable inn, possessing good accommodation,
the fair hostess being a grand daughter of the well known and worthy huntsman, Mr John Andrews, sen, one of the most ardent admirers of the sports of
the field in that fox hunting locality. In old Mrs Johnson’s days this inn was
noted for furnishing visitors with what were termed “fat rascals” and tea, a
delicious kind of cake stuffed with currants, and which the present obliging
hostess, Mrs Temple, who is an adept ion the culinary art, can make so as to
satisfy the most fastidious palate.
(The Ryedale Historian, Vol 16, 1992)
1786
Their daughter,
Elizabeth Andrew (1786 to 1855) was born at Skelton on 8 January 1786 (Skelton PR).
1788
Their daughter
Ann Andrew (1788 to 1835) was born at Skelton on 19 April 1788 (Skelton PR).
1791
Their daughter
Margaret Andrew (1791 to 1868) was born at Saltburn in 1791 (Skelton PR).
1794
Their son, John
Andrew (1794 to 1855) (Farmer and Smuggler) was born in Skelton in or about
1794 (Skelton PR).
1796
Their son, James Andrew
(1796 to 1875)(farmer) was born in Skelton on 9 August 1796.
1798
A Land Tax Assessment for the Township of Brotton shows
that his landlord was paying tax: An Assessment made in pursuance of Parliament
passed in the 38th Year of His Majesty’s Reign, for granting Aid to
his Majesty by Land Tax to be raised in Great Britain, for the Service of the
Year 1798 … Proprietor John Wharton Esq … Occupiers … John Andrew … £20 7s 3d.
1799
Their daughter,
Charlotte Andrew (1799 to 1803) was born in Saltburn in or about 1799 (Skelton PR).
1801
Their daughter
Harriet Andrew was born in Saltburn in about 1801 (Skelton
PR).
John’s daughter, Ann Andrew married James Taylor of Stockton, at
Skelton in 1807 (Skelton PR).
1811
John’s
granddaughter, Elizabeth Taylor (1810 to about 1835), was born on 1 May 1810 at
Fylingdales and baptised there on 27 May 1810 (Flylingdales PR).
Elizabeth Taylor
would marry Martin Farndale (FAR00264)
at Skelton in 1842, seven years after John Andrew’s death. Martin Farndale is
the website author’s second great grandfather, and so John Andrew is his fourth
great grandfather.
John Andrew
sleeping in his parlour
1817
On 5 June 1817,
at a meeting in the Angel Inn, Loftus John Andrew was elected as the first Master
of the newly formed 'Roxby and Cleveland Hounds'..
From 'The Cleveland Hounds', by A E Pease: At the
Angel Inn at Loftus, on a summer's afternoon, we may picture John Andrew Snr,
Isaac Scarth, Henry Clarke, Henry Vansittart Esq, Thomas Chaloner Esq and the
other signatories to the rules then drawn up, sitting with their tumblers of
punch, making a treaty. The Hounds were taken to Saltburn, then but a fishing
hamlet on the sea-shore, where, for more than fifty years, the management was
in the hands of the Andrew family. They hunted foxes in the winter and, with a
few of the old Hounds, otters in the summer. A few years after this the Roxby
was dropped from the name of the pack, and they became the 'Cleveland'.
John Andrew
hunted with the Cleveland Hounds until his death in 1835, assisted by his son,
John Andrew Junior, who took over the hunt when his father died.
1826
The wrecking of the Esk.
The 350 to Whitby Waler, the Esk, was returning
home after a whaling expedition north of Shetland, during which four whales had
been caught. In 1816 the same ship had survived being trapped in ice on a
voyage to Greenland. Her Captain Dunbar passed Hartlepool as a gale started to
drive her towards the shore. The morning of 6 September 1826 was marked by
strong winds, mist and crashing surf. The Esk’s sails
were soon shredded and she became grounded at the low water mark off Marske on
Sea. The crew fired guns and burnt a distress light, but at dawn, she went to
pieces. Within seventeen hours she was a total wreck and her riggings, timbers
and cargo came ashore along miles of coastland. Only three members of the
twenty seven strong crew survived. A memorial service was later held at St
Mary’s Church, Whitby and 3,000 folk attended and took a collection for the
bereaved families.
1827
Ann (nee Harrison)
Andrew, John’s wife died on 22 March 1827, aged 70, and was buried at Brotton
on 26 March 1827.
In the same list
appeared John Farndale of Kilton.
The recently made
widower, John Andrew married Margaret Carter, a spinster in South Shields on 2
October 1827 (South Shields PR).
It has long been
believed that, after a lifetime of dodging the Excise men, John Andrew, Senior,
was eventually caught in 1827 at Hornsea while off-loading an illicit cargo.
Alan Ward of Saltburn is a direct descendant of Andrew and had commented that
John would have been 70 by this time and it was likely that it was, in fact,
his son, also called John (1794 to 1855) who was caught in this act of
Smuggling. Alan feels that the following confirms this:
· A letter from the Customs House, London, dated 20 January
1825, asking the Customs Collector to enquire into the ability of two
men to meet the bail amount of £95 for John Andrew.
· A letter asking the Collector to take the necessary
measures for the release of John Andrew, "Junior" from York Castle.
The Cleveland Family History journal by John
Warwick Andrew, b 1925, of Oxford, did the original research.
· An article in the Northern Echo, dated 28 November 1935, dealing
with Sir Alfred Pease's 'Memories of Saltburn': John Andrew, Junior, had the
bad luck to be caught running a cargo ashore at Hornsea and was fined an
enormous sum of £100.000, I believe about 1827, and, of course, unable to pay a
fraction of the fine, was imprisoned in York castle. After two years of durance
there, Henry Vansittart, of Kirkleatham, who had carried on the hounds during
John's absence, was able to secure his release through the influence of his
relative Lord Bexley, who was in the Government. In those days the discipline
for debt was not strict, and Tom Parrington told me that John Andrew carried on
his smuggling by correspondence through agents all the time he was a prisoner.
From his release until his father died in 1835, he seemed to have been reduced
to poverty, for he lived in a small cottage at Boosbeck and only had a grey
pony, 15 hands high on which he hunted hounds twice a week. The pony was
"as hard as iron" but had a temper and would always run away with his
Master and was not particular as to the direction in which he bolted. It was
not uncommon to see the gallant grey tearing across country in quite another
direction to that which the hounds were running. The pony never got a summer
rest for then his owner yoked him to a cart and he carted stones, seaweed, or
anything else at a job which earned John a few shillings. After his father's
death, Andrews was Master of the hounds, and his circumstances improved a
little as the hunt paid him a small salary. John Andrew, Junior, died in 1855
and was also buried in Skelton Church yard.
Some speculate
that John Andrew’s hoard may still be hidden somewhere in Saltburn.
1835
John Andrew died
in Saltburn on 14 November 1835. He is buried at All Saints Old Churchyard,
Skelton, in the south corner of the churchyard on 19 November 1835 (Mon R, Prerogative & Exchequer Courts Of York Probate
Index, 1688-1858, Skelton PR). He left £800 (at least that’s what was
declared!).
The Andrew family
at the White House continued to prosper under John Andrew, junior's sons, Tom
and George, into the late nineteenth Century. In 1886 their finances allowed
them to make a large loan to John Thomas Wharton of Skelton Castle. The family
fortune seems to have been dissipated by being shared out between George's 11
children and ended in the suicide of one of them in Ruby St, Saltburn.
Word in the Wind, Sea Shanty
by J G Songs about John Andrew.
Watch
the Wall my Darling: The Story of the Smuggler King by Richard Swale is a
story is based loosely on the lives of the author’s great, great, great,
grandfathers, John Andrew and James Law.