Isaac Gulliver: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|English smuggler}}

The name of three generations of Gullivers from [[Semington]] in [[Wiltshire]] during the [[18th century|18th]] and early [[19th century]]; Isaac Gulliver ([[1745]]-[[1822]]) was so successful as a smuggler on the south coast that he came to control its length from [[Lymington]] on [[The Solent]] in [[Hampshire]], through [[Dorset]] to [[Torbay]] on the [[Devon]] coast and became known as "King of Smugglers".

{{Use British English|date=December 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

[[File:Isaac.Gulliver.Earlyoilpainting.jpg|thumb|A miniature of Isaac Gulliver painted in 1821 and preserved in [[Chettle House]], [[Blandford Forum]] by his descendants]]

'''Isaac Gulliver''' (c. 1745–1822) was an English [[smuggler]] based on the [[South Coast of England|South Coast]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=BBC |title=Smugglers Cove - in Kinson? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2008/04/04/kinson_smugglers_feature.shtml |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> Gulliver and his gang ran fifteen [[lugger]]s to transport gin, silk, lace and tea from the Continent to [[Poole Bay]]<ref name=":0" /> and came to control the coast from [[Lymington]] on [[The Solent]] in [[Hampshire]], through [[Dorset]] to [[Torbay]] in [[Devon]]. He was known as "King of the Dorset Smugglers" and was also referred to as "the gentle smuggler who never killed a man".<ref name=":0" /> His men, who whitened their hair and wore smock-frocks, were known as the "white-wigs".

==Life==

== External links ==

Gulliver was born at [[Semington]], near Trowbridge in Wiltshire.<ref name=":0" />{{Better source needed|date=December 2020}} He owned several farms, including one at [[Eggardon Hill]] in Dorset where he planted large clumps of trees to act as navigation aids for his ships.<ref name="Hillman">{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Hilliam |title=The Little Book of Dorset|year=2010|publisher=The History Press|___location=Stroud, Glos.|isbn=978-0-7524-5704-8|page=99 }}</ref> On 5 October 1768 he married innkeeper's daughter Betty Beale at [[Sixpenny Handley]] parish church.

:''[http://swuklink.com/BAAAGEVI.php Isaac Gulliver (1745-1822)]''

An extremely wealthy man, Gulliver was able to build many grand houses, among them 'Howe Lodge', in [[Kinson]], Bournemouth, a purpose-built smuggling stronghold. When the house was demolished in 1958, a number of hiding places were found within, including a secret room only accessible through a door 10 feet up a chimney.<ref name="Hillman" /> It was at Howe Lodge that he allegedly covered his face in white powder and lay in an open coffin. When the customs men arrived to arrest him his wife told them he had died during the night and showed them the 'body'. When they went away, Gulliver got out of the coffin and escaped.<ref name="Hillman" /> Later, a mock funeral was held using a coffin filled with stones.

A 1788 report from the [[Custom House, Poole|Custom House]], [[Poole]], to His Majesty's Commissioners of Customs in London mentioned that:

:"Gulliver was considered one of the greatest and most notorious smugglers in the west of England and particularly in the spirits and tea trades but in the year 1782 he took the benefit of his Majesty's proclamation for pardoning such offences and as we are informed dropped that branch of smuggling and afterwards confined himself chiefly to the wine trade which he carried on to a considerable extent having vaults at various places along the coast and "in remote places".<ref name=":0" />

Gulliver became a respected citizen, gentleman and banker. He retired to Gulliver's House, West Borough, [[Wimborne]] and died there on 13 September 1822, leaving an estate of £60,000, with properties across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset.<ref name=":0" /> His body was interred at [[Wimborne Minster]].

{{UK-crime-bio-stub}}

==Family==

[[Category:1745 births|Gulliver, Isaac]]

Gulliver's only son, Isaac (1774–98) died unmarried, but his daughters married into the Fryer family whose interests and wealth ranged from the Newfoundland fisheries to banking.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=The King of the Smugglers|url=http://www.thedorsetpage.com/history/Smugglers/Smugglers.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160710073822/http://www.thedorsetpage.com/history/Smugglers/Smugglers.htm|archive-date=2016-07-10|website=The Dorset Page}}</ref> His descendants include: [[Frederick William Richard Fryer|Sir Frederick Fryer]]; [[John Fryer (British Army officer)|Lt Gen Sir John Fryer]]; the banker Edward Castleman, owner of [[Chettle House]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opcdorset.org/ChettleFiles/Chettle.htm|title = Chettle Parish Records, Dorset}}</ref> and Captain Thomas Hanham,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theblackmorevale.co.uk/2021/07/11/a-garden-sheds-unique-place-in-history-looking-back/|title = A Garden Shed's Unique Place in History &#124; Looking Back|date = 11 July 2021}}</ref> instrumental in the campaign to legalise cremation in England.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1974|title=History of Modern Cremation in Great Britain from 1874: The First Hundred Years|url=http://www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031011205327/www.srgw.demon.co.uk/CremSoc/History/HistSocy.html|archive-date=11 October 2003|publisher=The Cremation Society of Great Britain}}</ref>

[[Category:1822 deaths|Gulliver, Isaac]]

[[Category:Smugglers]]

==In literature==

[[Willibald Alexis]]'s historical romance ''Walladmor'' (1823) includes a smuggler character whom the novel's English translator [[Thomas De Quincey]] recognized as based on Isaac Gulliver. De Quincey used the identification to add further material.<ref>Frederick Burwick, British Drama of the Industrial Revolution; Cambridge University Press, 2015; p.209</ref>

Gulliver appears as a character in [[Leon Garfield]]'s novel ''The Drummer Boy'' (1970).

== Legacy ==

In 1993, the Dolphin Inn public house in [[Kinson]] was renamed [[Gulliver’s Tavern]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-08-30 |title=Remembering pubs’ pasts... |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/features/snapshotsofthepast/9222257.remembering-pubs-pasts/ |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=Bournemouth Echo |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Thomas Johnstone]]

*[[Jack Rattenbury]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulliver, Isaac}}

[[Category:17451740s births|Gulliver, Isaac]]

[[Category:1822 deaths|Gulliver, Isaac]]

[[Category:SmugglersEnglish smugglers]]

[[Category:18th century in England]]

[[Category:Businesspeople from Bournemouth]]

[[Category:18th-century English businesspeople]]