Smuggling & Smugglers in Sussex - online book

An Account of a notorious Smuggling gang in the early 18th Century

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12                                   SUSSEX SMUGGLERS.
them both to a well, a little way from the house, and to murder them and throw them in.
At this consultation were present only these seven smugglers; namely, William Jackson, William Carter, William Steel, John Race, Samuel Downer, Edmund Eichards, and Henry Sheerman, and this proposal was disagreed to, as they had been seen in their company by the Austins, Mr. Jenkes, Mr. Garrat, Mr. Poate, and others who came into Payne's house to drink. This being disagreed to, another proposal was made, which was, to take them away, and send them over to France ; but that was objected against, as there was a possibility of their coming over again, and then they should be all known. At these consultations Jackson and Carter's wives were both present, and who both cried out " Hang the dogs, for they came here to hang us."^ Then another proposition was made, which was that they should take them and carry them to some place where they should be confined, till it was known what would be the fate of Diamond, and in the mean time each of them to allow three-pence a week to subsist Galley and Chater; and that whatever Diamond's fate was, they determined that theirs should be the same.
Galley and Chater continued all this while asleep upon the bed; then Jackson went in and began the first scene of their cruelty ; for having first put on his spurs, he got upon the bed and spurred their foreheads to awake them, and afterwards whipped them with a horsewhip, so that when they came out into the kitchen, Chater was as bloody as Galley. This done, all the abovesaid smugglers being present, they took them out of the house, when Eichards with a pistol cocked in his hand, swore he would shoot any person through the
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