The Battle of Mudeford

The Battle of Mudeford took place on the evening of Saturday 16 July 1784. Two luggers had loaded a cargo with 42,000 gallons of spirit and 8 tons of tea. The luggers arrived near Christchurch Harbour on 14 July, and they were observed by the excise cutter, Resolution, which sent in a boat. The smugglers warned off the boat's crew. The Resolution then sent her boat to search for HMS Orestes, which was cooperating with the revenue, while she sailed to search for the Swan - a customs cutter, whose captain was brother to the captain of the Resolution. The three Crown vessels met, off Christchurch Ledge, on 16 July.
The smugglers had unloaded their cargo and stacked it for removal near the Haven at Mudeford. The local Supervisor of Riding Officers, Joshua Jeans, was a man who had been four times mayor, had a daughter married to the vicar of Christchurch and two sons - one a doctor, the other a priest; he was also in league with the smugglers. Jeans sent one of his officers to the Haven, to ensure their share of 'the crop' was put to one side for coLLection. These tubs of spirit would enable them to report some as seizures and so appear to show that they were functioning properly.

The Resolution

The smugglers and their cargo escaped, but the Master of Orestes died the next day. There was a great scandal from killing a naval officer; Jeans was dismissed from the service. A reward of £200 was offered; three smugglers were charged and one was hung in London. It was notoriously difficult to get any local court to convict a smuggler.
In 1792, work began on a barracks in the Portfield, to accommodate half a troop of light cavalry. This barracks was not to put down smuggling but to resist the threatened Napoleonic invasion. The first occupants were the South Hants Militia. The cavalry arrived in 1795 and were initially feared, but the town soon appreciated their buoyant effect on the economy. The Royal Horse Artillery, and their guns, soon succeeded the 20th Light Dragoons. There were several local volunteer units: Christchurch Loyal Volunteer Artillery, a Company of Militia, a Troop of Yeomanry Cavalry, and Sea Fencibles.

Women Smugglers

An Isle of Wight smuggler had an attractive daughter, Sophie, also a smuggler. A naval officer (the younger brother of the diplomat who built the second High Cliff mansion that gave its name to Highcliffe) captured her. He placed the young woman in his mother's house at Bure, but she was packed off, out of the way, to London, and became a servant in a brothel. She ended up in France, as the mistress of the Duc de Bourbon, last Prince de Conde, and in 1818 became the Baroness de Feucheres. She returned to England and built Bure Homage mansion at Mudeford.

Another local female smuggler was Lovey Warn, who would carry goods ashore wrapped around her body, or in bladders hung under her clothes. In one known case, the revenue arrived to search the Eight Bells (now a Gift Shop) in Church Street, and a tub of smuggled spirits had just been delivered. The woman hurriedly sat on the tub, concealing it under her skirts, while she washed a baby. The Officers left without a seizure. The Eight Bells was named for the seven bells of the Priory; it was the 'nineteenth hole' for the bell-ringers. The Priory now has a peal of 12 bells.

End of Smuggling

After the defeat of France, the Royal Navy was used to blockade the coast, and so gain the upper hand over the smugglers. The Coastguard was set up as 'Preventive Men' to put down smuggling but also became involved in rescue work. The Lloyds insurance market paid for a lifeboat to be stationed at Christchurch in 1802 and in 1805, Mr Rose of Mudeford, offered to pay for a lifeboat. In 1870, the Christchurch Times reported the first services of another new lifeboat. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed an inshore lifeboat at Mudeford in 1963, although since 1936 a private rescue boat had been operating