List of Customs officers in England and Wales

'An Establishment of the Officers of his Majesties Customes in London and Outportes w[i]th such Salaries [as] they Receive Quarterly. Anno 1675', including:
1. 'Port of London. The names of the Severall Officers...', notably Patent Officers, watchmen, Coast Waiters, Weighing Porters, Surveyors, Landwaiters, Tidesmen, Landcarriagemen, Noontenders, and Watermen - in the margin of f.3 is written 'Midsomer 1675'.
2. A list of the establishment of the officers in the outports, with the names of the officers. There are no separate headings for different occupations, but the names are given with the occupation following, e.g. Pad stow (f.19), 'Gilbert Marshall collect[er] & waiter... Tho[mas] Castell wait[er] & searcher att ye Gunnell...' The totals of the salaries for each town are listed on f.29. (46 ports are listed, 47 including London.)
3. 'The names of Patent Officers in the Port of London', with their yearly salaries.
4. 'The names of the Patent Officers in the Outportes', with their yearly salaries.
The total for the yearly salaries of all the officers for London and the out ports is given as £49,908.12s.2d. Separate totals are given at the foot of each page, and at the end of each section.

The term 'customs' applied to customary payments or dues of any kind, regal, episcopal or ecclesiastical until it became restricted to duties payable to the King upon export or import of certain articles of commerce. By ordinance of 21 January 1643, the regulation of the collection of customs was entrusted to a parliamentary committee whose members were appointed commissioners and collectors of customs forming a Board of Customs. This and succeeding committees appointed by Parliament until 1660 and thereafter by the Crown, functioned until 1662, when those who had been serving as commissioners became lessees of a new form of customs. This continued until 1671 when negotiations for a new farm broke down and a Board of Customs for England and Wales was created by Letter Patent.

Single item.

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Bought at Sotheby & Company's sale of 21 Dec 1965 (lot 676).

Collection level description.

14¼" x 9"

Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.