Newly discovered historic local government archives are revealing the previously hidden smuggling and fraudulent trading activities behind some famous historic Poole Councillors. These documents, letters and financial accounts reveal a very tight-knit association of Poole Councillors (known as ‘The Corporation’) who effectively ran 18th Century Poole in the same way as the infamous ‘Camorra mafia’ that effectively ‘run’ Naples.

1. Poole Councillors
Newly discovered historic local government archives are revealing the previously hidden
smuggling and fraudulent trading activities behind some famous historic Poole Councillors.
These documents, letters and financial accounts reveal a very tight-knit association of Poole
Councillors (known as ‘The Corporation’) who effectively ran 18th
Century Poole in the same
way as the infamous ‘Camorra mafia’ that effectively ‘run’ Naples.
History of Poole
18th
Century Poole was caught-up in the Seven Years War 1756-1763, American War of
Independence 1775-1783, and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1802, which meant effectively continuous
warfare throughout the Century and getting economically battered as a consequence of the
continual naval blockades, trading embargoes, and loss of lucrative fishing grounds.
Eventually, Poole lost the most valuable asset of its Newfoundland trading empire and this was
further exacerbated by increasingly oppressive import and customs taxes against any remaining
trade coming into Poole.

2. The Not-So-Great Isaac Gulliver
This was a perfect storm and these new documents reveal that some Poole Councillors realised
that this was the end of Poole’s prosperous ‘Golden Era’. They, therefore, turned to the
ostensible high-profile personage of one Isaac Gulliver, a highly respectable businessman,
shipping magnate and overseas trader.
This prima facie appears a legit move for the Poole Councillors. However, there was another
side to Gulliver for he was also known as the ‘King of Smugglers’ and was effectively the
‘Teflon-Don’ of smuggling in the 1760s-1770s because the authorities could never prosecute
him.
He infamously escaped arrest by faking his death by lying in an open coffin with his face
covered in white powder. It is noteworthy that his gang of men would after that wear white
powdered wigs and white shirt-smocks (becoming known as ‘the white men’), for better visibility
of each other whilst running contraband in the dead of night.
‘The Corporation’ Of Three Councillors
It now appears that at least three Poole Councillors became very closely associated with
Gulliver; Councillor George Kemp (Merchant, of 71-69 Market Street, (who also owned The
Crown public house/hotel), Councillor, and later Mayor and MP, Benjamin Lester
(Newfoundland trader and politician) of 65 High Street, and Councillor Charles Jenkins
(Merchant) of 71 High Street.

3. They all formed a very close business relationship with Gulliver at the same time as the whole
smuggling industry was boosted due to the ongoing costly wars and oppressive taxes.
Councillors Kemp, Lester and Jenkins were instrumental in forming ‘The Corporation’, which,
alongside the remaining Poole Councillors met at The Antelope Hotel, High Street, and Poole to
discuss Council business and to effectively ‘manage’ Poole.
The Antelope, alongside ‘The Crown’, (owned by Kemp), were effectively analogous to Amazon
distribution centres of the 18th
Century. All legitimate port cargoes were processed here for
onward overland transport via horses, carriages and pack mules. ‘The Corporation’ would gain
total control, and it now appears that they also controlled the smuggling of contraband literally
underneath everyone’s feet.
Contraband
These new archives show how the Poole Councillors would enforce compliance with ‘The
Corporation’ through the use of ‘tipping-off’ customs against those who failed to obey them or
pay ‘protection fees’. They effectively weaponised the customs authorities to ‘neutralise’
problematic people through ‘random spot-checks’ by customs, bribing local judges, and
ensuring harsher penalties on trumped-up charges such as press-ganging into the Navy,
transportation to Australia or ultimately through the permanent solution of hanging outside Poole
Customs House for good measure.
The letters also reveal that Poole Councillors Kemp, Lester and Jenkins discussed the
‘problems’ of Gulliver and his Lieutenant, Robert Trotman, of diverting contraband away from
‘The Corporation’ during the infamous Bran some Chine incident (1760). These Poole
Councillors found out that Trotman had immediately re-captured contraband that had just been
previously confiscated by customs on the very beach on which it had only just been landed.
Trotman escaped with the booty but kept it for himself whilst avoiding paying his cut to ‘The
Corporation’. The Poole Councillors wrote to each other evidencing similar incidents of Trotman
and Gulliver fraudulently cheating ‘The Corporation.
The letters reveal that the Poole Councillors plotted the ‘fortuitous’ interception by customs of
Trotman’s gang when landing contraband tea ashore on Poole sands in 1765. Around 60

4. customs officers and smugglers engaged in a Mexican stand-off and then fired……despite the
odds, only one person was fatally shot….conveniently it was Trotman – problem solved, and
Gulliver did not step out of line again…..
These new letters and accounts reveal that ‘The Corporation’ was a big business worth millions
and rivalled the legitimate trading port economy; around 30% of all tea and spirits consumed in
England was contraband.
Each smuggling run-ashore on average involved hundreds of men, tens of fully laden wagons or
pack mules – all of which passed under the guise of legitimate distribution through the cellars
and tunnels beneath The Antelope and The Crown before disappearing into the night.
These new papers now show the accounts for the trafficking of tens of gallons of wine and
brandy, and hundreds of tons of wine, spirits, tea, tobacco, lace, silk and other commodities
show tens of millions of pounds all bypassing customs and revenue importation taxes.
‘The Corporation’ And Their Scamming
The accounts also show Poole Councillors falsely claiming government benefits for ‘ghost’ ships
and men lost to enemy action. These ships and men never actually existed, and many would
conveniently ‘be lost’ to ‘enemy action’, or ‘lost in storms’ whenever the authorities started
getting too suspicious.
All in all, these Poole Councillors were effectively running a massive industrial-scale benefit
fraud and tax scam. The Poole Councillors provided ‘protection’ from the authorities and Gulliver
provided the men, ships and covert smuggling connections.
Business was good for ‘The Corporation’, but others wanted in on the action.
These new documents reveal that Councillors Kemp, Lester and Jenkins tipped off customs to
intercept ‘The Three Brothers’ in 1767 whilst it was attempting to smuggle 4 tons of tea and
brandy from the Channel Islands. This was the Council’s way of warning the Island’s ‘Mr Big’ to
cooperate and provide a cut of his smuggling operation to ‘The Corporation’ or else…..
However, this backfired when the Hawk Hurst Gang raided the Poole Customs House and
‘liberated’ this very same contraband cargo. This equates to around 40 pack mules and a gang
of around 60 men to attack, hold and escape to their Sussex stronghold; this was effectively a
military-scale raid.
These new documents now reveal that Poole Councillors realised that they were effectively
defenceless against rival serious organised crime groups, especially when two of their spies
against the Hawk Hurst Gang met with unusual agricultural accidents soon after reporting
seeing the Hawk Hurst gang transporting the stolen Custom House contraband through the New
Forest.
In response, these Poole Councillors effectively started to play smarter.
Firstly, Poole Councillors and ‘The Corporation’ arranged for the complete rebuilding of the
ancient and now dilapidated St James’ church right behind the Poole Quay.

5. Had the Corporation suddenly found god? Not necessarily. However, a brand new church
completely rebuilt from the foundations also provides the inclusion of secret tunnels from the
Quay (one of which was discovered in 1985) and also provides a legitimate, respectable, and
unsuspecting stronghold against any further organised crime groups or authorities mounting
raids. Furthermore, paying for all this also makes a good way for the Poole Councillors to
launder some of that smuggling-generated cash.
Secondly, these documents reveal another aspect of politicking by Poole Councillors. Like
Poole’s infamous 15th
Century pirate, Harry Payee, Poole Councillors were also willing to sell
their services to the highest bidder if it was to their advantage.
The French
Letters reveal a very close relationship with both the UK and French governments, as well as
French aristocrats seeking to escape the French revolutionary terror and impending dates with
Madam Guillotine. These letters reveal plans to run contraband and messages both to and from
France. This even included statements from French spies reporting back to the French
government the French referred to Gulliver and these Poole Councillors as “Le Contrabandists”.
However, all this appeared to serve England and France well and somewhat explains why and
how, in 1782, Gulliver, Councillors Kemp, Lester and Jenkins took full advantage of a Royal
Proclamation for pardoning smuggling offences.
Despite ostensibly going straight, the Poole Councillors still used Gulliver for smuggling-late
operations and at least one last daring raid into France. Their respective letters now show their
involvement in the infamous 1792 raid by Gulliver and the Duck d’Orleans to steal the French
Crown Jewels, including the Hope Diamond or ‘French Blue’ and 4 chests of associated jewels
all estimated at around 3 Billion pounds.
Gulliver’s ship, ‘Marianne’ successfully brought the Crown Jewels back to Poole, mooring
opposite St James’ church ready to unload the cargo to a grateful English monarch and French
aristocratic émigré community. However, French Blue’ and her companion jewels were never to
be seen again.
Some historical accounts argue that the jewels were discretely substituted to avoid international
diplomatic embarrassment.

6. Whether the jewels were substituted or sold back to the French or English monarchies, or the
originals are still held by ‘The Corporation’ for ‘insurance’, or whatever else, in any case, the
fortunes of the Poole Councillors suddenly changed in extraordinary ways.
Their respective political and economic ambitions suddenly turned into successful overseas
enterprises, property and banking empires; Lester became not only Mayor but local MP. Gulliver
became a respectable and highly regarded trader and banker. Kemp also successfully launched
a private banking empire. Their respective children would go on to marry into wealthy local
banking families; (in other words maintaining the money laundering aspects of an evolving
organised group, ‘The Corporation’).
The letters and documents between Poole Councillors Jenkins, Lester and Kemp reveal a
change in strategy from traditional smuggling, to one of becoming institutionalised and allied
with the Monarchy joining forces to fight the Napoleonic Wars.
The letters reveal an acceptance that ‘The Corporation’ “had to evolve with the times”. The
future was now banking, insurance and more towards ‘White Collar’ crime rather than that of
‘white wigs and white smocks’. The Poole Councillors and ‘The Corporation’ were now secretly
sat on a few billion GBP of ‘lost’ French crown jewels that needed protecting and carefully
laundered through family-owned banks, financial institutions and property empires.
Ghost Stories
Finally, these letters now confirm the more bricks-and-mortar physical links between Councillors
Jenkins, Lester and Kemp and smuggling. Old Poole has many ghost stories including the
unexplainable sounds of horses' hooves, the sounds of the dragging of ‘bodies’, (or contraband
cargo), the re-opening of previously locked and bolted doors (fake doors/trapdoors), discoveries
of strange secret rooms and tunnels, and the appearances of ghostly figures wearing white at
apparently blocked windows and doors.
The locations of these paranormal events all correspond to the respective properties of each of
these Poole Councillors. If mapped out, they form a straight line directly from St James’ church,
The Antelope and The Crown and these Poole Councillors' houses that were effectively using
their properties as virtual subway stations to a smuggling underground railroad.
This now explains why and how several tons of each respective contraband cargo were never
apparently witnessed or recorded at any time in the streets of Poole despite decades of rife
smuggling of tons of contraband at any given time…..because it was all underground. No doubt,
the tunnels were used in subsequent decades based upon further ‘ghostly’ sightings well into
the late 20th
Century.
No doubt ‘The Royal Blue’ and her companions followed a similar route from the
‘Marianne’….and like so much about these Poole Councillors, ‘The Corporation’, and ‘the white
men’, they all disappeared into further mystery……..
Written by Daniel Martin, a local civil servant and amateur historian.