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Head Mistress at Leiston School in Suffolk
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From Record Information Public Records Office - RECORDS OF HM COASTGUARD Long before the formal establishment of HM Coastguard, it had been a function of the Board of Customs to collect the various duties payable on imported goods and to prevent any evasion of payment by smugglers. In times war, Preventive Officers were appointed as much to prevent the coming and going of passengers and exchange of intelligence and correspondence with France as to hinder smuggling. By the end of the seventeenth century the Board of Customs had a small fleet and a few men on the coast. During 1698, after lengthy discussion between the Board of Customs and the Treasury, the first peace-time force for 'ye guard of ye coasts of Kent and Sussex' was formally established. The function of the Riding Officers, as the men of this force were called was to prevent the movement inland of smuggled goods which had eluded the Revenue Cruisers at sea and the customs officials in the ports.
In 1809 the Government established a Preventive Water Guard to operate in coastal waters, to tackle any smugglers who had managed to evade the Revenue cruisers further out to sea and to check on the effective functioning of the Revenue Cruisers themselves. It was also responsible for giving assistance when a ship was wrecked. In 1816 the Preventive Water Guard was placed under the control of the Treasury and all but a few of the Revenue Cruisers passed to the Admiralty, while the Riding Officers remained under the Board of Customs. In the same year a new shore-based service was established by the Admiralty to complement the existing forces. This new service the Coast Blockade, consisted initially of 92 officers and men and was station along the coast between the North Foreland and Dungeness to capture smugglers as they came ashore.
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