Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society

The Loans Smugglers

Frances Wilkins

 

Ayrshire Monographs No. 34

ISBN—978-0-9542253-7-7

144 pp, illustrated

£4.50.

 

Frances Wilkins is probably Britain’s top authority on smugglers. In this fascinating, and intensively researched volume, she has detailed the amazing facts behind an Ayrshire-based family of smugglers, who operated in the eighteenth century. This book gives details on the smuggling trade in general, and how it was operated in Ayrshire. She gives information on the families from Dundonald parish, Loans and Troon who were involved in the trade, as well as their links with smuggling merchants from the Isle of Man. Accounts of the various illicit cargoes imported to Ayrshire are given, from brandy and rum to tea and tobacco, as well as where they came from and where they went. In a separate chapter, the official records of the customs officers’ are recounted, making this the most detailed account of smuggling in Ayrshire to date.

 

Frances Wilkins has written extensively on smuggling throughout Great Britain. She currently lectures at the University of Glasgow Crichton Campus in Dumfries.