JAMES WATSON
Excise officer
The first reference to James Watson's profession as collector of excise comes from my father's notes. This refers to him serving the Campsies so this where we start. A snippet of information shows that he had other posts.
The Campsies are a line of hills north of Glasgow and south west of Stirling. Together with the Kilpatricks and other hills, they form a line running east to west and transsected by just a few valleys. They can be seen as a natural defining element in the topography and thereby also for administration. It was here that my father believed this ancestor lived and worked. But did he? In order to answer this and other considerations I am going to take a circuituous route.
A descendent of a Skirving slain at Culloden in 1746 is thought to be George Skirving who became the "Proprietor of Melrose". I am unsure as to what this signifies. It could be that he was an inn keeper. But I have also come across the label as indicating a laird. Another label for him is "portioner" as appears on the family tombstone at the Abbey and this signifies ownershi of this land.
Wiki tells us : Laird is a generic name for the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate, roughly equivalent to an esquire in England, yet ranking above the same in Scotland. In the Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranks below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank is only held by those lairds holding official recognition in a territorial designation by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.
While we see the label of "laird" applied to others with family links on this website, I am very cautious about applying that here. Surely the more established title of laird would be prefered over proprietor at that time so proprietor is probably a lesser role.
But if we consider that while the laird owned the land on which others lived and worked, essentially a feudal system, he or others in his employ would have gathered the feudal dues, in kind or payment. And who better than a family member.
James Watson senior, his father, had married Janet (surname?) from Melrose.
So when we find that his son James Watson joins the Excise Service, this comes as no surprise. He married Janet Skirving from the Abbey Place in Melrose in 1809.
We know that this James was born in Kelso and it is thought that he possibly joined the Excise Service there. Kelso is only 18 miles / 28 km from Melrose.
My father's notes give just a brief reference to the Campsies in spite of him telling me that James was Supervisor of Excise there. In some notes he has crossed out a reference to Mill Bank in the Parish of Campsie being where his son Alexander Scott was evidently born on the 14th June 1810 (TBC). Does Mill Bank have some association to Milton of Campsie? Such names are common and descriptive. A mill bank may well have been the embankment to control river flow to the mill. James was to die in Stirling. There may be a thread of a story there to follow up.
Copies of family tree notes handwritten by James Watson in Plymouth on the 29th October 1890 note : Alexander Scott Watson (my great great grandfather) B. 14 June 1810 at Well Bank in the parish of Campsie County Stirling - Married Agnes Kedslie 19 June 1834 at Warsaw Poland - Died at Laurshutte (?) Selisia 29th August 1846. - buried Konigshutte
The Campsies are a broad area, but one of the places that we like to visit is a small cluster of houses below the south western end, the Clachan of Campsie. A Clachan is smaller than a village, but usually centred around a church. Behind the cafe and a few shops is a churchyard and the remains of a chapel. The tombstones include those of a few Watsons although I have not been able to identify any relevant to our family. The owners of the cafe (previous owners?) once showed me a transcript of all the tombstone names and a layout of where they lay. Hopefully that still exists. Engravings on tombstones tend to get awfully eroded over time.
An excise man, you will know, has something to do with tax. The job can be defined as an official responsible for collecting excise duty and preventing infringement of the excise laws (especially by smuggling).
On the 7th June 1809 James married Janet Skirving, daughter of George Skirving (jnr) son of the George Skirving that we began this discussion with. Their children were :
- Alexander Scott Watson b Parish of Campsie 14th June 1810; ob 29th August 1846 (my ancestor)
- George Skirving Watson b November at Haddington 1811; ob February 1813.
- Thomas Boswell Watson b 30 August 1815; ob Edinburgh 22 May 1860 Act 44; Elizabeth Stedman b Edinburgh 16 November 1817; ob Liscard Co. Chester 12 March 1902 Act 84. (He farmed in Poland and later went out to Hong Kong).
- Catherine Georgina Watson Ob Edinburgh 30 August 1875; m George Dods; b 1807; ob Edinburgh 13th November 1879 Act 72
- Frederick Lundy Watson; b Edinburgh 26 August 1823; ob Glasgow March 1909; m Isabella Ross
It was this Alexander Scott Watson who married Agnes Kedslie and who moved to Poland [See WATSONS IN POLAND] and eventually the line from which I am descended.
A tantalising although brief snippet typed on the side of something else amongst my father's notes states:
Presented by the Supervisors and Officers of Inverness Collection to James Watson, Esq., Collector of Excise for Haddington Collection, as a lasting tho' inadequate mark of their esteem for him as a gentleman, and of the high sense entertained by them of his zeal and impartiality of his conduct as an Officer of the Revenue while in the Inverness Collection.
dated. May 1827.
From this we deduce that he had recently moved from Inverness to Haddington in 1827. A son had been born in the parish of Campsie in 1810 and another in Haddington in 1811. It appears that he moved around, possibly starting in Haddington and then returning there.
The role of Excise Men :
I have been trying to find out more about the role of Excise Man. Evidently not a popular job. Wiki tells us :
The Board of Customs, responsible for collecting duties levied on imported goods, and the Board of Excise, responsible for raising revenue from inland taxes, were both established in the 17th century. The raising of excise duties also dates from this time, but the levying of customs duties has a far longer history, the first written reference being found in an eighth-century charter of King Aethelbald.
Following the 1707 Act of Union a separate Scottish Board of Customs and Scottish Excise Board were constituted; a century later separate Boards were likewise established for Ireland. By an Act of Parliament dated 2nd May 1823, these and the English Boards were consolidated to form a single Board of Excise and a single Board of Customs for the whole United Kingdom.
These Boards (and their successors) were made up of Commissioners, appointed under the Great Seal of the Realm.....
His or Her Majesty's Excise duties are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, such as alcoholic drinks and tobacco. Excise duties were first levied in England in 1643, during the Commonwealth (initially on beer, cider, spirits and soap); later, duties were levied on such diverse commodities as salt, paper and bricks.
For a time, the Excise Board was also responsible for collecting the duty levied on imports of beverages such as rum, brandy and other spirits, as well as tea, coffee, chocolate and cocoa beans. Prior to payment of duty, these items were often stored in a bonded warehouse, where excise officers could assess and measure them.
The Campsies being almost centrally situated between Edinburgh and Glasgow were not an obvious place to worry about import duties. However it seems that alcohol was widely produced locally and the duties on its prodcution required ongoing policing. Illicits stills, ie those trying to avoid such payments were a problem (depending on which side you were on) and the movement of such drinks were smuggled across the region. [I have posted a link to smuggling in the Campsies in the lnks at the end].
[Thread to be followed up - https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/customs-and-excise-records]
