Catalogue description Folio(s) 210-215. Letter from [James Hume], Secretary of the Board of Customs, enclosing...

Folio(s) 210-215. Letter from [James Hume], Secretary of the Board of Customs, enclosing copies of letters received in response to the private letter from John King [Under-Secretary] regarding persons 'conveying improper intelligence to the enemy'.

Enclosed is a letter of 23 December to Hume from B Stow, Custom House, Dover [Kent], reporting that Purday had been captured some time ago in a smuggling vessel and had been impressed into the Navy, but that Hobday lived at Folkestone and was the master of the lugger Fox. He had arrived at Folkestone on 18 December after a smuggling voyage from Guernsey and Stow planned to search him on his next embarkation, probably for Flushing [Vlissingen] in ten days' time.

Also enclosed is a letter of 23 December to Hume from John Loten, Collector of Customs, Leigh [Essex], giving information about Jean Marasier alias French John alias John Moolaskey, well known at Woodbridge [Suffolk] and employed by Houndsdale or Houndsdel who supplies smugglers with goods at Flushing [Vlissingen]. He assumes that Potter has a bumboat, rather than a bomb boat as stated in the letter from [John King, Under-Secretary], and believes it probable that he obtains information while supplying ships in Ozeley Bay [Hollesley Bay] or Yarmouth Roads.