Catalogue description Board of Customs: Other Headquarters Departments: Records

The original functions of the Comptroller General, a patent officer established in 1671, were to examine the accounts of receipts and payments of all the collectors in the outports in England and Wales, and those of the receiver general, and to compile from them the general accounts of the customs. In the nineteenth century the Comptroller General kept accounts for the whole of the United Kingdom, and rendered monthly vote accounts to the Audit Office, prepared the customs revenue accounts, and exercised general supervision over customs expenditure.

In 1870 the Comptroller General's Office was reconstituted as the Accountant and Comptroller General's Office. The accountant and comptroller general was the accounting officer for the Customs vote and was responsible for the general superintendence and control of customs revenue accounts in London and the outports, including audit of receipts and payment of claims.

A Receiver General, the successor to the Cashier of the Customs Farmers, was appointed soon after the establishment of the board in 1671. He acted as its banker, having charge of all receipts and disbursements. All money arising on duties and bonds from the outports was received in his office, through which the bulk of customs revenue reached the Exchequer. He also paid all claims on the customs, provided weekly statements and presented annual accounts of customs for audit. The office of Receiver General was itself abolished in 1870, when responsibility for custody of the customs revenue passed to the board, in whose name moneys were thereafter lodged with the Bank of England.

Immediate responsibility for the conduct of inferior officers of customs rested in the Port of London with their superiors, and in the outports with controllers and collectors. Surveyors general, who had existed in the seventeenth century, were re-established early in the eighteenth century, each being a kind of personnel officer supervising the conduct of customs staff in a particular area.

It was not until 1771 that officers providing an instrument of control unconnected with the officers of any one port, and directly representative of the board, were centralised in London. In that year the local surveyors general were replaced by surveyors general in London, whose function was to superintend the conduct of officers in London under the direction of the board, to examine all complaints against officers and to report on them to the board, to make surveys of the outports, and to issue instructions for the conduct of officers. In the nineteenth century their office was placed under a chief surveyor general, with two surveyors general and four deputy surveyors, and renamed the Chief Surveyor General's office.