Official Records
HM CUSTOMS AND EXCISE
'We'll mak our maut and we'll brew our drink, we'll laugh, sing and rejoice …. The deil's awa wi' the Exciseman".
These lines by Robert Burns, onetime exciseman, recount the general delight at the absence of the government official and hint at the wide ranging concerns of the Customs and Excise officials of the period.
During 1707 the administration of Customs duties was standardised throughout the United Kingdom and the subsequent records provide an accessible source of tremendous potential for local and family historians. To get the best from the wealth of information contained within the records it is helpful to understand some of the history of customs and excise.
Up until 1909, the Customs Board operated through outports which reported directly to Edinburgh or London, with further responsibility for subordinate creeks or ports. Ayrshire had four outports: Ardrossan, Ayr , Irvine and Troon.
Excise was administered locally by ‘collections’, which were divided into districts and divisions.
Local officers, in addition to their usual duties, frequently kept registers of sea fishing boats and shipping registers, often worked as Receivers of Wrecks, and performed duties on behalf of the Royal Navy. The records preserve much incidental information about the society of the period and those groups, such as sailors or fishermen, who were fleeting members of it.
After 1909 excise duties were administered by the Inland Revenue at which point the responsibility was transferred to the Board of Customs and Excise (previously known as the Board of Customs).
The Customs and Excise records held at Ayrshire Archives are arranged by customs outports, and for convenience, the equivalent excise districts are included, where possible, with the records of the corresponding outport.